Who finances AI, and at what stage
16 investors on one ladder, from pre-seed funds to sovereign capital. Pick a step to see who invests there.
- Pre-seed2 investorsIncluding COTU Ventures, BECO Capital.
- Seed9 investors+6Including Global Ventures, Shorooq Partners, Wamda Capital.
- Series A11 investors+8Including STV, e& capital, Prosperity7 Ventures.
- Series B+9 investors+6Including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures.
- Growth14 investors+11Including MGX, Mubadala Investment Company, Public Investment Fund (PIF).
- Late-stage / Strategic4 investors+1Including SoftBank Vision Fund, MGX, Mubadala Investment Company.
Each bar is a kind of capital, drawn across the stages it invests at.
The investors
Each one is checked against a public source. None is ranked.
16 investors
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
One of the largest and most AI-concentrated venture firms in the world, founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. a16z runs sector-specific funds spanning applications, infrastructure and bio, and has been among the largest outside investors in the current generation of frontier AI labs - relevant to any UAE company benchmarking against, or eventually raising alongside, Silicon Valley capital.
Venture capital
Menlo Park, California, USA
Invests at: Seed to Growth
Invests in: Global
BECO Capital
One of the longest-running technology VC firms in the Gulf, investing from pre-seed through growth with a hands-on, founder-first approach. Sector-agnostic with a recurring emphasis on fintech, SaaS, logistics and, increasingly, AI - the firm's track record includes early positions in Careem (acquired by Uber) and Swvl (a SPAC IPO).
Venture capital
Dubai, UAE
Invests at: Pre-seed to Growth
Invests in: UAE, Saudi Arabia, MENA
MGX
An Abu Dhabi investment firm built specifically for AI, formed as a joint venture between Mubadala and AI and cloud company G42, and chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In its first eighteen months it went from launch to co-leading some of the largest private funding rounds ever recorded, and in July 2026 closed the biggest dedicated AI fund raised to date.
Government fund
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Invests at: Growth, Late stage
Invests in: UAE, Global
Mubadala Investment Company
Abu Dhabi's sovereign investment company, formed in 2017 from the merger of Mubadala Development Company and IPIC. It has built one of the largest direct and indirect exposures to frontier AI of any sovereign investor worldwide - both as a direct backer of leading AI labs and as the anchor partner behind MGX, the dedicated Abu Dhabi AI fund it co-created.
Government fund
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Invests at: Growth, Late stage
Invests in: UAE, Global
Public Investment Fund (PIF)
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and the financial engine of Vision 2030. Since 2025, PIF has stood up HUMAIN, a wholly owned national AI company mandated to build the full stack - data centres, cloud, models and applications - and continued to grow Alat, its AI-hardware and semiconductor manufacturing arm, alongside its long-standing role as an anchor LP in SoftBank's Vision Fund.
Government fund
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Invests at: Growth, Late stage
Invests in: Saudi Arabia, Global
STV
The largest technology-focused VC firm headquartered in the Middle East by assets under management, investing from Series A through growth. STV runs a dedicated $100M AI fund backed by Google to back AI-native startups across MENA, on top of its generalist technology fund.
Venture capital
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Invests at: Series A to Growth
Invests in: Saudi Arabia, MENA
COTU Ventures
A Dubai-based pre-seed and seed specialist - the name stands for "Champions of the Underdog" - built to back founders at the stage Gulf VC has historically underserved. Its $54M debut fund, closed in 2024, writes $500K-$2M checks with reserved follow-on capital across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan.
Venture capital
Dubai, UAE
Invests at: Pre-seed, Seed
Invests in: UAE, Saudi Arabia, MENA
e& capital
The corporate venture arm of e& (formerly Etisalat), the UAE telecom and technology group majority-owned by the Emirates Investment Authority. It invests from the group's own balance sheet into enterprise software, AI/ML, fintech and cybersecurity, with e&'s regional network across the Middle East, Africa and Asia as the strategic asset behind the financial return.
Corporate VC
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Invests at: Series A to Growth
Invests in: UAE, Global
General Catalyst
A global venture firm led by CEO Hemant Taneja, investing from seed through growth with a particular emphasis on AI applied to healthcare, defense and enterprise software - sectors where the firm argues AI changes the underlying economics of the business, not just the interface.
Venture capital
San Francisco, California, USA
Invests at: Seed to Growth
Invests in: Global
Global Ventures
A Dubai-based firm investing in emerging-market founders across six sector pillars - fintech, digital health, edtech, agritech/foodtech, supply chain and mobility - layered with AI/ML and enterprise-software theses across each. It writes seed-through-growth cheques and positions itself as a bridge between regional companies and international capital.
Venture capital
Dubai, UAE
Invests at: Seed, Series A, Growth
Invests in: MENA, Global
Khosla Ventures
Founded by Vinod Khosla, a firm built specifically to fund high-risk, high-reward frontier technology bets - a mandate that made it one of OpenAI's earliest institutional backers, years before generative AI became a mainstream venture category.
Venture capital
Menlo Park, California, USA
Invests at: Seed to Growth
Invests in: Global
Prosperity7 Ventures
The diversified venture arm of Aramco Ventures, the investing subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Prosperity7 writes early-through-growth cheques into enterprise tech, deep tech and AI, with a fund that grew from $1B to $3B in January 2024 - sized to take meaningful positions in category leaders rather than spray small checks across a portfolio.
Corporate VC
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Invests at: Series A to Growth
Invests in: Saudi Arabia, Global
Sequoia Capital
A founding institution of Silicon Valley venture capital, investing from seed through growth across enterprise software, fintech and consumer technology, with a long-running and widely reported position in frontier AI through its early backing of OpenAI.
Venture capital
Menlo Park, California, USA
Invests at: Seed to Growth
Invests in: Global
Shorooq Partners
A multi-city Gulf VC firm that has grown assets under management from $2M at inception to roughly $500M, investing seed through growth across fintech, healthtech and logistics. In 2026 it launched a $100M AI innovation fund with Abu Dhabi AI company Presight, dedicated specifically to AI-focused startups.
Venture capital
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Invests at: Seed, Series A, Growth
Invests in: UAE, Saudi Arabia, MENA
SoftBank Vision Fund
SoftBank Group's vehicle for very large, very late technology bets, launched in 2017 with $100B in committed capital - anchored by Saudi Arabia's PIF and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala as founding limited partners alongside SoftBank itself. It is included here for the same reason it is relevant to any UAE company raising a large round: two of the region's own sovereign funds are structurally inside it.
Strategic investor
Tokyo, Japan
Invests at: Growth, Late stage
Invests in: Global
Wamda Capital
Founded by Fadi Ghandour, the entrepreneur behind logistics group Aramex, Wamda Capital was among the first institutional VC firms built specifically for the MENA region. It runs a growth-stage fund (Series A and above) alongside an evergreen vehicle for seed-through-Series-A technology companies, with a portfolio of over 100 investments.
Venture capital
Dubai, UAE
Invests at: Seed to Series B+
Invests in: UAE, MENA
Where to start
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), BECO Capital, MGX, Mubadala Investment Company, Public Investment Fund (PIF) and STV.
Not covered yet
Private equity, family offices and angel investors. Their deals are rarely disclosed by name, so we list none rather than guess. Know one? Tell us.
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