Latest news with #Stitch
Wamda
16 hours ago
- Business
- Wamda
Stitch raises $10 million seed to extend services to emerging markets
Saudi Arabia-based fintech infrastructure platform Stitch has raised a $10 million seed round from investors including Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and Saudi Venture Capital (SVC), with participation from regional family offices and other angel investors. Founded in 2022 by Mohamed Oueida, Stitch offers a unified, API-driven platform for banks, fintechs, and enterprises to deploy modern financial solutions up to 80% faster than legacy systems. The funding will support Stitch's expansion across MENA and East Africa, as it aims to simplify and accelerate how financial products are built and launched. Press release: Stitch, the unified platform for launching and scaling financial products, today announced the successful closing of a $10 million seed round. The Saudi Arabia headquartered company attracted investments from leading investors, including Arbor Ventures, COTU Ventures, Raed Ventures, and SVC. The round has also had participation from various family offices and industry veterans, including Marqeta's founder Jason Gardner and Abdulmalik AlSheikh, who previously led the establishment of critical payment networks such as mada and Sadad in the KSA. The funding will accelerate Stitch's growth to transform financial infrastructure in the region. The demand for integrated technology infrastructure for financial and non-financial institutions is accelerating both globally and across the Middle East. The global Banking & Financial Services Industry (BFSI) is projected to reach USD 221.39 billion by 2033, up from $91.42 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% during the forecast period. This surge is driven by the increasing demand for digital transformation across banking, financial services, and insurance sectors. In Saudi Arabia alone, banking sector assets have grown to $1.12 trillion (SAR 4.22 trillion), while digital payments grew by 75% between 2019 and 2021, and point-of-sale transactions reached $177.69 billion (SAR 667 billion) in FY 2024. Businesses in the Middle East, from banks and lenders to consumer brands and large enterprises, still face significant barriers to building modern financial products. Stitch is addressing this gap with a unified infrastructure platform built in the Middle East and designed to compete globally. Launched initially for clients in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Stitch is already attracting interest beyond the region and has secured clients in the Eastern African region, starting with Kenya. "At Stitch, our vision is to reinvent how financial and non-financial institutions bring banking and payment products to market," said Mohamed Oueida, Founder & CEO of Stitch. "Today, the process of building financial products is broken. Businesses are forced to navigate outdated legacy systems and complex regulatory frameworks, making things slow, expensive, and mostly painful. It doesn't have to be this way. Stitch exists to change this. Institutions should be able to focus on what matters and have a platform that can mould around their creativity. We are generally looking to make this process a lot more enjoyable for our partners." The first-of-its-kind business in the Middle East, Stitch's technology offers the simplest way for enterprises to build financial products, delivering an API-driven solution that eliminates the inefficiencies and complexities of legacy systems. Designed to meet the evolving needs of modern financial services, Stitch serves as the unified platform to launch and scale banking and payment products up to 80% faster. The $10 million raised will be used to expand Stitch's team and enhance its platform capabilities, further establishing the company as a trusted infrastructure partner for banks, fintech firms, and non-financial enterprises integrating financial services. Major clients such as Lulu Exchange, Alamoudi Exchange, Foodics, Dar Al Tamleek, Raya Financing and Tanmeya Capital are already leveraging Stitch's technology to launch tailored financial solutions across diverse sectors and regions. Nora Alsarhan, Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer at SVC, commented, 'Our investment in Stitch is driven by our commitment to supporting the growth of innovative Saudi-based startups, enabling them to compete both regionally and globally. We believe Stitch has the potential to play a significant role in developing a more capable and resilient financial ecosystem in the Middle East and around the world.' Khaled Lababidi, Partner, Arbor Ventures, commented, 'As emerging markets digitalise their financial services, we believe the next generation of technology infrastructure will come from places like Saudi Arabia and be led by founders who understand these regions. Stitch is a clear example of this shift, combining local expertise with global standards to support institutions across emerging markets. Their platform addresses long-standing infrastructure gaps by offering a simplified but compliant solution that's built for scale, speed and security.' Wael Nafee, General Partner, Raed Ventures, commented: 'For the first time, financial institutions in the region have a local infrastructure partner that was built from the ground up with their realities in mind, with the ability to compete anywhere in the world. Stitch isn't just creating an alternative to legacy systems; they're setting a new standard for how financial products should be built. Their focus on technical depth with global ambitions has set them apart from day one. This is not just the kind of company we want to back but is also indicative of the impact that Middle Eastern startups can have on the global tech ecosystem.' Founded in 2022, Stitch has attracted industry-leading talent from global organisations including FIS, Geidea, Rain Financial, NPCI India, Al Rajhi Bank and many others, with a commitment to driving long-term innovation in the banking and payments industry.
Glasgow Times
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Asda urgently recalls item over child safety concerns
The emergency warning relates to a kids' item, which features Disney characters and branding. The Office for Product Safety and Standards issued the recall for the George 'Stitch and Angel' 2-piece set available at ASDA. The PSD number is 2505-0161. See the recall here from Asda. The product description reads: "A light blue two-piece clothing set for children with Stitch and Angel designs." Lilo & Stitch 🌊 Have you watched the live action yet? 👀 — Tania 🍃 (@Tanisketch) May 27, 2025 It said: "The product has been identified as presenting a risk of injuries as the cord supplied with the shorts is too long. "A child could become tangled or trapped in the cord, leading to injury. The product does not meet the requirements of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. "The product has been recalled from end users. Consumers are advised to return the product to their nearest ASDA store for a full refund. For further information, please access ASDA's website at the following link." The barcodes (found on the inner care label of the garment) are 5059201121453, 5059201121477, 5059201121491, 5059201121811 5059201121835, 5059201121859, 5059201121873, 5059201121897. Recommended reading: Asda warned: "The George Stitch and Angel 2-piece set has been identified with a manufacturing issue on the cord length which on some garments may be too long and could pose a risk of injury. The top in this 2-piece set is unaffected. This issue affects ALL sizes. "If you have purchased the George Stitch and Angel 2-piece set from Asda, please bring it back to your nearest store where you will be given a full refund. You do not need your receipt. "We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. If you would like any further information, please contact: Asda Customer Relations – 0800 952 0101."
The Herald Scotland
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Asda urgently recalls item over child safety concerns
The Office for Product Safety and Standards issued the recall for the George 'Stitch and Angel' 2-piece set available at ASDA. The PSD number is 2505-0161. See the recall here from Asda. The product description reads: "A light blue two-piece clothing set for children with Stitch and Angel designs." Lilo & Stitch 🌊 Have you watched the live action yet? 👀 — Tania 🍃 (@Tanisketch) May 27, 2025 It said: "The product has been identified as presenting a risk of injuries as the cord supplied with the shorts is too long. "A child could become tangled or trapped in the cord, leading to injury. The product does not meet the requirements of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. "The product has been recalled from end users. Consumers are advised to return the product to their nearest ASDA store for a full refund. For further information, please access ASDA's website at the following link." The barcodes (found on the inner care label of the garment) are 5059201121453, 5059201121477, 5059201121491, 5059201121811 5059201121835, 5059201121859, 5059201121873, 5059201121897. Recommended reading: Asda warned: "The George Stitch and Angel 2-piece set has been identified with a manufacturing issue on the cord length which on some garments may be too long and could pose a risk of injury. The top in this 2-piece set is unaffected. This issue affects ALL sizes. "If you have purchased the George Stitch and Angel 2-piece set from Asda, please bring it back to your nearest store where you will be given a full refund. You do not need your receipt. "We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. If you would like any further information, please contact: Asda Customer Relations – 0800 952 0101."
New York Times
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Then and Now, It's a Thrill to Star Alongside Stitch
When Maia Kealoha learned that she was going to play Lilo in Disney's live-action remake of 'Lilo & Stitch,' she sobbed big, fat, happy tears. 'That might be the first time I was quiet in my whole entire life,' she said of the video call with the film's director, Dean Fleischer Camp, in 2023, when he asked her to be his Lilo. Kealoha, 8, is a big fan of the original animated film from 2002 about a destructive but adorable alien experiment named Stitch who crash-lands in Hawaii and befriends a young girl named Lilo. The film, which earned more than $273 million (or $484 million when adjusted for inflation) at the global box office, was one of the first Disney animated movies to be driven by a nonromantic story line. It also won praise for its strong female characters and nuanced depictions of Hawaii. 'I've seen it 1,000 times,' Kealoha, who was born and raised on Hawaii's Big Island, said in a recent video call. 'It's so good.' Stitch, unsurprisingly, is her favorite character. The rambunctious blue troublemaker also reminds her of someone she knows: Her 1-year-old brother, Micah Kealoha. 'I relate to Nani sometimes when I have to take the blame for my brother, or just protect him,' she said, referring to the adult older sister who becomes Lilo's legal guardian after their parents' deaths. 'And sometimes I have to teach him some lessons and how to be good.' The film was Kealoha's first time acting onscreen, but for several of her castmates, it was a return to a franchise that has come to encompass three direct-to-video sequels, three television series and a number of theme park rides, as well as oodles upon oodles of Stitch merch. Among them: Chris Sanders, a director and writer of the original animated film who created Stitch and has voiced him in almost every Disney production to date, and Tia Carrere, who played Nani originally and now returns as a social worker, Mrs. Kekoa, who checks up on Lilo. 'It's really gratifying to see the amount of excitement surrounding its release,' said Sanders, who recently directed 'The Wild Robot' (2024). 'The greatest hope was for him to be a character that endures. That's something you can't engineer — whether it happens or not is up to the zeitgeist. So the way it has connected is so exciting.' It's particularly poignant to Sanders that it is Stitch, of all the characters from his films, who has proved to have such a lasting presence. 'For him to be this massive in the Disney universe, I'm really proud of, because he's me,' he said of the lovable misfit and menace. 'It's not a big leap when I write him.' Carrere was, at 58, too old to play Nani in the live-action adaptation. But the role was a career highlight for her. 'It was so important for me to be able to represent Hawaii,' Carrere, who is from Honolulu, said on a recent video call. So she knew she had to be a part of the reboot in any way possible. She asked about portraying a new character — a supportive neighbor, Tutu, who becomes a surrogate grandmother to Nani and Lilo — but the filmmakers wanted someone a little older (the role eventually went to the 72-year-old Amy Hill, who voiced the kindly old fruit vendor, Mrs. Hasagawa, in the animated version). But they came back with a better offer: Would she like to play Mrs. Kekoa, the now friendly and helpful social worker who takes the place of the intimidating Cobra Bubbles character from the animated film? 'It was perfect, because instead of playing Nani, I'm playing Nani's mentor all these years later,' she said. Though she originally related to Nani, she now also feels for the social worker: In the live-action version, the character was re-envisioned, at Carrere's suggestion, to be a product of the system herself, more interested in helping Nani navigate it than in taking Lilo from her. 'Back then I was younger, I didn't have a kid — I was a little all over the place, a little more Nani-like,' said Carrere, who has younger sisters in addition to an adult daughter. 'Now it's interesting to have the parallel as a woman being more in that mentoring role with younger actresses that I work with.' In the new film, the back story for Nani (Sydney Agudong) has been expanded: Now, she is a former star student and athlete who had to put her dreams of becoming a marine biologist on hold to take care of Lilo. Agudong, 24, who is from Kauai, Hawaii, grew up a big fan of the original film, which she watched for the first time when she was a year old. She initially had a case of impostor syndrome, unsure how much to draw on Carrere's portrayal, and how much to put her own stamp on the character. A video call with Carrere shortly after she booked the role, she said, helped guide her. 'She said, 'You got the role because they saw something in you, and you trusted your instincts, so you need to trust that, and you need to have fun with it,' Agudong recalled, adding that Carrere reminded her that she, too, was a big sister (to the actress Siena Agudong) and hailed from Hawaii. ''You need to own that,'' Agudong said Carrere told her. The younger actress realized, 'She was right, and it gave me a lot of freedom in my artistic expression and in my own identity.' Nani's determination in the face of obstacles was relatable in the original, but in the new film, her personal sacrifices are an even greater point of emphasis. Agudong said she conceived of Nani as a young woman whose thoughts frequently get 'stuck in her throat.' She added, 'You could see that she was struggling and kicking her feet under the water like a swan, but then still trying to look as graceful as possible, because she has to stick a smile on her face to be able to keep her sister around.' In addition to a few new characters and the absence of the original big bad, the whale-like Stitch hunter Captain Gantu, there were other changes for the live-action movie. For one, how those who acted alongside the now-C.G.I.-generated Stitch worked. In live shots with the actors, the mischievous blue alien was represented by a tennis ball, a person in a gray suit or a lifelike Stitch puppet, Kealoha said. That must have been a bit of a challenging scene partner, right? 'It was actually easy to imagine that Stitch was there because everyone says I have an endless imagination,' Kealoha said, grinning. The new film also expanded on the original's nods to Hawaiian culture, which now include Nani's ukulele-playing skills and love of surfing. Agudong had surfed before, casually, but said she enjoyed the water training she was able to do with local big-wave surfers. 'They were also locals and so it felt like you were just going to the beach with family,' she said. 'It was a dream come true. I felt like I got my childhood back.' Over all, the actors said, they are proud of how the new film recalls the original while also very much charting its own course. 'It's a really nice way to share light and love and the sense of aloha and ohana that is Hawaii,' Agudong said, referring to the Hawaiian words conveying harmony and family. She added, 'I'm really excited for my community to be able to see themselves in that.' Carrere remembers how excited fans were to see a 'thick, brown Disney princess' when the original was released 23 years ago. Nani is 'sturdy, she's strong, she's a surfer, she's athletic, she's running in her boots and cutoff jean shorts and her T-shirt,' Carrere said. 'She's not a dainty, waifish person. I remember a lot of girls coming up and commenting on that because they felt that their body type was celebrated.' Kealoha said she hoped that a new generation of girls could also relate to her Lilo — and not just to feeling misunderstood. 'She's fearless. She's strong-minded. We both have big hearts. She loves her ohana very much, and she would do anything for her people — or aliens,' she said, laughing.
News18
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Lilo & Stitch Just Did the Impossible. It Took Down Mission Impossible At Box Office
Last Updated: Lilo & Stitch grossed a whopping $145.5 million domestically over the four-day weekend, whereas Mission: Impossible 8 earned only $77 million. The Memorial Day holiday weekend proved to be a lucrative one for the box office, with two of the highly anticipated Hollywood projects battling it out for the top spot. On one hand, the eighth and final instalment of Tom Cruise 's Mission: Impossible franchise, titled The Final Reckoning, was released in theatres on May 23. It clashed with Disney's live-action remake of its 2002 movie Lilo & Stitch. While both films broke records, it was Disney's Lilo & Stitch that ultimately stole the show, both in ticket sales and winning audiences' hearts. The family-friendly film, directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, is a live-action animated remake of the 2002 film by the same name. It grossed a whopping $145.5 million domestically over the four-day weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Lilo & Stitch's global earnings reached $341 million, easily making it one of the highest-grossing films in the first half of 2025. The live-action animated film follows the story of a Hawaiian girl named Lilo Pelekai, played by Maia Kealoha, and her troublemaking blue koala-like alien pet named Stitch, voiced by Chris Sanders. Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt one last time in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Although the spy action film marked a high point for the long-running franchise, the eighth MI film earned only $77 million in the four-day weekend, which is a bit more than half of the earnings of Lilo & Stitch. The film globally minted $204, which is $137 short of the Disney film's earnings. However, The Final Reckoning still set a new opening weekend record for the spy action movie franchise, which has been running since 1996. Paramount, the production company of Mission Impossible films, rolled out an ambitious global promotional campaign for the final film of the series. It included star-studded premieres in Tokyo, Seoul, Cannes, London and New York City, with Cruise himself present to meet and greet the attendees. Moreover, the 62-year-old actor also personally greeted the moviegoers in Texas to create hype regarding the film. MI 8 is set to release in China next, offering the potential for an increase in earnings. But it turned out that Disney's strategy paid off more in making the Lilo & Stitch a success. The Stitch brand has grown into a retail powerhouse, with the company even reporting a staggering $2.6 billion in merchandise sales in the last financial year, which is an unprecedented increase from $200 million just five years back. Moreover, the film's runtime of 1 hour and 48 minutes, compared to The Final Reckoning's 2 hours and 50 minutes, has also proved to be advantageous for it, allowing for more shows per day. First Published:
