Seed Watch: MENA Startups Continue to Impress

These 3 early-stage startups raised more than $67 million this week

Author

Ofodile Iloanya
January 17, 2025

Welcome to our weekly edition of Seed Watch- a segment of Market Insyte Digest focused on sharing some of the latest and most intriguing Pre-seed & Seed funding news grabbing the headlines in the startup world.

The MENA region continues to attract significant startup investments. Since the start of the year, startups in the region have attracted over $78 million in Pre-seed and Seed investments. One such startup, BBT.live, features in our the top 3 deals from this week that caught our eye.

  • Startup Name: Orchid Security

  • Industry: Cybersecurity

  • Region: Headquartered in New York, with R&D in Israel

  • Amount (USD): $36 million

  • The problem it is solving: The growing reliance on AI has increased challenges in managing and protecting identity systems. Orchid addresses these challenges with large language models to enhance identity verification processes for global enterprises.

  • What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Accelerating Orchid’s growth and expanding the development of advanced identity protection technologies leveraging AI.

  • Startup Name: 1Money

  • Industry: Blockchain

  • Region: Global

  • Amount (USD): $20 million

  • The problem it is solving: The inefficiencies in current stablecoin payment systems, such as delays, high fees, and security concerns, while enhancing compliance and accessibility for both businesses and consumers.

  • What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Launching the 1Money Network, a Layer 1 blockchain protocol engineered for fast, cost-effective, and compliant stablecoin payments. Developing the patent-pending Byzantine Consistent Broadcast (BCB) design to optimize performance and security

  • Startup Name: BBT.live

  • Industry: Secure Connectivity and Telecommunications/SaaS

  • Region: Israel

  • Amount (USD): $11.5 million

  • The problem it is solving: BBT.live addresses the challenge of providing enterprise-grade connectivity and security solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs/SMEs). Their SaaS platform enables service providers to streamline sales cycles, reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC), and improve operational efficiency,

  • What the Funds Will Be Spent On: Expanding the platform, enhancing technology offerings like SD-WAN, SSE, SASE, and ZTNA for secure and efficient connectivity solutions, and strengthening the communication and security infrastructure for branches, remote endpoints, and mobile sites