News

Daleel Expands To UAE, Tapping Into $44B Finance Market

The Bahrain-based company offers a personalized financial marketplace with regional expansion supported by investors Flat6Labs and Salica.

Published

2 years ago

January 20, 2025

Nour Nasir

daleel expands to uae tapping into $44 billion finance market

Daleel, a personalized financial marketplace originally founded in Bahrain, has officially entered the UAE market supported by notable investors, including Flat6Labs and Salica. Known for its ability to connect customers with tailored financial products, Daleel has gained significant traction in its home country, and the company is now eying the wider Middle East’s massive personal finance market, valued at an estimated $44.4 billion.

The platform’s UAE debut was hosted at Visa’s CEMEA Market Support Center in Dubai, marking another milestone for Daleel. The company gained regional attention when it clinched first place and $40,000 in funding at the 2023 Visa Everywhere Initiative finals in Saudi Arabia.

daleel expands to uae

Daleel’s expansion is supported by notable investors, including Flat6Labs and Salica. At the launch event, several key figures in the fintech and financial sectors were present, including Daleel’s co-founders, CEO PK Shrivastava and COO Ridaa Shah.

Reflecting on the launch, PK Shrivastava said, “Launching in the UAE is a landmark moment for the company, and we are pleased to do so alongside Visa, who have championed us from the start. There is a real demand across the region for personalized finance, and we believe this is the right time to expand our marketplace to connect more customers with the best financial solutions”.

Also Read: How (And Why) To Start A Tech Business In Dubai

Daleel’s team combines expertise in open banking, finance, and technology, which has enabled the company to refine its platform for the regional market. Their data-driven system is designed to quickly match customers with financial products, ranging from credit cards and mortgages to savings accounts, offering personalized options in seconds. This transparency and efficiency benefit consumers while providing financial institutions with more cost-effective ways to acquire customers and create data-informed products.

Looking ahead, Daleel plans to secure an open finance license in 2025, which will allow even deeper integration with financial institutions. The company’s ultimate goal is to build a financial ecosystem where decisions that used to take weeks can now be made in minutes, empowering users to achieve better financial outcomes.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.