Investment Highlights for the month of October: MENA & SEA keep the deal-flow humming

From Riyadh’s smart-mobility bets to Singapore’s wealthtech surge, October served up a steady stream of financings across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) and Southeast Asia (SEA). Below, we round up the most notable rounds, the themes they signal, and the investors writing the checks.

Southeast Asia: selective growth, real revenue stories

• Endowus (Singapore) — >$70M growth round.
  The digital wealth platform secured over USD 70 million to scale its operations in Singapore and Hong Kong, where AUM has now crossed USD 10 billion. The raise was led by Illuminate Financial, with Prosus Ventures and Citi Ventures among participants.. capital that will go into product R&D (including AI) and expansion of pension/B2B advisory lines. The round lifts Endowus’ total funding to over USD 130 million, underscoring continuing investor appetite for regulated wealth infrastructure in Asia.

• Hangry (Indonesia), USD 10.5M Series A5.
  Jakarta’s multi-brand virtual restaurant operator closed a USD 10.5 million A5 round led by Alpha JWC Ventures. Proceeds will upgrade kitchens, boost production efficiency, and prepare a first overseas push into Malaysia, while deepening domestic coverage across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, and Bali. The raise signals continued investor belief in operations-driven, cash-flowing F&B platforms despite a tougher funding climate.

• Qapita (Singapore HQ) — USD 26.5M Series B.
  Equity-management and fund-admin platform Qapita landed USD 26.5 million in a Series B led by Charles Schwab Corporation, which also formed a strategic product tie-up with the company. The collaboration will help Qapita extend into the US market while rolling out new fund-admin capabilities across Asia. Existing investors including Citi and MassMutual Ventures joined the round.

• StraitsX (Singapore) — USD 10M strategic investment.
  Stablecoin settlement layer StraitsX (part of Fazz Financial Group) received USD 10 million from UQPay with continued support from NTT Docomo. Funds will power Asia expansion, fiat-stablecoin on/off-ramps, and card programs bridging Web3 and traditional finance.

• Secai Marche (SEA ops) — USD 6M Series A.
  The farm-to-table logistics player with operations in Singapore and Malaysia raised USD 6 million to expand cold-chain capacity, categories, and route-optimization tech across the region. The round was led by Kuroneko Innovation Fund II (Global Brain & Yamato Holdings) with NX Global Innovation Fund (SBI Investment & Nippon Express).

Ecosystem pulse: Singapore’s flagship SWITCH / SLINGSHOT week kicks off 29–31 Oct 2025, convening investors and founders and typically catalyzing new partnerships, useful context for why late-October SEA deal news clusters.

MENA: AI-native software, infra & real-asset platforms draw capital

• UnifyApps (UAE) — USD 50M Series B.
  The enterprise “operating system for AI” raised USD 50 million led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from ICONIQ and others, bringing total funding to USD 81 million. Capital will build pre-integrated apps, strengthen Gulf operations, and accelerate enterprise adoption of agentic AI. The company reports 600% YoY revenue growth, with customers across banks, telecom, and government.

• Arsann (Saudi Arabia) — USD 26.7M strategic investment.
  Merak Capital invested USD 26.7 million to scale Arsann’s smart-parking and mobility infrastructure footprint, the largest in KSA, with 270+ active sites and 10M+ parked vehicles managed. Funds will expand on-street networks and integrate into Vision 2030 giga-projects, pushing data-driven urban mobility at national scale.

• BRKZ (Saudi Arabia) — up to USD 30M growth debt.
  Construction-tech marketplace BRKZ secured up to USD 30 million from Stride Ventures to expand embedded financing and payment flexibility for contractors and factories. Selected to the Saudi Unicorns Programme, BRKZ processed ~USD 837M worth of RFQs to date, grew 2024 revenues 4×, and plans AI-powered procurement and cloud-manufacturing upgrades.

• Cercli (UAE) — USD 12M Series A.
  AI-native workforce platform Cercli raised USD 12 million led by Picus Capital—the firm’s first MENA deal—alongside Knollwood, YC, Afore, and COTU. Cercli says it has achieved 10× revenue in 12 months and processed USD 100M+ in payroll distributions across 50 countries, targeting enterprises modernizing away from legacy ERPs.

• Property Finder × Stake (UAE) — strategic investment (undisclosed).
  MENA real-estate portal Property Finder invested in Stake, the fractional real-estate platform that lets users invest from AED 500. The partnership doubles down on digital access to property assets and signals growing corporate venture activity in regional proptech.

• KitchenomiKs (Oman) — USD 3.2M round.
  The Muscat-based foodtech secured USD 3.2 million led by Jasoor Ventures, bringing total capital to USD 6.7 million. With 1M+ meals delivered and 13 virtual brands, KitchenomiKs will expand satellite kitchens in Oman and the GCC, while investing in its AI platform (KiKsIQ) to sharpen ops and customer experience.

Who’s Writing the Checks

• WestBridge Capital led UnifyApps’ USD 50M Series B, betting on enterprise-grade agentic AI infrastructure for the Gulf’s digital-transformation agenda; ICONIQ also joined.

• Merak Capital made a national-infra bet with USD 26.7M into Arsann, aligning with smart-city mobility under Vision 2030.

• Stride Ventures extended up to USD 30M in growth debt to BRKZ, a sign of non-dilutive capital options maturing in the GCC.

• Picus Capital led Cercli’s USD 12M Series A, marking its first MENA investment and reinforcing global HR/ERP theses adapted to AI-native stacks.

• Property Finder (corporate VC/strategic) took a stake in Stake, pushing deeper into proptech rails and fractionalized real-asset access.

• Illuminate Financial, Prosus Ventures, Citi Ventures backed Endowus’ >USD 70M round, signaling that regulated wealthtech with strong AUM traction remains in favor.

• Alpha JWC Ventures led Hangry’s USD 10.5M A5, showing continued conviction in ops-heavy consumer platforms with clear unit-economics.

• Charles Schwab Corporation led Qapita’s USD 26.5M Series B and signed a US go-to-market partnership, one of Schwab’s most visible strategic moves into Asian-origin private-markets infrastructure.

What the month tells us

AI is moving from pilots to production, budget lines, not experiments. October’s larger tickets into AI-native enterprise stacks signal C-suites in the Gulf are now buying outcomes (governance, data security, measurable ROI), not demos. The shift favors platforms with clear deployment playbooks and integration depth across regulated industries.

Structured capital is mainstream for asset-heavy plays. Growth debt and strategic corporate checks are underwriting real assets and infrastructure where payback is tied to utilization, not just top-line growth. Expect blended stacks, revolvers, revenue-based lines, and targeted equity, to become the default for mobility, construction, and proptech.

In SEA, regulation and revenue trump hype. Investors are concentrating firepower behind businesses with licenses, predictable unit economics, and regional expansion paths, wealthtech and private-markets infra among them. Operator quality and compliance moats are doing the heavy lifting where headline multiples have cooled.

Platform effects beat point solutions. Whether it’s cap-table + fund-admin, procurement + financing, or real estate discovery + fractional access, the winners are stitching together workflows end to end. Rounds increasingly reward product adjacency that expands take-rate and raises customer switching costs.

WOWS’ Take: Local Conviction, Global Firepower

October reinforces a familiar truth: precision capital > blanket risk-on. Non-dilutive facilities and corporate strategics are doing as much heavy lifting as classic equity, especially where assets and cash cycles matter. In SEA, compliance-led, margin-aware operators are being rewarded; in MENA, fintech rails and AI enterprise stacks continue to attract both global strategics and regionally anchored funds. For founders, the bar is fundamentals, unit-level clarity, and a credible path to margin, not just narrative.

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