Beyond Earth Ventures CEO Alexandra Vidyuk is one such successful venture capitalist who has consistently delivered results. During an interaction with International Finance, she shared her views on entrepreneurship, the risks involved, and the challenges faced by women founders.

What inspired your journey into venture capital, and how did your personal experiences shape your vision of supporting entrepreneurs?

As a physicist, former entrepreneur, and ex-banker, I’ve always viewed the world through two distinct but complementary lenses: the rigorous truth of fundamental science and the accelerating power of global capital. I realised that to truly maximise my impact, I needed to fuse these two worlds. Transitioning into venture capital wasn’t just an obvious choice; it was a strategic imperative to finance the technologies shaping the next trillion-dollar economy. My vision is to provide founders with more than just capital — I want to offer them the exact strategic architecture I wish I had, helping them build breakthrough innovations that will shape humanity’s future beyond Earth.

Looking back at your career, was there a defining moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone to pursue venture capital, and what did that experience teach you about risk and self-belief?

Transitioning from a highly structured, successful banking career into venture capital felt akin to stepping off a cliff — it demanded a total recalibration of how I perceived risk. In banking, the fundamental goal is often to avoid the false positive; in deep tech VC, you must ruthlessly hunt for the false negative — the world-changing idea that others overlook. While analysing complex patents and engaging with brilliant scientific founders daily is intellectually demanding, it is deeply invigorating. It taught me that true self-belief means betting on your ability to spot paradigm-shifting innovation before the rest of the market catches on.

From your perspective as an investor, what are the biggest challenges women founders face when seeking funding, and what practical steps can help bridge this gap?

The primary challenge is rooted in human psychology: investors naturally gravitate toward funding founders who reflect a younger version of themselves. Because venture capital remains predominantly male at the partnership level, this creates an unconscious bias, rather than a malicious one. To bridge this gap, we need structural shifts. First, we must mandate conscious, data-driven frameworks during the allocation process. Second, we urgently need to place more female leaders on Investment Committees — a mission I advocate for heavily as a leader shaping the future of deep tech investment. Finally, we must actively equip female founders with elite, targeted coaching to navigate the institutional capital-raising landscape.

What structural or cultural barriers still exist for women in entrepreneurship and venture capital, and how can the ecosystem evolve to become more inclusive?

We are still dismantling legacy institutional networks. The venture ecosystem often operates within homogenous echo chambers, and at the highest levels of capital allocation — particularly among traditional Limited Partners and institutional wealth managers — exclusive, legacy networks still dominate. To evolve, the ecosystem must transition from relationship-based capital allocation to data-driven, meritocratic deployment. We need to actively disrupt these closed loops by inviting diverse, proven capital managers into the most exclusive LP/GP dialogues, shifting the culture from exclusivity to high-impact inclusion.

How do women-led investments and women investors influence the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem and community development?

The data is unequivocal. Extensive research from institutions like Harvard consistently demonstrates that female-led businesses and funds deliver superior returns, demonstrate greater capital efficiency, and drive broader societal impact. Yet, there remains a staggering disconnect: the allocator community continues to underfund this demographic. As a fund manager, I view this not just as a parity issue, but as a massive alpha-generation opportunity. Capitalising on diverse leadership is one of the most efficient, data-backed ways to drive both outlier economic returns and meaningful global development.

The post We must actively equip female founders to raise capital: Alexandra Vidyuk appeared first on International Finance.

To get more insights on the topic, International Finance got in touch with Dr Albena Pergelova, a professor at MacEwan University School of Business. Albena’s research is interdisciplinary (entrepreneurship and marketing) with a focus on social and emancipatory aspects in entrepreneurship, consumer well-being, and digital technologies. Her research has been published in leading international journals across different fields, and earned numerous international awards.

In an exclusive interview, Dr Albena Pergelova discussed the factors motivating women to pursue entrepreneurship, the systemic barriers faced by women entrepreneurs, and the social changes they contribute to society.

What factors most commonly inspire women to pursue entrepreneurship, and how do these motivations differ from those of men?

Along with the autonomy and financial motivation factors that are common to many entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs are more likely than men to have social or community-related objectives for their businesses as well. Women are also more likely to have the goal of balancing multiple responsibilities, such as taking care of children or other family members, while building a business.

How does the entrepreneurial journey contribute to self-discovery and identity-building among women entrepreneurs?

In my interviews with women entrepreneurs, I oftentimes hear how women take on new tasks or projects that they did not initially anticipate and the strength and resilience they build along the way. Identity aspects are very salient as well. Women entrepreneurs wear many hats and, therefore, have intertwined identities as business owners, mothers, community members, and change-makers. Unfortunately, many stereotypes persist about the fit women have in certain industries, and this can affect the entrepreneurial identity of women.

What patterns have you observed in how women approach risk and decision-making when starting or scaling their businesses?

Women tend to have a more holistic approach to decision-making that is grounded in their multiple roles in their family, community, and society in general.

What systemic barriers do women entrepreneurs face in accessing funding, mentorship, and networks, and how can institutions better address these gaps?

Men dominate many networks (including VCs and mentorship groups). This leads to fewer opportunities to be exposed to role models and mentors who understand women’s reality. The persistent funding gap for women entrepreneurs is also critical. In my research, I hear stories about women being asked to take a male co-founder for legitimacy and funding purposes, as well as how the goals of investors can interfere with the mission of the businesses women have started. Addressing those barriers would require systemic change and a shift in mindset, along with institutional support.

How do women-led enterprises contribute to community development and social change differently, or uniquely?

Women often have a clear motivation to contribute to community development with their businesses, and I have seen many examples of social change as a result of women’s businesses. Those can range from education and training for other women in the community, fair wages and consumer education to systemic changes at the meso or macro level, such as addressing poverty alleviation and changing government policies.

The post Women entrepreneurs have a more holistic approach to decision-making: Dr Albena Pergelova appeared first on International Finance.

Global venture funding to fintech startups totalled USD 12 billion across 751 deals in 2026 as of April 6, registering a 5% increase, compared to the USD 11.4 billion raised across 1,097 (or 31.5% fewer) deals during the same time period in 2025. Deal sizes, on the other hand, have been bigger this time around, with late-stage or growth funding in the Q1 totalling USD 6.9 billion, up 8% compared to USD 6.4 billion raised at those stages in the same period in 2025.

“However, sequentially, the USD 12 billion raised is down 33% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, when fintech startups raised USD 17.8 billion globally. The USD 6.9 billion raised in late-stage or growth funding is also down markedly — by 43% — compared to the USD 12.1 billion raised by fintech startups in Q4 2025. The trend in the first quarter also mirrors what we saw in 2025 as a whole, with global venture funding to fintech startups climbing to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals,” Crunchbase reported.

Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totalled USD 53.8 billion in 2025, a 29.3% increase from 2024’s total of USD 41.6 billion raised. American startups, when it comes to beating their peers in the other parts of the world, in terms of raising more funding, continued the trend in the Q1 2026 as well, as out of the USD 12 billion raised globally, just over half (or USD 6.3 billion) flowed to the fintech sector based in the world’s largest economy.

It was a spectacular 47% increase compared to the USD 4.3 billion raised by US fintech startups in Q1 2025. However, it was down 50% from the USD 12.6 billion that the sector raised in Q4 2025.

The United Kingdom was the second-largest recipient of venture capital, with startups in the European country raising a total of USD 1.2 billion. With USD 900 million, India took the third position.

“Several fintech startups raised nine-figure rounds in the first quarter, with some doubling their valuations since their last venture financings. Predictions marketplace Kalshi was the largest recipient of capital in the first quarter. In March, the company doubled its valuation to USD 22 billion in just three months with a $1 billion raise led by Coatue. The New York-based startup had just raised USD 1 billion in Series E funding at an USD 11 billion valuation in December,” the Crunchbase report remarked.

In February, digital savings platform Vestwell raised USD 385 million in a Series E funding round co-led by Blue Owl Capital and Sixth Street Growth. This took the New York-based startup’s valuation to USD 2 billion, double the USD 1 billion valuation it achieved in December 2023. Rain, which is building infrastructure for payments with stablecoins, raised USD 250 million in a Series C funding round led by Iconiq Capital. Its post-money valuation was USD 1.95 billion, up by 17 times from March 2025.

The post Fintech sector sees 5% funding spike in 2026: Report appeared first on International Finance.

The immediate impact: travellers waiting in long lines at some of the United States’ busiest airports, which in turn affected the facilities’ overall operations. The Donald Trump administration had to deploy federal agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for airport security-related duties, despite the individuals lacking relevant training for the task.

Call-out rates (the ratio that deals with the absence of TSA staff from their airport duties), by the middle of March, reportedly increased to 10%, as the employees just couldn’t deal with the fact that they were working without salaries for the second time in six months.

The first crisis hit them during October-November 2025, due to the political flashpoint between Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress over budget negotiations.

The situation reminded Americans of a similar crisis in 2018-19, when over 50,000 TSA officers had to work without pay, leading to high absenteeism (near 10%), long airport security lines, and over 300 employee resignations. However, this time the problem has been much larger in nature.

Talking about TSA call-outs, major airports like New York, Atlanta, and Houston have seen staff absence of nearly 30% or higher. The visuals of travellers standing in long queues across the airports went viral, with many of them taking the social media route to allege that even after reaching airports well in advance to catch their flights, they ended up missing their journeys.

Trump Intervenes To Ensure Paycheques For TSA Employees

Just how bad was the situation? In the last week of March, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that some 74 small American airports faced a shutdown scenario due to factors like staff shortages and TSA mass call-outs. The regional network of the US aviation sector faced a catastrophic situation. Also came out another shocking stat: assaults on these unpaid TSA workers (by frustrated flyers) increased by around 500%, since the start of the partial government shutdown on February 14.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), tasked with overseeing the TSA, has been unfunded since February 2026, after Congress failed to reach a budget agreement. Democrats have reportedly refused to agree on a funding deal without reforms to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, triggering the partial shutdown.

Under the established protocols, TSA agents, considered essential workers, must work without immediate pay during a federal shutdown, as their salaries depend on congressional appropriations, which are, in turn, tied to a funding agreement in the DHS budget.

On March 27, Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum, instructing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to pay TSA agents using existing funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations. Since then, things have improved, as TSA staff have started receiving their salaries.

Latest details (as of April 6) show that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport have security wait times of 10 minutes or less. John F. Kennedy International Airport was reporting wait times of roughly 30 minutes at four of its terminals. However, the TSA staff call-out ratio is still hovering above 20% in some places.

White House Proposal

Now comes the big news. The Trump administration is proposing to slash over 9,400 TSA workers and a little over $1.5 billion from the agency. It is already in the federal budget document. In April, Congress will likely conduct hearings on the White House budget request, in an attempt to ensure that the new budget deal gets concluded before ⁠September 30.

White House’s solution is radical: privatise airport security screenings by 2027. Some airports use a TSA partner screening programme, which helps manage lines at smaller airports while ensuring employees are paid on time. The proposal will also reduce the organisation’s nearly $8 billion budget by roughly 20% amid the agency losing over 1,600 workers during the federal government ⁠funding disruptions in 2025 and 2026.

Stalemate In Congress

However, the political duel continues. The stalemate in Congress will continue, as Democrats want a government restraint on immigration agencies. The high-profile deaths of American citizens like Renee Good and Alex Pretti during a Minnesota crackdown by federal agents raised questions about alleged high-handedness by the Trump administration during anti-immigration drives.

In November 2025, both Republicans and Democrats agreed to negotiate DHS funding ’at a later date’ to ward off the government shutdown. However, things haven’t progressed at all since then, and with TSA funding lapsing on February 14, all hell broke loose. Several bills put forward by Democrats to fund TSA while a larger deal on DHS is worked out have failed to pass. However, neither Republicans nor Democrats are ready to take the blame.

Post Trump’s executive order, TSA workers are finally getting paid. The hours-long passenger queues at security lines are easing up as well. However, there is no guarantee that something similar won’t be repeated.

According to Chris Edwards, Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies, Cato Institute and Editor of DownsizingGovernment.org, security screening at American airports needs to be privatised. Screening operations need to be contracted out to private security agencies while shrinking the government’s role to regulatory oversight and intelligence.

The Arguments For Privatisation

While Edwards’ solution aligns with White House’s proposals and sounds radical, he cited the Canadian example, where the federal aviation authority provides contracts to security firms for five years, apart from periodically reviewing their performances. The system ensures that 95% of travellers get screened within 15 minutes. A similar method has been implemented in Europe as well, where about four-fifths of airports use private screening.

“In the United States, the TSA took over screening at 430 commercial airports over the past two-and-a-half decades since 9/11. It hasn’t been a glorious run. TSA has misallocated resources, delivered mediocre (at best) security evaluations, and wasted vast amounts of traveller time in queues. And it has long scored near the bottom of all federal agencies in annual rankings of best places to work. Thankfully, the 2001 bill creating the TSA allowed for some private airport screening in the Screening Partnership Programme (SPP). As part of SPP, San Francisco International and 19 smaller airports have been using private screening firms for years, and with good results,” Edwards said.

While claiming that an ’undercover test’ conducted in 2015 found a 95% failure rate for TSA, in terms of identifying banned items, Edwards said that another similar experiment found a failure rate of 80%. He also said that TSA has a conflict of interest, as it both performs screening and sets the standards, in terms of conducting screening and judging its own performance.

“By contrast, in the Canadian and European systems, the government authority sets the standards and can objectively judge the performance of private screeners at the various airports. Also, as a near monopoly, TSA has little incentive to improve efficiency or to innovate. But under a privatised system, companies would compete on their records to win contracts at airports, and they could draw on their broad international experience to continuously improve their operations,” Edwards commented.

On the other hand, the US Travel Association wants Congress to provide three years of funding for the TSA to help avoid an impact on paycheques. For the association, the onus is on both Republicans and Democrats to put their differences aside and fix the overall mess through reconciliation.

So, we have two schools of thought: one advocating privatisation, axing workers in the process, while the other wants further investment in the human resources. Which side will win? The answer can be expected after September 30, when the new budget deal is concluded.

The post IF Insights: Unpaid TSA employees make air travel in US painful appeared first on International Finance.

The company, which operates as a compliance-first, local-first model with regulated coverage across Europe, Latin America, Nigeria, and the United States, provides fintech platforms (including payroll, cross-border payments, digital banking, and spend management solutions) with the ability to issue globally accepted payment cards, funded directly from stablecoins, bridging the gap between on-chain settlement and real-world payments.

With this latest round, Kulipa’s total funding reaches USD 9.2 million. The company wants to use the capital to create solutions that will make stablecoin spending seamless and widely accepted, just like traditional card payments, helping the fintech industry to operate as a fully integrated model, where industry players will act like on-chain-enabled financial institutions.

Kulipa’s successful fundraising also comes amid stablecoins becoming the new normal in the virtual payment space, settling more than USD 300 billion daily. However, the cryptocurrency still has a drawback: a lack of efficient infrastructure connecting on-chain settlement systems with regulated card networks.

“Existing solutions are often fragmented, capital-intensive, and dependent on prefunded structures and region-specific licenses. As regulatory clarity improves worldwide, fintech companies increasingly require compliant, scalable issuing infrastructure to convert stablecoin balances into usable financial products,” reported Africa Business.

To resolve this problem, Kulipa’s stablecoin-native issuing platform has been tailored to address challenges such as capital efficiency, regulatory compliance and global scalability. Fintech partners using the company’s solution are now launching payment programmes funded directly from stablecoin balances, supporting rapid prefunded deployments and deep wallet-native integrations.

“Stablecoins have proven their value as a settlement layer, but using them in everyday financial products is still early. Card issuance is the bridge between on-chain balances and real-world payments. We built Kulipa to give regulated fintech platforms the compliant, capital-efficient infrastructure they need to operate at a global scale,” said Axel Cateland, Founder and CEO of Kulipa, while interacting with Africa Business.

By verifying balances and settling transactions on-chain, Kulipa has reduced the fintech industry’s reliance on collateral-heavy prefunding models and enabled more sustainable scaling. Stablecoin cards issued via Kulipa can be used everywhere, including retail payments and ATM withdrawals. Kulipa also assumes the role of performing fraud liability, removing a massive operational burden for fintech partners.

The post Stablecoin card issuer Kulipa raises fresh funding appeared first on International Finance.

Dr. Connie Lehman’s entry into the prestigious list is not surprising at all, given her proactive involvement with leading US health systems to launch “Clairity Breast,” the world’s first AI technology to assess a woman’s five-year risk of developing breast cancer directly from the suspected patient’s routine screening mammogram.

As a first-of-its-kind innovation in the breast cancer domain, Clairity Breast identifies subtle patterns in breast tissue invisible to the human eye that often act as warning signs of cancer’s arrival, enabling clinicians to identify a woman’s risk much earlier.

Dr. Connie Lehman has been a veteran name in the medical fraternity’s response against breast cancer. Apart from serving as Clairity’s Founder and CEO, she has spent decades at Harvard Medical School as a Professor of Radiology, advancing breast cancer detection and prevention.

The medtech company remains focused on advancing cancer risk assessment through artificial intelligence and computer vision, with the ultimate goal of shifting the standard of care from late-stage treatment to proactive, risk-informed prevention.

A Name Redefining The Healthcare Sector

After starting out at Duke University, Connie Lehman proceeded to Yale University, where she completed both her MD and PhD. That combination of clinical medicine and deep research training shaped the direction of her career, giving her the ability to move between patient care and scientific innovation with ease.

Since then, she has become an exemplary name in the field of breast imaging. As a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and a specialist at Mass General Brigham, she spent years focused on improving how breast cancer is detected. She has also published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, apart from becoming a leading voice in areas like breast density research, computer-aided diagnosis, and the game-changing usage of AI in medical imaging.

Her focus area has changed. Knowing the shortfalls of traditional screening methods, which, despite being valuable, mainly detect cancer after it has already formed, Dr. Connie Lehman started asking a different question: what if imaging could actually predict risk before disease develops?

Her research began leaning more heavily into deep learning and AI, exploring patterns in mammograms that human eyes simply can’t detect. That curiosity led her to come up with Clairity, a Boston-based health technology company built around that exact idea. Since its foundation in 2020, the company has placed AI at the core of functions like analysing routine mammograms and estimating a woman’s five-year risk of developing breast cancer.

In November 2025, Clairity raised USD 43 million in Series B funding to commercialise its FDA-authorised AI platform. The round was led by ACE Global Equity and Sante Ventures, with participation from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and new investors. The funding was raised keeping in mind goals like the platform’s commercialisation in the world’s largest economy, forming partnerships with imaging centres and health systems, and the development of “Clairity Breast 3D” and “Clairity Heart” for predicting cardiovascular risk from imaging exams.

Clairity Breast’s task is simple: use routine mammogram images to predict who may be at risk of getting breast cancer over the next five years, followed by earlier intervention, which will ensure fewer late-stage diagnoses.

Since 2025, the company has been rolling out its technology to existing health systems, apart from expanding its pipeline to include AI-based predictive offerings for other diseases using the same deep learning framework. The funding round was also held keeping in mind reimbursement initiatives and partnerships to make Clairity Breast accessible across community imaging centres.

The post Business Leader of the Week: Dr. Connie Lehman-led Clairity advances breast cancer treatment through AI appeared first on International Finance.

While net income increased to USD 282.4 million in 2025 (compared to USD 265.7 million in 2024), the year-on-year growth percentage stood at 18% from a normalised base of USD 239.6 million in 2024. Total assets grew by 23% to a record USD 13.4 billion (up from USD 10.9 billion in 2024), reflecting strong asset build-up momentum across Corporate Banking, Investments, and Treasury.

The Arab Energy Fund CEO Khalid Al-Ruwaigh said, “Our financial results reflect the strength and resilience of The Arab Energy Fund’s diversified business model. Achieving our fourth consecutive year of record net income, supported by a strong balance sheet, underscores our disciplined execution, prudent risk management, and continued ability to mobilise capital across the region.”

In terms of raising funds, the entity, during 2025, got USD 3.8 billion, reinforcing its diversified funding base and strong access to international capital markets. Asset quality remained robust, with a non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 0.2%.

The Arab Energy Fund CFO Vicky Bhatia said, “TAEF has delivered, yet another strong performance, achieving its highest Net Income level of USD 282.4 million. We also raised record levels of funding in 2025, achieving effective pricing outcomes. We maintained strong operating efficiency, with a cost-to-income ratio of 19.5% and Capital adequacy of 30.45%, positioning us very well to fuel our future growth.”

Across The Arab Energy Fund’s business verticals, corporate banking expanded its portfolio to USD 6 billion, with net operating income reaching USD 140.1 million, supported by financing activity across the energy value chain, portfolio expansion and funding optimisation.

Investments and partnerships expanded the asset portfolio to USD 1.6 billion, generating USD 67.0 million in gross operating income. This growth was primarily driven by dividend income and ongoing portfolio diversification. Treasury and Capital Markets effectively managed the balance sheet, with assets totalling USD 5.5 billion and net operating income of USD 132.6 million. This success was supported by sound liquidity management, optimisation of investments in a declining interest rate environment, and disciplined funding execution.

And the positive momentum will continue in 2026, as the entity received regulatory approval to issue Panda bonds in China. This makes it the first multilateral financial institution from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to secure such approval, granting it direct access to the domestic bond market of the world’s second-largest economy.

Under the programme, approved by China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, TAEF can issue up to 10 billion Chinese yuan (USD 1.4 billion) in Renminbi-denominated bonds in multiple tranches over two years, providing flexible, long-term capital for the fund’s strategic investments.

The post The Arab Energy Fund delivers record net income in 2025, to issue Panda bonds in China appeared first on International Finance.

“Historically, regional DCM issuances have typically rebounded swiftly once tensions eased following previous geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East. However, the ultimate effect will depend on the scope and duration of the Iran war. While some yield widening is visible in GCC bonds and sukuk since the war began, there have not been market-wide selloffs,” the agency stated.

Before the conflict’s beginning, issuance activities in the Middle East were displaying strong investor appetite. While about 84% of Fitch-rated sukuk in the GCC countries were rated investment grade, 63.2% was in the ‘A’ category, while 90% of issuers were on Stable Outlooks. Most importantly, there were no defaults by the end of 2025.

“GCC issuances were strong at the start of 2026, with many entities aiming to benefit from favourable conditions ahead of the typical Ramadan slowdown. GCC debt capital market (DCM) outstanding reached USD1.2 trillion as of March 9, 2026, up 14% year on year, with 63% of issuance denominated in US dollars. Sukuk issuance rose to a record 41% share of GCC DCM volumes, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE making up the majority of GCC DCM outstanding, followed by Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. Sukuk in EMs rose to 16% of all dollar DCM issuance in 2025 (excluding China; 2024: 12%). Local-currency GCC sukuk and bonds continue to be issued, mainly by sovereigns,” Fitch remarked.

While funding needs and diversification priorities remain key focus areas for Gulf countries, governments and issuers are now seeking broader liquidity channels.

Fitch sees issuers planning their funding activities well in advance, particularly for large maturities, which will help limit immediate refinancing pressure.

“Despite heightened geopolitical challenges in recent years, GCC issuer activity has rebounded quickly once tensions eased, with market access broadly maintained for many issuers. However, the duration and scale of the conflict in the Middle East have already surpassed the 2025 Twelve-Day War, testing new levels of market uncertainty,” the agency noted.

MENA (Middle East and North Africa) sukuk continues to trade tighter than bonds originating in the region, reflecting sustained and broader demand, including from Islamic banks, with yield widening more pronounced among non-investment grade issuers. The yield-to-maturity (YTM) on the S&P Global High Yield Sukuk Index rose to 6.61% on 10th March 2026, up from 5.82% on 27th February (a 79bp increase).

“Similar periods of yield widening have occurred, particularly in times of heightened geopolitical or Sharia-related uncertainty. However, the current YTM movement remains below the peak levels recorded in earlier episodes,” Fitch concluded.

The post Middle East tensions: Fitch issues outlook for sukuk issuances appeared first on International Finance.

“We estimate about half of their total funding, including debt and capital, has been financed by the Public Investment Fund. Recourse to bank borrowing is low but has been increasing. We expect banks’ giga-project financing to rise as projects approach operational phases and financing can be supported by cash flows,” the rating agency said.

Fitch estimates that bank financing to giga projects was a modest 5%-7% of average sector loans at end-2025. New project awards fell by almost 50% in 2025, but the value of contracts awarded since 2022 is about USD 435 billion, providing significant business opportunities for banks. This should put total exposure to giga projects, both on- and off-balance-sheet, below 10% of the sector’s combined credit risk, the report claimed.

“Delays in giga-project execution or substantial recalibration of their scale could affect the banking sector’s asset-quality metrics in the longer term. However, current low exposure means the projects are unlikely to lead to significant increases in system-wide Stage 2 and Stage 3 loan ratios in 2026-2027,” the report said.

Fitch expects financing requirements for broader “Vision 2030” diversification projects to translate into sustained strong bank loan growth, despite the announced recalibration.

“This will, in turn, drive greater diversification of Saudi banks’ funding sources, underpinning further growth of Saudi Arabia’s debt capital markets, including international issuance,” the agency continued, while adding, that Saudi banks’ exposure to these giga-projects remains modest but is likely to rise as some projects become operational.

“We expect banks’ giga-project financing to rise as projects approach operational phases and financing can be supported by cash flows. We believe this type of financing mostly carries risk-weighting of around 80%-130%, so greater lending to these initiatives could weigh on capital. This, coupled with more stringent capital regulation, could encourage banks to make greater use of tools such as residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and significant risk transfers (SRTs) to relieve pressure on capital ratios, or to adjust their dividend payouts,” Fitch remarked.

The post Saudi Vision 2030 giga projects to top USD 1 trillion: Fitch appeared first on International Finance.

The official launch took place on February 7 at the Grand Egyptian Museum, attended by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Rania Al-Mashat, key members of the entrepreneurial ministerial group, the governor of Giza, ambassadors, and various stakeholders from the startup ecosystem and venture capital funds.

“The Startup Charter represents a strategic framework to enhance the capabilities of startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, aiming for rapid, sustainable economic growth driven by competitiveness and innovation, while also contributing to job creation. The initiative follows over a year of consultations involving 15 national entities and more than 250 representatives from the startup ecosystem, entrepreneurs, and parliamentary bodies,” according to an official statement from the Egyptian Cabinet. As outlined by the “Ministerial Group for Entrepreneurship,” the charter is designed to support up to 5,000 startups, generate an estimated 500,000 direct and indirect jobs, and accelerate international expansion.

Egypt’s startup ecosystem has gained significant traction in recent years, with ventures attracting USD 228 million in venture capital and debt financing during the first five months of 2025 alone, marking a notable increase from the 2024 situation. Official figures indicate that total funding for the sector reached USD 614 million in 2025, a sign of growing investor confidence and a more diverse financing landscape.

The charter has set out several key objectives over the next five years, including accelerating startup expansion into international markets, developing local talent to combat brain drain, promoting venture capital, and attracting investments through a unified financing initiative. It also seeks to connect critical challenges in various sectors with innovative solutions from startups.

While describing the reform as the first step toward modernising Egypt’s policies and legislation to better support startups, Al-Mashat further emphasised that the charter is not just a theoretical document but a practical and adaptable tool that will evolve to meet technological advancements and market needs. She further highlighted that the priorities of the charter were determined after extensive consultations with key stakeholders, aiming to create a dynamic and sustainable business environment that fosters innovation and attracts investment.

One key feature of the “Startup Charter” is the introduction of a unified definition of startups, newly established companies with a focus on rapid growth, flexibility, and innovation. This definition will allow startups to access a range of incentives and benefits, including official classification certifications from small and medium enterprise authorities.

“Additionally, it includes a unified financing initiative designed to coordinate available funding resources from government entities. The initiative aims to amplify the impact of these resources by up to four times, to mobilise USD 1 billion over the next five years through government-backed guarantees, joint investments with venture capital funds, and collaboration with private-sector investors,” Arab News reported.

The post Egypt unveils USD 1 billion Startup Charter to boost innovation, jobs appeared first on International Finance.