CB Insights has released its annual selection of the top 100 fintech startups, highlighting the leading private fintech firms for 2026. Six of these winners come from the Middle East, addressing issues and prospects in areas including real estate investment, business financial services, and digital assets.

These six firms include four from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and two from Saudi Arabia. With four entries, the UAE ranks third in the 2026 CB Insights Fintech 100, while Saudi Arabia, with two, ties for fifth alongside Australia, Brazil, India, and Mexico. This indicates that both jurisdictions are rising as major fintech hubs, noted globally for cultivating competitive startups.

These companies were selected based on deal activity, industry partnerships, investor strength, hiring momentum, commercial traction, and growth potential. They have expanded significantly over the past year through key partnerships, strong investors, and major funding rounds, positioning them for continued progress.

Top 6 Middle East Fintechs

Huspy

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Dubai, Huspy is a proptech startup digitizing and simplifying the home-buying, selling, renting, and mortgage process. The company acts as an online platform and mortgage broker that lets users search for properties, compare and apply for home loans, and connect with real estate and mortgage agents digitally.

In six years, Huspy has grown to operate in 15 cities across four markets: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, as well as expansion into European markets, including Spain since 2022 and Italy since this year. In the UAE, Huspy now handles approximately 25% of residential mortgages, consolidating its position in the market. Today, the company facilitates transactions worth approximately US$1 billion per month, a figure that is growing rapidly.

In 2026 and 2027, Huspy plans to focus on developing the Italian market, expanding to additional markets in Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and strengthening its presence in Spain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The company’s long-term ambition is to build a leading artificial intelligence (AI)-native real estate super app for the European, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, placing real estate agents and credit advisors at the heart of its model.

Huspy has raised approximately US$200 million to date, its latest round being a US$59 million Series B secured in July 2025.

Stake

Launched in 2021 and headquartered in Dubai, Stake is a digital real estate investment platform providing an easy, convenient, and transparent way to invest in rental properties in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It lets individuals buy fractional ownership in income-generating residential and commercial properties, allowing them to start investing with as little as AED 500 (US$150). The company manages all investments, from acquisitions to exit, and distributes investors’ income directly to their Stake wallet.

In the UAE, Stake allows fractional ownership in prime properties, allowing investors to pool their funds to collectively own shares in a curated portfolio of residential properties in Dubai. Investors make money from rental income and property value appreciation.

In Saudi Arabia, Stake enables investment in real estate funds, including both income-focused and development funds, providing access to exclusive projects. These funds are managed by Tier-1 fund managers and have set durations, during which investors can earn rental dividends and/or capital appreciation.

Stake claims more than 2 million real estate investors on its platform, AED 93.3 million (US$25.4 million) in total rental income paid to date, over 600 properties funded, and AED 239.7 million (US$65.3 million) traded during exit windows across 45 fully exited properties.

The startup secured a US$31 million Series B in February, bringing its total funding to US$58 million. It said it would use the proceeds to accelerate growth across the UAE and Saudi Arabia and drive product innovation in real estate tokenization and digital property ownership via StakeOne, an all-in-one digital real estate platform that lets users buy, manage, lease, and sell entire, 100% full properties in Dubai completely through a mobile app.

CredibleX

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, CredibleX is an embedded finance lender enabling ecosystem partners to offer SMEs fast, flexible working capital directly within their platforms and workflows.

The company delivers an application programming interface (API)-enabled and white-labeled infrastructure that allows platforms, marketplaces, and service providers to seamlessly embed financing into their offerings, helping SMEs access capital at the point of need through solutions including revenue-based financing, invoice discounting, and payables financing.

As part of its broader mission to support SME growth, CredibleX is also expanding access to value-added business solutions through the CredibleX Marketplace, a digital platform and ecosystem connecting SMEs with essential business services, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, cloud software, and business insurance solutions.

CredibleX raised a US$15 million Series A in May 2026 to support its growth across its lending and non-lending business lines, while further strengthening its embedded finance infrastructure. The funding will also enable the company to scale its lending marketplace, expand partner distribution, and enhance its technology and data capabilities to deliver faster, more efficient financing solutions.

Zoth

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Dubai, Zoth builds regulated stablecoin infrastructure for businesses that move and settle money across borders. zPayments is its fully compliant, stablecoin-native cross-border settlement platform for businesses paying out in local currency across the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with USD coverage to more than 170 countries plus additional reach in North America, the UK, Europe, and Australia. The platform delivers local currency payouts at a single fixed rate while managing compliance internally, processing US$40 million monthly and more than US$500 million cumulatively.

In February 2026, Zoth completed an undisclosed strategic round to advance its privacy-first stablecoin neobank ecosystem.

HALA

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Riyadh, HALA provides a platform designed to simplify business management, allowing customers to instantly access their sales, accept and send payments, keep track of their expenses, and get financing to boost growth.

The company offers a comprehensive suite of embedded financial solutions, including business accounts, card issuance, payment and transfer services, point-of-sale (POS) solutions, expense cards, and business financing of SAR 12,000 to SAR 2 million (US$3,200 to US$531,000).

HALA claims to serve more than 150,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), corporates, and freelancers, with more than 20 billion transactions processed so far and over US$8 billion in annual transactions.

The company raised its latest round in September 2025, securing US$157 million in a Series B at a US$900 million valuation, according to TPG, one of the lead investors. The company said it planned to use the proceeds to strengthen its position in Saudi Arabia and offer more embedded financial services and lending products catered to support the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and freelancers, as well as expand its presence regionally.

Stitch

Founded in 2022, Stitch is a Riyadh-based fintech infrastructure startup. The company builds a cloud-native, API-driven operating system for banks, lenders, and financial institutions to manage core banking, lending, card issuance, ledgers, and payments, replacing fragmented legacy systems with a modern infrastructure that unlocks AI transformation.

Stitch currently operates across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Africa, including Egypt and Kenya, and Southeast Asia, with customers including Raya Financing, the lending arm of Hyundai and Peugeot, LuLu Exchange, Noqodi, and Foodics. In the last six months alone, more than US$5 billion has been transacted on its platform. Customer numbers grew tenfold in 2025, and revenue grew 20 times in the same period.

In May 2026, Stitch raised US$25 million in a Series A, bringing its total funding to US$35 million. The fresh capital will go toward accelerating product development, deepening Stitch’s presence across the GCC and broader MENA region, and expanding its global go-to-market operations.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News UAE, based on image by Grizzly Imagery via Magnific