The Unphiltered Take
The Unphiltered Take is a weekly podcast hosted by Philip Bahoshy, founder of MAGNiTT. Each Monday, it offers a single unfiltered read on the global market moves of the past week. It focuses on private capital flows through the Middle East and emerging markets, along with the geopolitics connecting them. Bahoshy provides analysis from an operator's perspective inside the market rather than as an outside observer. The show aims to highlight data-backed views on where consensus may be wrong.
Episodes
MENA's two-speed venture market: $2.98B in, deals down 33%
MENA startups raised $2.98 billion in the first nine months of 2026, down 7%. But deal count fell 33% and early-stage deals fell 45%. Is the headline hiding a pipeline problem?In this bonus episode, Philip Bahoshy is joined by Farah El Nahlawi, Research Manager at MAGNiTT, to unpack MAGNiTT's Q3 2026 MENA venture report.We cover:Why $1.5 billion in mega-rounds, already above the full-year 2025
Q3 data: record 51% to MENA mega deals. Healthy or fragile?
MENA startups raised $2.98B in the first nine months of 2026, but a record 51% went to mega deals while deal count fell 33%. Healthy or fragile?In this episode of The Unphiltered Take, Philip Bahoshy unpacks MAGNiTT's Q3 2026 Update: why concentration at the late stage masks the underlying ecosystem, why bigger deals bring murkier detail, and what a volatile week in the region, $100+ oil and s
MENA early-stage deals down 46%. Is the pipeline drying up?
MENA early-stage deals fell 46% to 171 from January to September, the lowest in five years. If the bottom of the funnel shrinks, who becomes the Series A of 2028?At events across the region, Philip Bahoshy is hearing something new from investors: a slowdown in deal flow. MAGNiTT's data backs it up. Philip unpacks the global backdrop, from Europe's bond rout to the White House AI accord, ex
Is MENA VC broken? $14.6B in. What came back?
$14.6B of venture capital went into MENA from 2021 to 2025. How much came back to investors? Nobody can say, and that is the real problem.A founder of a well-established MENA startup told Philip Bahoshy that venture capital in the region is broken, and suggested ripping up the playbook. Philip refuses to answer until the region can measure it.He covers a world where every major central bank is tig
A 5% world just changed MENA's capital math
The US 10-year is pressing 5%. In a 5% world, what happens to MENA capital, and where should the region's money actually go? Even the world's most disciplined capital now looks at the region and stays home. Not a snub. Arithmetic.In this episode: the Fed's 25bp hike into a supply shock, and why higher-for-longer is the biggest headwind emerging markets face. What two weeks in Silicon V
MENA is fuelling the AI race: reflections from SF
The fear of missing the next AI breakthrough is bigger than the fear of AI itself. That fear funds the race, and Gulf capital is inside it. Is the region building for this, or just paying to watch?In this episode: Four days inside Silicon Valley, and the fear that funds the AI raceWhy the loudest calls for guardrails come from inside the raceSoftware is not dead, it is commoditised, and where the
Does MENA have an Exit problem?
MENA raised its biggest AI fund yet last week in Saudi Arabia. While in the last six months, VC M&A exits across the region fell to 16, down from 48 in 2025. So does the region have an exit problem, and where does its liquidity come from now?In this episode: why Friday's jobs shock flipped the Fed from cuts to a possible hike, and why expensive money is now the weather for everything, incl
MENA AI hit $1B for the first time. 10 startups took most of it! Warsh hinted why it matters to markets in Jackson Hole.
MENA AI crossed $1B for the first time. But ten companies took most of it. Nine raised in the last 18 months. Four in the last three. Here is what that concentration means, why Kevin Warsh made a hinge point out of it at Jackson Hole, and the three Gulf sovereigns quietly sitting inside every frontier AI lab.In this episode:Nvidia Q2 and the ACIE segment: sovereign AI printing on the income statem
Bessent did the Fed's job. 88% of MENA dry powder still sitting. Who fills the gap?
$1.65B of MENA venture dry powder. 88% still sitting. Fund formation down 63% since the war started. So who fills the gap over the next 18 months?Last week markets looked flat. It really wasn't. Bitcoin's best week in two years, gold up 5%, every safe haven finished green while equities finished red. Treasury Secretary Bessent doubled long-dated buybacks, yields dropped, and Bitcoin, gold
Oil +6%, MENA late-stage: $0. Why the two are connected
Something happened this weekend that almost nobody in regional venture is watching.The 60-day free-transit clause in the June 17th US-Iran MOU quietly expired. There is no successor deal. Iran is signalling transit fees. The White House says fees are unacceptable. And in 15 days, September arrives and the international community is expected back in the Gulf.This is not a headline that moves the S&
Record highs on a jobs shock. MENA deals −41%: what the headlines miss
Summer is supposed to be the quiet season. It was anything but...In this first episode: the two weeks where the market broke, got a head-fake on oil, then round-tripped all the way to record highs on the back of a weak jobs report. My read on rates and oil. And the part almost nobody translates, what all of it actually means for MENA.In this episode:- The round trip: the worst Dow day since April
Trailer: Global markets, Middle East money, unphiltered
The trailer for The Unphiltered Take with Philip Bahoshy.Everyone tells you what the markets did. Almost no one tells you what it means for MENA markets. Every Monday, one unfiltered read on global markets, the private capital moving through the Middle East and emerging markets, and the geopolitics tying them together. From an operator inside the market, not an observer on the sidelines.Hit Follow
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