du Launches USD 50 Million Ventures Fund to Back AI, Fintech and Cybersecurity Startups Across MENA
UAE-based CNTXT AI has acquired Actualize, a GCC-focused startup building dialect-aware Arabic voice agents capable of completing transactions and workflow actions. The deal targets a GCC conversational AI market projected to reach USD 2.5 billion by 2034.
du Launches USD 50 Million Corporate Venture Fund in Partnership with Shorooq
UAE telecom and digital services provider du has launched du Ventures, a USD 50 million corporate venture capital fund developed in partnership with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Shorooq, targeting high-growth technology startups across the UAE and wider MENA region.
The fund will invest across eight technology categories: artificial intelligence, fintech, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, loyalty solutions, gaming, enterprise software, and customer experience technologies. Shorooq will manage the fund and oversee portfolio strategy, with a significant share of capital earmarked specifically for UAE-based ventures.
"du Ventures represents our commitment to driving meaningful digital transformation while contributing to the UAE's ambitions to build a globally competitive digital economy," said Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du. "Through this platform, we are investing in technologies and founders that align closely with our strategic priorities."
Capital Plus Infrastructure: A Different Proposition
What separates du Ventures from a conventional corporate venture fund is the operational layer it offers alongside capital. Portfolio companies will gain direct access to du's 5G infrastructure, enterprise customer base, and regional market reach—resources that most standalone VC funds cannot provide. For UAE-based AI and tech startups, this means a potential route from pilot to commercial deployment at telco scale, without the typical time and cost of building enterprise distribution from scratch.
Mahmoud Adi, Founding Partner at Shorooq, described the logic clearly: "We share a common belief that the region's most promising startups deserve access to both capital and the strategic infrastructure that du can offer. du Ventures will enable us to bridge the gap between innovation and scale, empowering founders to bring transformative solutions to market faster."
Shorooq, licensed as a full fund manager in Abu Dhabi Global Market, operates across venture capital, credit, private equity, and real assets, with on-the-ground presence across MENA and Asia. The firm's prior collaboration with regional institutional partners includes the Presight-Shorooq Fund I, a USD 100 million global AI innovation fund launched in September 2025 with Abu Dhabi-listed AI and big data analytics company Presight. That fund offered portfolio companies access to Presight's GPU compute resources, secure data environments, and international distribution channels—a model that du Ventures replicates at telco scale.
AI Investment as a Strategic Priority for Gulf Telcos
du Ventures arrives as Gulf telecoms operators increasingly reposition themselves as AI infrastructure providers rather than traditional connectivity businesses. The fund's inclusion of AI as a primary investment category reflects du's own trajectory: the company has already launched GPU-as-a-service offerings, an AI Park targeting 1 gigawatt of capacity, and a sovereign cloud partnership with Dubai Taxi. Investing in AI startups that can be deployed across du's enterprise customer base is a natural extension of that infrastructure strategy.
The launch also fits a broader pattern in the UAE venture capital market, where corporate-backed funds are becoming a significant source of early-stage capital. The MENA AI startup ecosystem has seen accelerating investment across 2025 and 2026, with sovereign-aligned and corporate-backed vehicles increasingly competing with traditional VC for deals in enterprise AI, Arabic language AI, and sovereign cloud infrastructure.
For AI founders building in the region, the combination of Shorooq's investment network and du's operational infrastructure positions du Ventures as a strategically differentiated option, particularly for startups targeting regulated enterprise or government customers where telco distribution and infrastructure access shorten the path to production deployment. Whether the fund deploys at pace will depend on deal flow quality and Shorooq's ability to source founders whose technology genuinely integrates with du's roadmap, but the structural logic is sound.
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