Etisalat Values Careem Stake at Less Than Half Uber's Price Per Share

Etisalat valued its remaining Careem stake at less than half the price per share Uber paid to take control in its July deal, according to new accounts seen by FWDstart. The disclosure lands alongside further losses at the Careem Everything App, and it's the sharpest signal yet of how far book values have drifted from headline transaction prices in the region's most-watched tech asset.

What does this change for Careem's remaining shareholders? It gives them a marked-down reference point from inside the company's own cap table, not from secondary market chatter. When a controlling buyer pays a premium, minority holders often discover the control premium wasn't theirs to share. Etisalat's accounts now say exactly that, in figures.

The same outlet can exclusively reveal that VC-backed proptech Silkhaus is winding down its UAE short-term rental business. Two of the region's better-known startup bets are, in different ways, repricing.

Where did the fresh capital land this week?

The fund cycle was anything but quiet. Three closes and one launch break down cleanly:

• BY Venture Partners closed its third fund at $60 million to back early-stage AI-native startups, anchored by Dubai Future District Fund alongside MultiLane, Transmed Capital and Saudi Arabia's Idriss Family Office. It follows a $46 million debut and a $50 million second fund backed by Mubadala, Bahrain's Al Waha and Tamar Capital, taking reported AUM past $200 million including co-investment vehicles. Fund III writes cheques of up to $1 million from pre-seed to Series A and has made 15 of a planned 40 investments, including PQShield, Isometric, Huspy and Invisible.
• DPI reached a final close above $112 million on Nclude, the Cairo fintech fund it took over from Global Ventures in April last year. The fund launched in March 2022 at $85 million with Banque Misr as anchor and the National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire among backers, hit $105 million at second close, and the final close adds roughly $7 million of new money. Cheques now run $500K to $10 million from seed through Series C — widened from seed to Series B — with up to 30% available for deals outside Egypt. The portfolio includes Paymob, Nawy, FlapKap and Money Fellows.
• Phaze Ventures, Muscat-based, launched two funds targeting more than $75 million combined: a global AI and deeptech Fund II plus a domestic Oman vehicle. It has secured more than $40 million in commitments from ITHCA, Ominvest, Oman LNG Development Foundation and Future Fund Oman. That domestic fund gives Oman a dedicated local pool at a moment when most Gulf venture dollars sit in Saudi, the UAE and Qatar.
• Tanmiya Capital closed its second fund at $130 million, beating a $120 million target, on a $37.5 million EIB commitment plus the IFC, EBRD, EAEF and MSMEDA. It invests in established healthcare, fintech and logistics businesses — growth capital, not startup funding — and the development-finance-heavy LP base is becoming the pattern for Egyptian funds raising through a weak pound.

What does Ajami's exit mean for Mubadala Capital?

Ibrahim Ajami is leaving Mubadala Capital after more than a decade running its ventures arm to launch Noha, a new firm targeting $500 million, according to the FT. Around 90% of the capital would go into US startups, with Mubadala Capital expected to provide substantial backing — an independent shop that keeps financial ties to the sovereign platform he's leaving. He co-led Crusoe's $3.9 billion Series F for Mubadala last month, having backed the company since 2022.

The departure doesn't leave Mubadala Capital stranded. Apollo has agreed to take a minority stake in the firm, with Apollo and other incoming shareholders expected to commit a combined $5 billion to its investment strategies. That $5 billion covers investment commitments, not the undisclosed price for the management-company stake. The firm gets an outside shareholder and a large committed pool exactly as its venture leadership changes hands — a sequencing that reads less like coincidence than succession planning.

Saudi overtakes the UAE in Delivery Hero's orders

Saudi Arabia is now Delivery Hero's largest MENA market by orders, overtaking the UAE, as regional transaction growth accelerated to 20.6%. MENA accounts for almost a third of the group's global GMV. For regional operators, the takeaway is simple: the demand center of gravity in Gulf food delivery keeps shifting east.

Two Pakistani listings, one fintech unicorn

AdalFi plans to raise up to $2.35 million through a Karachi IPO next month to expand its Islamic lending and small-business services — which the company says would make it the first fintech listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The Lahore company, backed by COTU Ventures and Chimera Ventures, will issue new shares with no sale by existing shareholders, and no valuation, offer price or stake size disclosed. AdalFi helps banks underwrite borrowers from their own transaction data; banks supply the capital and hold the loans while AdalFi takes a share of income and part of the credit risk.

Abhi Microfinance Bank has set terms for its own Karachi listing: 132 million shares from a PKR 15 floor to raise up to $11 million, with institutions bidding November 5-6 and retail the week after. Much of the money shores up the balance sheet — the bank currently holds less capital than Pakistan's regulator requires and doesn't expect to clear that bar until end-2027.

And Kalshi, co-founded by Lebanon-raised CEO Tarek Mansour with Luana Lopes Lara, whom he met at MIT, has raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation co-led by Sequoia and Wellington, with a16z, CapitalG and Morgan Stanley Investment Management joining. That nearly doubles the $22 billion mark set in May. The company says non-sports annualised revenue has passed $1 billion and it's pushing into commodities, crypto and perpetual futures — even as state regulators and tribal operators still argue its sports contracts amount to unlicensed betting.

Smaller cheques, still worth watching

• ALPHA10X (UAE), an AI investment-research platform, raised $5 million pre-Series A led by Doha's Growth X Capital and is setting up in Qatar to court sovereign funds and institutional investors.
• NoorNation (Egypt) raised $1.05 million in a seed from Linah Farms, Catalyst Fund and KBW Ventures to expand pay-per-use solar irrigation.
• Turuq (Egypt), an ecommerce fulfilment operator, took an undisclosed seed from Den VC — its first outside money — as it eyes Saudi entry by licensing its warehouse software.

The week's through-line: Gulf institutional money is scaling up (BY, Phaze, Apollo's $5 billion) just as two flagship assets — Careem's minority stake and Silkhaus — get marked down or switched off. Practitioners should read the Etisalat accounts before quoting any Uber-deal multiple in their next pitch.