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UAE Startup Dukkantek Raises $10 Million In Funding
The digital storefront management platform for retailers hopes to expand its service to North Africa after a successful round of funding.
A technology startup in the United Arab Emirates, known as Dukkantek, has recently raised $10 million in funding, helping the company to get closer to its aim of expanding into new markets and improving core technologies.
The latest round of funding, which venture capital company Beco Capital led, included additional participation from Colle Capital, Rocketship, Comma Capital, Chaos Ventures, AMK Investment Office, and Wamda Capital.
The funding boost will help Dukkantek more easily expand globally by improving the firm’s technology and enabling them to hire more talent. The store management platform raised $5.2 million last October, taking the total investment figure to $15.2 million.
“We are pleased to have witnessed an exponential growth of our company as we provide a technological solution to SME businesses across the world. This second round of funding comes at the perfect time as we are looking to explore growth in additional markets, increase our team size and further advance our technology,” says Dukkantek co-founder, Sanad Yaghi.
Dukkantek was founded in January 2021 and provides a digital storefront management platform that allows retailers to offer advanced point of sale systems that can be accessed online from any location in the world, using the power of cloud computing.
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The Middle East’s eCommerce market is expected to reach $49 billion by 2025, representing a 55% increase from 2021, with the United Arab Emirates alone forecast to grow 60% to more than $8 billion by 2025.
“Launching seven countries in 18 short months since founding is no easy feat, yet the Dukkantek team has managed to do it in such a seamless and capital-efficient manner,” says Abdulaziz Al Sagha, venture partner at Beco Capital.
Dukkantek, named after the Arabic word for corner shop, already supports 13 million small and medium-sized businesses across the Middle East and soon hopes to expand operations to North Africa.
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Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
Google brings its latest image model to Gemini and Search, adding 4K output and tighter text control for regional users.
Google has opened access to Nano Banana 2 across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing its newest image model into everyday tools rather than keeping it inside the exclusive (and expensive) Pro tier.
The rollout spans the Google Gemini desktop and mobile apps, and extends to Google Search through Lens and AI Mode. Developers can also test it in preview via AI Studio and the Gemini API.
Nano Banana 2 runs on Gemini Flash, Google’s fast inference layer. The focus is speed, but also control. Users can export visuals from 512px up to 4K, adjusting aspect ratios for everything from vertical social posts to widescreen displays.
The model maintains character likeness across up to five figures and preserves fidelity for as many as 14 objects within a single workflow. This enables visual continuity across scenes, iterations, or edits — supporting projects like short films, storyboards, and multi-scene narratives. Text rendering has also been improved, delivering legible typography in mockups and greeting cards, with built-in translation and localization directly within images.
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Under the hood, the system taps Gemini’s broader knowledge base and pulls in real-time information and imagery from web search to render specific subjects more accurately. Lighting and fine detail have been upgraded, without slowing output.
By embedding the model inside Gemini and Search, Google is normalizing advanced image generation for a mass audience. In MENA, where startups and marketing teams are leaning heavily on AI to scale content across languages and borders, that shift lands at a practical moment.
The move also folds creative tooling deeper into search itself, so that image generation is no longer a separate workflow. It now sits right next to the query box.
Nano Banana 2 Arrives In MENA For Google Gemini Users
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