Sierra, the AI startup founded by Bret Taylor, has raised $950 million in new funding at a $15.8 billion post-money valuation, according to CNBC. The raise lands in the middle of a deal surge, as investors race to back companies […]
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Blackstone is making a fresh move in one of the hottest corners of the market: the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence. The private equity giant is taking a newly formed investment vehicle public, aiming to raise just over $1.7 billion in […]
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Enzo Health is betting that the future of care doesn’t sit inside a hospital—it starts at home. The AI startup has raised a $20 million Series A round led by N47, bringing its total funding to $26 million, at a […]
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Cerebras is aiming to raise up to $3.5 billion in a Nasdaq listing, according to an updated prospectus filed Monday—a move first reported by CNBC. The company plans to sell 28 million shares priced between $115 and $125. At the […]
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KKR is making a $10 billion bet that the real bottleneck in artificial intelligence isn’t models or chips. It’s everything around them. The private equity giant has launched Helix Digital Infrastructure, a new standalone company built to supply the physical […]
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It’s Thursday, April 30, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds highlight a clear shift toward AI infrastructure, autonomous systems, energy technology, and real-world deployment layers. From customer service automation to legal AI, […]
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Udora, the global gifting marketplace formerly known as Flowwow, has closed a $10 million private round and relaunched under a new brand. The round will go toward market expansion, with the Saudi Arabia launch scheduled for Q3 2026, including product catalogue expansion, deep localisation, technology, and AI-powered personalisation.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Dubai, the platform connects customers with local florists, confectioners, and artisan makers across 50+ markets and 1,500+ cities. With a 6% share of the UAE online gifting market and $3.32 million in GMV in 2025 alone, the platform is ready to take the same model across the GCC. The raise and rebranding are part of the same move to accelerate the platform’s global rollout while going deeper into each local market it serves.
The model scales across the country, reaching sellers in big cities, smaller ones, and regional markets. In the UAE alone, the seller network grew 66.5% in 2025, and all orders on the platform are fulfilled exclusively by local SMEs.
The platform gives SMEs the digital infrastructure to reach customers online that they couldn’t access on their own. Udora handles orders, marketing tools, and access to a paying, repeat audience through a single, tech-ready platform, without the overhead of building it in-house.
The company sees this as both a business model and a contribution to the GCC’s broader push to bring independent local businesses into the digital economy. This aligns directly with the UAE government’s strategy to grow the digital economy’s share of GDP to 19.4% by 2031, with SME digitalisation as one of its key drivers.
“More than a decade ago, we started with a simple idea: help people reach their loved ones, no matter the distance. That idea grew into 50+ markets without borders. Now we’re ready to go deeper, to build the end-to-end gifting experience – to do for gifting what Airbnb did for hospitality. But in the GCC, where gifting carries real cultural weight, technology is only part of the story. The real value has always been in local hands: florists, confectioners, artisans, and creators who care and know their communities – that’s where our mission hasn’t changed. Udora will help people across the region stay close and express care through meaningful gestures as long as people love each other,” said Slava Bogdan, CEO & Founder of Udora.
As general marketplaces scale, niche platforms with category depth are capturing their segments, driven by demand for local knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and same-day delivery. Udora has been building these since 2014, and the platform’s current scale reflects this: 150,000+ products across 25+ categories, with verified seller networks in every market it operates in.
Udora tailors its product assortment to local tastes, cultural context, and price expectations in each market it enters. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, this means expanding the premium segment with high-demand, high-AOV categories: perfumes, premium chocolate, and confectionery, alongside curated gift bundles suited to the region’s gifting occasions.
The company is building toward one thing: a complete gifting experience tailored to local demand and occasion. The platform already offers personalised recommendations, AI-assisted gift discovery, and automated customer support.
The roadmap includes gift subscriptions, wishlists, and deeper personalisation tools, including a product catalogue tailored to each customer’s browsing and purchase history. Corporate gifting tools round out the updated feature set for business buyers.
Last year, Udora processed orders up to 123% YoY, with gross merchandise value reaching $9.84 million (+129%) globally. In the UAE, the platform’s most established market, GMV reached $3.32 million (+95%), driven by 41,500 orders (+89%). The UAE seller network expanded to 398 active shops, with 61.3% of orders placed by returning customers. While customer satisfaction held at 92.4% positive reviews, well above the 80-85% benchmark for e-commerce platforms.
With the relaunch and new investment in place, Udora projects 100% growth across active markets in 2026. This puts the company’s growth rate at roughly twice the projected pace of the UAE online gifting market, which is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.9% through 2029.
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Comfi today announced it has raised $65 million in a Pre-Series A funding round consisting of both equity and debt. The equity round was led by Iliad Partners and joined by Yango Ventures and Raw Ventures, both making their first investment in the region. The round includes a credit facility from Partners for Growth and a mezzanine facility structured by Shorooq, with participation from a notable family office.
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in the UAE, Comfi was established by Sanjar Samiev, Alisher Akbarov, Amal Abdullaev, and Denis Gavrilin, a founding team with experience spanning fintech product growth, scaling operations, and engineering, shaped by firsthand exposure in the financial services industry and experience with SME cash flow challenges.
SMEs across the region are trapped in a persistent cash-flow race: B2B payment cycles stretch for months, restricting businesses from collecting payments in a timely manner and accessing the working capital they need to survive and grow. Comfi breaks this cycle with a unique B2B Buy Now Pay Later product that allows SME suppliers to provide up to 90-day payment terms to customers while getting paid within 24 hours, helping SMEs build resilience and sustain growth in a changing economic environment, to succeed.
Sanjar Samiev, Co-founder and CEO of Comfi, commented, “We built Comfi from firsthand experience with how disruptive payment cycles can be to an SME’s operations. When you’re waiting over 60 days to get paid, you can’t invest in inventory, hire the right people, or take on new opportunities, you’re just surviving. We’re fixing that by combining embedded finance with AI-driven risk and underwriting to unlock capital instantly, without the friction of traditional lending. This Pre-Series A round gives us the resources to scale our products, strengthen our regional partnerships, and expand access to fast, reliable working capital across MENA.”
Christos Mastoras, Founder and Managing Partner of Iliad Partners, commented, “We invest in technology companies that strengthen and digitize the core infrastructure of the GCC economy. Comfi is doing exactly that, tackling one of the most fundamental pain points in the region: access to working capital for SMEs. By combining AI-driven underwriting with disciplined risk management, the team has built a scalable platform designed for real-economy impact. We have been consistently impressed by Sanjar and his co-founders’ clarity of vision, speed of execution, and disciplined approach. We are proud to lead this round as Comfi scales across MENA and beyond as a trusted financing partner to thousands of SMEs powering regional growth.”
Armineh Baghoomian, Managing Director, Head of EMEA, and Co-Head of Global Fintech at Partners for Growth, added, “We are pleased to deepen our partnership with Comfi as the company enters its next growth phase. Comfi’s strong model and innovative approach reflect the ambition, energy and hard work of Sanjar, Alisher, Amal and Denis, and we have been consistently impressed by the team’s execution. The business is a great fit with PFG’s structured credit strategy and our focus on backing high-growth, category-defining companies across the GCC.”
Joe Barron, Credit Principal at Shorooq, commented, “Across the GCC, SME liquidity constraints are not a demand problem – they are a structural financing problem. What stood out to us about Comfi is not just the growth, but its ability to execute and underwrite credit risk utilising its proprietary engine with real transaction data. From our perspective as credit investors, that creates a more resilient and scalable model than traditional working capital lending. We believe platforms like Comfi will become critical financial infrastructure for the region’s supply chains, and we’re excited to support the team as they institutionalize and expand this model across the GCC”
Comfi has processed over 15,000 invoices, works with 4,000+ finance leaders, and serves more than 1,000 clients, reflecting growing demand for fast, flexible SME capital solutions across the region.
The new funding will support Comfi’s next stage of growth, including scaling its underwriting and risk capabilities, expanding its product offering, and accelerating growth across key regional markets.
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Collectors don’t stop caring about their cards after they buy them. That’s where the friction starts. Storage, discovery, trading, and community all sit in different places, and the experience breaks down fast. A new game marketplace startup thinks it can […]
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Blue Owl is cashing in on one of its most lucrative bets. The alternative asset manager has sold roughly half of its stake in SpaceX at a $1.25 trillion valuation, turning an early investment into a 10x return. The update came […]
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Nvidia is tightening its grip on the next wave of AI by backing a fast-rising legal tech startup now valued in the billions. The chip giant’s venture arm, NVentures, has backed Swedish startup Legora at a $5.6 billion valuation, according to […]
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