Talk to any founder or investor in MENA and a pattern emerges: even when consumer demand softens, infrastructure spending rarely stops. Across the region, governments, telcos, and large enterprises are ramping up investment in 5G networks, blockchain, and related digital infrastructure — laying the rails for the next decade of startup innovation.
5G networks as the backbone of a mobile-first economy
MENA is already a mobile-first region — and it’s getting more so. A recent GSMA report estimates that mobile technologies contributed around $350 billion to the region’s economy in 2024, roughly 5–6% of GDP, with hundreds of millions of people now online via mobile devices. The same study projects that 5G connections will account for a majority of mobile links in MENA by 2030, as operators upgrade networks and spectrum.
Ericsson’s Mobility Report on the region echoes this trajectory: mobile subscriptions are expected to grow steadily through 2030, with 5G rollouts reshaping telecom economics and enabling new use cases ranging from fixed wireless access and industrial IoT to advanced consumer applications.
For startups, 5G isn’t just about faster video. It unlocks:
- Low-latency applications — from cloud gaming to real-time telemedicine
- Reliable connectivity for machines — powering robotics, logistics, and smart-city deployments
- Network slicing and private 5G — letting enterprises run mission-critical workloads over tailored virtual networks
All of this expands the design space for founders building in sectors like mobility, logistics, health, and fintech.
Blockchain moves from buzzword to infrastructure
At the same time, blockchain in MENA is quietly shifting from speculative hype to infrastructure conversation — especially in telecom and financial services.
A Strategy& (PwC) report notes that MENA telecom operators, with their established digital infrastructure and strong customer relationships, are well-positioned to use blockchain to create new services and revenue streams while cutting transaction costs. Internally, use cases include identity management, number portability, and roaming; externally, telcos can host clients’ blockchains, offer managed blockchain services, or build vertical-specific applications.
Separate analysis highlights that the MENA blockchain industry has been among the fastest-growing globally, with significant momentum since 2022 as regulators experiment with sandboxes and digital asset frameworks.
What’s emerging is an infrastructure stack where:
- 5G provides the high-speed, low-latency connectivity layer
- Blockchain offers a trust and transaction layer for assets, identities, and data
- AI and cloud sit on top to analyze, automate, and orchestrate activity across this network
Why this matters for founders and investors
For founders building in or from the region, the signal is clear: infrastructure is no longer the constraint it once was. Governments and incumbents are doing the heavy lifting on 5G and blockchain; the opportunity for startups lies in building:
- Vertical-specific products (e.g., logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, public services) that sit on top of these networks
- Developer platforms and tools that abstract away telco and blockchain complexity
- Cross-border solutions that take advantage of MENA’s role as a hub between Africa, Europe, and South Asia
For investors, these infrastructure bets suggest future-proofed theses: supporting companies that are “5G-native” or “blockchain-aware” from day one, rather than needing retrofitted architectures later.
Editor’s Note — The Startups MENA Team
It’s easy to dismiss terms like “5G” and “blockchain” as buzzwords — until you realize they’re quietly being baked into the region’s core infrastructure. Our editorial lens is on how founders convert this backbone into practical value: fewer slide decks about “revolutionary tech,” more products that use these rails to fix broken workflows in education, logistics, healthcare, and finance. The winners in this cycle won’t be those shouting the loudest about infrastructure, but those who treat it as a given — and build accordingly.– By The Startups MENA Editorial Desk
