UAE-Based Insurtech Mantas Launches With US$1.77 Million Seed Funding Round

UAE-based insurtech startup Mantas has emerged from stealth with a US$1.77 million pre-seed funding round and the launch of a parametric insurance product aimed at protecting businesses from cloud service outages. 

The round drew backing from investment firms like Dubai-based Nuwa Capital, Saudi Arabia-based Suhail Ventures, Abu Dhabi-based Plus VC, Saudi Arabia-based OQAL Angel Syndicate, along with a group of strategic angel investors. The new capital will be deployed toward further product development, enhanced risk modeling, and early customer rollouts across the Middle East and North America. 

Founded by Basil Mimi and Abdallah Banishamsa in the UAE in 2024, Mantas focuses on insuring revenue exposure linked to cloud infrastructure failures through a parametric model built on predefined, data-driven triggers. In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Mimi, co-founder and CEO of Mantas, shared how the startup came into being after a firsthand experience prompted him to look more closely at the business consequences of cloud failures. While placing a food delivery order, he encountered an outage that later escalated into operational and reputational challenges for the business involved. Mimi, who has a background in software engineering, then identified a gap between the precision with which outages could be measured and the absence of financial mechanisms to mitigate their impact. Plus, his exposure to parametric insurance models in sectors such as agriculture and weather helped inform how Mantas would approach cloud-related risk.

Mantas has thus been built in response to a shift in how operational risk now manifests for modern organizations, as cloud disruptions increasingly translate into immediate revenue loss. “Most businesses now run entirely on the cloud," Mimi told Inc. Arabia. "Even a short outage can stop sales, payments, logistics, or customer access within minutes. The losses are real and immediate, but traditional insurance was never built for cloud failures. Cloud downtime is now one of the largest unpriced liabilities in the digital economy, as major outages at Amazon Web Services and Azure in late 2025 clearly demonstrated. For many entrepreneurs and tech workers, this was a familiar experience throughout 2025. Today, an estimated 94 percent of enterprise services worldwide rely on at least one major cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. While billions are being invested in data centers across the region, the insurance layer simply did not keep up.” 

Mantas has thus been designed to apply predefined, data-driven triggers across major cloud providers to enable fast, predictable payouts, moving away from the lengthy investigations associated with traditional insurance. The platform triggers payouts automatically when verified outage conditions are met, removing the need for lengthy claims processes. In parallel, the company provides real-time cloud risk monitoring and intelligence, serving digital-first businesses ranging from fintech firms and airlines to e-commerce platforms, software as a service providers, and regulated enterprises that depend on uninterrupted cloud availability. 

With Mantas now emerging from stealth mode, Mimi said that ahead of fundraising, the team concentrated on building foundations that would resonate with investors in a regulated industry. “Before raising the seed round, we focused on proving three things: that the risk is real, the product works, and the business can operate within regulation," Mimi explained. "We completed the research and development of our product and validated it end-to-end, from outage detection to payout logic. In parallel, we saw strong inbound demand, with dozens of businesses joining our waiting list even before launch.” 

Mantas co-founder and CEO Basil Mimi at an event in Dubai. 

Establishing regulatory credibility was equally central to that effort—as a first mover in the Middle East and Africa, the company wanted to position itself to support operational and financial resilience across the region. “On the regulatory side, we completed our required licensing and became regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, which was a critical proof point for investors in an insurance business," Mimi shared. "Finally, we secured market partnerships with leading insurers in the region and established distribution channels with key market counterparties. Together, these milestones showed that Mantas is not just an idea, but a regulated and executable business ready to scale.”

As for the fundraising process itself, Mimi said the context in which Mantas raised capital reflects broader shifts in how investors are evaluating startups in the region, particularly those operating in regulated industries. "Fundraising was focused rather than easy," Mimi revealed. "Investors were cautious, but decisive when the fundamentals were clear. The bar is higher than in previous years, especially in regulated sectors, where operating in financial services requires significant upfront investment. We bootstrapped the business for the first 10 months, prioritizing execution, regulatory readiness, and early demand before raising external capital. In the MENA today, the investment climate favors founders who can validate real demand, execute quickly, and operate. Having a problem and a product is no longer enough. Investors want proof points, early traction, and a clear path to revenue. Founders who focus on execution and fundamentals are the ones who get funded, even in tighter markets.” 

Looking to the future, as cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure become further embedded into how the global economy operates, Mimi sees insurance evolving into a built-in layer of that digital stack. “Our long-term vision is to make cloud and digital infrastructure risk insurable by default," Mimi said. "As more of the global economy runs on cloud platforms, businesses should be able to transfer downtime risk as easily as they insure physical assets today. Over time, we see Mantas becoming the insurance layer and a leading producer of coverage for digital risks, expanding across regions, cloud providers, and new categories of digital risk. This means deeper data, stronger predictive models, and products that scale globally while remaining simple and transparent for customers.” 

Reflecting on what success will look like for Mantas in the long term, Mimi said that the company is prioritizing adoption and retention over rapid expansion. “At our core, we believe underwriting is king, and customer handling is key," Mimi said. "We will continue building parametric insurance solutions that are fast, objective, and transparent by design. In the near term, success looks practical. Launching at scale, paying claims exactly as designed, and earning the trust of customers, insurers, and regulators. If businesses can rely on Mantas to protect revenue when critical infrastructure fails, and the market trusts our payouts, then we know we are building something that lasts.” 

Picured in the lead image is Mantas co-founder and CEO Basil Mimi. Image courtesy Mantas.