Top EnergyTech Companies & Startups in MENA Region

Across the Middle East and North Africa, the energy transition is rarely smooth, rapid, or ideological. It unfolds instead through careful negotiation with reality: volatile fuel prices, conservative buyers, regulatory friction, extreme climates, and markets shaped as much by habit as by policy. While national strategies and mega‑projects tend to dominate headlines, the more consequential shifts are often happening at a smaller scale — inside factories, farms, logistics hubs, telecom sites, and commercial buildings where energy decisions are made reluctantly and budgets are tight.

What makes EnergyTech startups in the MENA region compelling is not radical technology, but how deliberately they adapt innovation to local behavior. These companies are not selling the future as an abstract promise; they are translating kilowatt hours into cash flow, resilience, and operational certainty. From Saudi Arabia’s SME‑focused solar and efficiency models, to the UAE’s financially engineered power agreements and hybrid construction-site solutions, to Egypt’s struggle with reliability amid currency pressure, and Jordan’s constraint‑driven pragmatism, a shared pattern emerges: adoption happens only when risk feels manageable and value is immediate.

The startups highlighted in this list operate across generation, efficiency, storage, mobility, software, and advisory — but what connects them is a deep fluency in how energy is actually consumed, financed, and resisted across the region. Many innovate less through breakthrough hardware and more through business models, services, and localized design choices that reflect heat, dust, fragmented infrastructure, and cautious decision‑makers. Progress here rarely looks like disruption; it looks like quiet replacement, optimization, and trust built over time.

Taken together, these companies offer a ground‑level view of where MENA’s energy transition is truly advancing. Not in sweeping declarations, but in pragmatic solutions that survive real conditions, speak the language of finance, and work within the cultural and regulatory contours of each market. This is EnergyTech shaped by constraint — and that may be precisely why it is starting to scale

What stands out to us about Resquared is not the technology itself — modular rooftop solar is hardly new — but the way it has been quietly re‑packaged for the Saudi SME reality. From our conversations with factory owners outside Riyadh and logistics operators in secondary cities, the real barrier to solar was never awareness. It was fear of heavy CAPEX, long payback periods, and the cultural habit of deferring energy decisions to “later.” Resquared sidesteps this hesitation by offering systems that grow gradually, matching how Saudi businesses actually behave: cautiously at first, then faster once trust is built.

We noticed how deliberately the company speaks the language of finance rather than sustainability. Their dashboards translate kilowatt hours into riyals saved, which sounds obvious, but in Saudi boardrooms this still matters. CFOs here are rarely persuaded by carbon narratives alone, particularly in family-owned firms where cash flow discipline dominates decision-making. At the same time, Resquared’s reliance on local installers is a pragmatic nod to the fragmented contracting culture — centralized deployment simply doesn’t scale across regions like Qassim without friction. Still, the model may struggle as volumes rise; quality control across decentralized partners is easier promised than enforced. Yet in a market long dominated by mega-developers and utilities, Resquared reflects a broader shift: energy innovation is no longer top-down, and SMEs are finally being designed for, not talked at.

Energy efficiency has always been the least glamorous pillar of Saudi Arabia’s energy conversation, often dismissed as marginal gains in a country historically spoiled by cheap power. Optility challenges that mentality by framing efficiency as a service, not a recommendation. What we found compelling is how closely this aligns with SME pain points: rising tariffs, limited in-house expertise, and a deep distrust of consultants who charge fees regardless of results. Performance-based contracts, while common elsewhere, still feel culturally disruptive here — many clients we spoke to admitted this was their first exposure to a model where the provider shares the risk.

Optility’s engagement with Saudi ESCO frameworks gives it institutional legitimacy, but it also brings regulatory drag. Approval cycles are slow, documentation remains paper-heavy, and scaling beyond early adopters will require patience. That said, the shift in client conversations is telling. Companies are no longer asking why efficiency matters; they want to know how quickly savings will show up on monthly bills. In that sense, Optility signals a maturing market, where consumption — not just generation — becomes the new frontier. The challenge ahead will be maintaining startup agility while navigating government-aligned frameworks that tend to reward caution over speed.

Solarity operates in the less visible, but increasingly decisive, layer of the solar value chain: what happens after installation. In Saudi Arabia’s dusty, heat-stressed environment, we’ve repeatedly seen solar assets underperform within months, not years. Smaller operators, in particular, struggle with reactive maintenance cultures and fragmented service providers. Solarity’s appeal lies in its anticipation of these realities. By combining weather data, satellite imagery, and inverter analytics, it reframes maintenance from a scheduled chore into a predictive function.

From our perspective, its positioning as a software partner rather than a hardware vendor is not just strategic — it’s defensive. Hardware margins are brutal, and insurers in Saudi remain wary of novel physical technologies. Software, by contrast, slips more easily into existing procurement structures. Adoption has been strongest around industrial zones near Jeddah and Dammam, where operators feel every percentage point of performance loss. Solarity’s limitation, however, may be cultural: many smaller asset owners still trust human technicians over algorithms. Convincing them that AI can “see” dust before they do will take time, not demos. Still, the broader signal is clear — profitability in Saudi solar is increasingly written in code, not concrete.

Waste heat recovery is not a dinner-table topic in Saudi Arabia, despite the vast energy losses embedded in its industrial base. TurbineX steps into this blind spot with a focus on practicality rather than grand environmental claims. Its compact organic Rankine cycle systems are designed for retrofitting — a crucial detail in a market where factory shutdowns are feared more than inefficiency itself. In our discussions with plant managers, downtime remains the ultimate red line, and TurbineX seems acutely aware of this psychology.

Pilots in western Saudi Arabia suggest technical maturity, but scaling will test patience. Industrial clients here move slowly, layered approvals stretch decisions, and insurers often demand extensive validation before adjusting coverage. TurbineX’s emphasis on cost savings over carbon metrics feels wise; sustainability narratives alone rarely unlock budgets. What the company represents, more broadly, is a philosophical shift in Saudi EnergyTech: extracting hidden value from what already exists. In a country long accustomed to building more, TurbineX argues — quietly — that optimization can be just as powerful.

Energy storage in Saudi Arabia has long relied on imported assumptions — temperate climates, predictable cycling, and controlled conditions that rarely survive first contact with the desert. Naqaa Energy starts from the opposite premise: that batteries must be designed around heat, not adapted to it. Their collaboration with local research centers speaks to a growing recognition that lab results mean little without field abuse, especially when temperatures routinely cross thresholds that degrade conventional systems.

We’ve seen early deployments supporting telecom towers and remote agricultural operations, sectors where reliability outweighs headline performance metrics. Naqaa’s leasing model also reflects a realistic reading of the market. Many commercial solar users are still uncomfortable owning batteries outright; maintenance risk, safety concerns, and unfamiliarity with degradation curves create hesitation. Leasing shifts that anxiety back to the provider. The challenge ahead will be scaling manufacturing and maintaining margins while staying local — imported batteries remain cheaper on paper, even if costlier over time. Still, Naqaa embodies a deeper truth about Saudi EnergyTech’s future: clean power only becomes meaningful when it can be stored, trusted, and deployed on Saudi terms, not international brochures.

When we talk about EnergyTech startups in the UAE, Siraj Power tends to come up early — not because it is flashy, but because it understands how this market actually works. From our conversations with industrial operators, solar adoption here is rarely an ideological choice. It is a financial one. Siraj Power seems to have built itself around that reality. Rather than selling panels, it sells certainty: long-term power purchase agreements that appeal to CFOs who care less about carbon narratives and more about predictable cash flow in a region where energy pricing has historically been opaque.

What stands out to us is how deliberately unromantic the company is about solar. Rooftops are treated as underutilised assets, not symbols of sustainability. Factories and logistics hubs sign on because there is no upfront cost, minimal operational disruption, and clear regulatory cover — especially in Dubai, where schemes like Shams have reduced some of the early uncertainty around net metering. That said, this model is not frictionless. Long-term contracts still raise questions for family-owned businesses wary of locking themselves into 20- or 25-year commitments, and rooftop ownership structures in older industrial zones can complicate deployment. Still, Siraj Power reflects a broader truth about EnergyTech startups in the UAE: progress often comes from financial engineering as much as technological innovation.

Enerwhere feels like a company born out of frustration with diesel rather than excitement about renewables. Anyone who has spent time around construction sites in the Gulf knows how deeply embedded diesel generators are — loud, inefficient, and accepted as a necessary evil. Enerwhere’s proposition is quietly radical in that context: replace them, not with ideology, but with a hybrid system that works in extreme heat, dust, and constant on-off demand cycles.

What we noticed speaking to contractors is that the real value is not just cleaner power, but visibility. Many sites simply do not know how much fuel they waste until Enerwhere’s monitoring dashboards make it painfully obvious. That data-first approach resonates in sectors like construction and oilfield services, where margins are tight and sustainability talk rarely moves procurement decisions on its own. Adoption, however, is still uneven. Smaller subcontractors remain price-sensitive and skeptical of anything that feels technologically complex. But by focusing on transitional energy rather than perfect zero-carbon scenarios, Enerwhere has carved out a pragmatic niche within the EnergyTech startups in the UAE ecosystem — one grounded in immediate operational savings rather than long-term promises.

HydrogenX UAE operates in a far more speculative space, and it knows it. In a country where hydrogen is often discussed at conference podiums and in national strategies, there is still confusion on the factory floor. From our conversations with mid-sized manufacturers, interest in hydrogen usually comes before understanding. HydrogenX positions itself precisely in that gap — not competing with sovereign-backed megaprojects, but helping industrial players ask the right questions before spending serious capital.

Its work is largely advisory, which can be both a strength and a limitation. Feasibility studies, pilot modelling, and electrolyzer assessments allow the company to move quickly and stay asset-light, especially as free zones experiment with decarbonisation pathways. The challenge, of course, is timing. Policy momentum does not always translate into immediate demand, and many SMEs remain hesitant to invest in something that lacks short-term regulatory or pricing clarity. Still, HydrogenX reflects a quieter trend among EnergyTech startups in the UAE: innovation as preparation, laying groundwork for a market that is coming, but not yet fully formed.

GridX Energy Solutions tackles one of the least glamorous problems in the UAE energy conversation: what actually drives electricity consumption once a building is operating. Anyone who has managed commercial property here knows the answer is almost always cooling. GridX’s systems are built around that reality, tailoring energy management software to local tariff structures, peak demand penalties, and the brutal efficiency drain of summer air conditioning.

What stands out to us is how grounded the product feels. Instead of generic dashboards, the platform speaks the language of local facility managers — district cooling integration, peak shaving, and comfort thresholds that tenants will actually tolerate. Adoption tends to be slow and methodical, as property owners are typically conservative and wary of disruptions. But once implemented, the value becomes hard to ignore. In the broader landscape of EnergyTech startups in the UAE, GridX is a reminder that the real gains often sit in optimisation, not generation — in shaving inefficiencies that most people have learned to live with.

Solarabic is perhaps the most tactile of the group. Based in Abu Dhabi, it focuses on the physical realities that imported solar solutions often gloss over: sand accumulation, heat stress, uneven terrain, and the shortage of specialised installation labour. Its lightweight mounting systems and modular components are designed for speed and resilience, appealing to SMEs, farms, and remote assets like telecom towers that are usually overlooked by large EPC players.

From what we have seen, its relevance lies in price sensitivity and practicality. Smaller operators in the UAE want solar, but they want it to be simple, fast, and affordable. They are less interested in bespoke engineering and more concerned with downtime and maintenance. Solarbic’s challenge, like many hardware-focused EnergyTech startups in the UAE, is scale — manufacturing economics remain tough, and competition from cheaper imports is constant. Yet its focus on regional adaptation fills an important gap, serving the long tail of the market that megaprojects rarely reach.

Taken together, these companies show that EnergyTech startups in the UAE are not following a single playbook. Some innovate through financial structures, others through hybrid systems, advisory models, software optimisation, or localized hardware. What connects them is a deep understanding of how energy is actually consumed, financed, and resisted in this region — shaped by conservative buyers, regulatory nuances, legacy infrastructure, and a cultural preference for proven models over experimental ones. The sector’s evolution here feels less like a leap and more like a careful, negotiated transition — and that, perhaps, is what makes it uniquely Gulf.

What stands out to us about KarmSolar is how deliberately it avoided the seductive but chaotic residential market and instead went where the pain was sharpest. From our conversations with agribusiness operators in Wadi El Natrun and parts of Upper Egypt, diesel dependence isn’t an abstract sustainability problem — it’s an existential cost issue that rises and falls with currency shocks. KarmSolar stepped into that gap early, framing itself less as an installer of panels and more as a long-term power partner. The power purchase agreement model mattered here because most Egyptian farms and factories are capital-constrained and deeply allergic to upfront spending, especially after years of inflation and FX volatility.

That said, the model is not frictionless. We’ve seen how long contract tenures can make family-owned businesses uneasy, particularly in a market still adjusting to private power providers. Insurers and lenders also remain cautious outside well-known industrial zones. Still, by focusing on battery hybrids and reliability — not just green credentials — KarmSolar quietly reframed how mid-sized enterprises think about energy ownership, resilience, and risk.

Solarize Egypt feels like a company built by people who learned the hard way how regulation really works here. Anyone who has tried to deploy rooftop solar in Egypt knows that technical design is the easy part; navigating net metering limits, approvals, and utility coordination is where projects stall. Solarize focused squarely on SMEs — schools, factories, retail operators — that care less about climate narratives and more about stabilizing their monthly expenses when electricity tariffs creep up without warning.

From what we’ve observed, their strength lies in execution discipline rather than ambition. They rarely chase oversized systems, and that restraint resonates with SME owners who fear downtime more than they fear missing out on extra savings. Still, adoption remains uneven. Many business owners wait until cash flow pressure becomes acute before committing, which forces Solarize into reactive selling cycles. In a paper-heavy, approval-driven culture, patience often matters as much as engineering skill.

Enara Energy emerged from a reality we’ve seen repeatedly in Egyptian industry: companies make energy investments with incomplete data, then regret them for years. The startup’s consulting-first DNA shows in how much time it spends questioning assumptions — peak load estimates, production growth projections, even whether solar is the right solution at all. In manufacturing zones, where margins are thin and competition is regional, that level of rigor can be the difference between survival and stagnation.

But depth comes at a cost. Enara’s model doesn’t scale quickly in a market where many clients want fast answers and faster installations. Some factories still prefer rule-of-thumb sizing over detailed audits. Yet for those willing to engage, Enara fills a critical credibility gap, especially as banks and investors increasingly demand technical validation before financing energy upgrades.

Shift EV tackles one of Egypt’s most visible contradictions: a logistics economy expanding rapidly while fuel costs spiral out of control. The company’s early focus on electric motorcycle conversions spoke directly to delivery fleets that care about daily operating costs, not long-term climate targets. From what we’ve seen, battery swapping resonates particularly well in dense urban areas where charging downtime simply isn’t tolerated.

Still, consumer trust remains a hurdle. Fleet managers worry about resale value, maintenance skills, and the reliability of imported battery components. Shift EV’s fleet-as-a-service approach helps absorb some of that anxiety, but scaling will likely depend on deeper collaboration with municipalities, insurers, and large delivery platforms. Electrification in Egypt succeeds when it feels practical, not ideological — a lesson Shift EV seems to understand.

Cairo Solar occupies a quieter but no less important corner of Egypt’s EnergyTech ecosystem. Rather than chasing megawatts, it invested in people — engineers, technicians, and students who often encounter renewable energy first through theory, not practice. In a market that still leans heavily on imported components, Cairo Solar’s emphasis on local assembly and skills development addresses both cost sensitivity and long-term resilience.

We’ve noticed, however, that education-led models struggle to monetize consistently. Training programs don’t generate the same cash flow as large EPC contracts, and policy support for local manufacturing remains inconsistent. Yet Cairo Solar’s influence shows up indirectly, in the growing pool of engineers who don’t see solar as foreign technology but as something Egyptian companies can actually own and improve. In a market shaped as much by mindset as by megawatts, that contribution matters.

Jordan’s energy conversation has never been abstract. It is shaped by monthly electricity bills, diesel receipts, water rationing schedules, and a long-standing dependence on imports that everyone—from policy makers to factory owners—feels viscerally. What we have seen over the past few years is that EnergyTech innovation here hasn’t followed Silicon Valley patterns or Gulf-style mega investments. Instead, it has grown in a quieter, more pragmatic way, led largely by small and mid-sized startups trying to solve very specific, very Jordanian problems.

What stands out to us is not grand disruption, but adaptation: working around infrastructure gaps, regulatory friction, and a consumer base that is price-sensitive and, frankly, cautious. Below, we look at five startups that reflect this reality—not as success stories polished for investors, but as experiments tested daily against Jordan’s market constraints.

Electric vehicles in Jordan have always faced an awkward reality. Charging infrastructure is uneven, upfront costs are high, and many businesses simply cannot afford to experiment. This is where MENA EV took a decidedly unglamorous but effective path: conversion rather than replacement.

Instead of importing finished electric vehicles, the team focused on converting existing cars, vans, and light trucks into electric ones. From our conversations with fleet operators, this decision is what made the model believable. Businesses were not being asked to leap into the unknown; they were being offered a way to lower fuel and maintenance costs while keeping vehicles they already trusted.

The early adopters were telling: delivery companies, municipalities, industrial sites—actors that calculate savings line by line. We noticed that adoption spread less through marketing and more through informal networks, workshop referrals, and word of mouth. Still, challenges remain. Insurance coverage for converted vehicles is not always straightforward, and resale markets remain thin. But by training local technicians and partnering with vocational institutes, MENA EV has quietly contributed to building an electric mobility skill base that Jordan lacks.

If energy is Jordan’s chronic problem, water is its existential one. Sadeem operates exactly at that uncomfortable intersection. Their solar-powered irrigation and water management systems respond to a reality farmers know too well: electricity costs, water losses, and unreliable supply often compound rather than cancel each other out.

What impressed us most in the field was not the technology itself—solar panels and sensors are familiar—but how it was deployed. Systems were designed to work in places with limited connectivity and minimal technical supervision. Arabic-first interfaces mattered more than AI sophistication. In the Jordan Valley, where margins are tight and trust is earned slowly, that simplicity helped adoption.

That said, the model is not frictionless. Smaller farmers still hesitate at upfront costs, even when long-term savings are clear. Some rely on informal irrigation practices that technology struggles to formalize. Yet Sadeem’s strength lies in solving two problems at once: reducing water waste while cutting energy dependency. In a country where both are politically and socially sensitive, that dual focus gives the company credibility beyond the EnergyTech label.

Rooftop solar in Jordan is often discussed, but less often executed smoothly—especially for SMEs. Konnovation built its proposition around this gap. Rather than chasing large solar parks, the company stayed grounded in schools, clinics, workshops, and family-owned factories.

From what we have observed, the real value Konnovation offers is not panels, but predictability. Jordan’s regulatory environment around net metering can be intimidating, and many business owners mistrust promised returns. By handling permitting, system sizing, and ongoing maintenance, the company removed layers of uncertainty that typically stall decisions.

There are limits, of course. Financing remains the bottleneck, particularly in a credit market wary of SME risk. But Konnovation’s regulatory fluency—designing systems that work with, not against, local rules—has given it an edge. In a market accustomed to paperwork and delayed approvals, making solar “boring” may be the most radical move of all.

Jordan has spent years investing in generation capacity. The harder question now is efficiency. Wattar entered this conversation from the software side, focusing on how energy is actually used, and wasted, inside buildings.

We noticed that Wattar’s clients—malls, hospitals, factories—were often surprised by what the data revealed. Not dramatic failures, but small inefficiencies: machines running off-hours, HVAC systems fighting each other, lighting zones active with no human presence. The platform’s strength lies in turning this complexity into actionable steps rather than abstract dashboards.

Still, software faces its own form of market resistance. Facility managers can be skeptical, and behavioral change often lags behind data insights. Wattar’s emphasis on optimization without forcing staff retraining helped overcome some of that friction. In many ways, the company reflects a broader shift in Jordan’s EnergyTech landscape: from building new assets to extracting more value from what already exists.

Not every part of Jordan benefits from grid reliability, and in some places it barely exists. Emerge Power operates in these margins: rural clinics, desert camps, telecom sites, and eco-tourism projects that cannot afford downtime.

Their hybrid off-grid systems are intentionally unflashy. Built to survive heat, dust, and limited maintenance visits, they emphasize durability over novelty. What stands out to us is the service-based model. By guaranteeing power availability rather than selling equipment outright, Emerge Power shifts risk away from clients who are already stretched thin.

The challenge is scale. Each site has unique conditions, and standardization is difficult. But by training local technicians and avoiding over-engineering, the company has managed to keep costs within reach for NGOs and small operators. This is EnergyTech shaped by constraint, not surplus.

Taken together, these startups tell a broader story about innovation in Jordan. EnergyTech here is not driven by hype cycles or large subsidies. It is shaped by spreadsheets, regulatory fine print, cultural caution, and a deep awareness that consumers will not tolerate experiments that fail quietly.

We are seeing a generation of companies solving problems sideways—working around infrastructure gaps instead of waiting for them to disappear. That may not make headlines, but in a country like Jordan, it makes progress.