Top Scale-Ups In The Middle East

The Middle-East is fast becoming one of the biggest and most exciting startup economies in the world. But it’s also home to a selection of scale-ups.

A scale-up is a business that has successfully grown out of the startup stage and is now heading towards global growth.

With governments in countries like The UAE and Saudi Arabia working hard to drive entrepreneurship, it’s no surprise that this region is home to some of the globe’s biggest scaleups. But what are they?

Let’s take a look at some of them…

 

Tabby (Saudi Arabia)

 

 

Tabby is a buy now pay later platform that lets users split their purchases into 4 monthly payments, without worrying about interest or fees.

Tabby grew by incentivising shoppers with split payments, making bigger purchases more manageable. This has allowed hundreds of retailers to expand their customer base without having to reduce their pricing.

The platform currently operates in KSA, UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar and boasts an impressive net worth of $3.3 billion (2025).

 

Careem (UAE)

 

 

Careem is an ‘everything app’ in the UAE, offering ride hailing, micro mobility, food orders, payment services and more.

The app has grown exponentially over the past few years, expanding to serve over 50 million customers.  Today, Careem operates in over 70 cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.

In 2019, the company was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion, making them the biggest unicorn in the Middle East.

 

 

Tamara (Saudi Arabia)

 

 

Tamara is another fintech platform, offering interest-free split payments for those looking to shop online. Currently linked with over 26,000 stores, the company is not only helping people unlock discounts and deals, but is also 100% Sharia compliant.

Over the past few years, Tamara has grown to become the one of the leading fintechs in the GSC region, and was valued around $1 billion back in 2023.

 

Paymob (Egypt)

 

Paymob is a fintech company that runs millions of transactions for different business sizes across the Middle East and Africa.

It allows businesses to accept online payments or integrate with POS systems making it easy to manage sales, costs and employee salaries in one place.

Currently valued at $1.5 billion, the company is helping businesses all over Egypt and the Middle East facilitate better payments.

 

Kitopi (UAE)

 

 

Kitopi is a food and beverage startup that gives restaurants an easy way to expand their delivery operations.

It allows restaurants to open delivery-only locations by giving them access to the infrastructure they need to implement it. The company now operates over 60 ‘cloud’ kitchens across the Middle East, including within the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain.

 

Wiz (Israel)

 

 

Wiz is a cloud security company that was acquired by Alphabet group in March of this year for a huge $32 billion.

The company helps businesses build more secure systems and is used by household names like Salesforce, Morgan Stanley, Slack and BMW.

As more companies use cloud computing to run their operations, they become increasingly prone to cyberattacks. Wiz helps to combat this in a unified, easy to integrate and secure way.

 

Cipher (Saudi Arabia)

 

 

Cipher is another cybersecurity platform that helps businesses safeguard their digital assets.

Their suite of products easily integrate with existing systems, allowing companies to better neutralise the threats of the modern cyber threat landscape.

The company recently announced that is planning to IPO and operates in over 20 countries.

 

Snoonu (Qatar)

 

 

Snoonu is a scale-up that is on a mission to become the first unicorn in Qatar.

The company is an all-in-one super app, allowing people to ride hail, order deliveries, shop online and more.

Launched in 2019, Snoonu is making a name for itself in the Middle East having generating one billion Qatari Riyal in revenue in 2023 – making it a major company in the region.