Venture builder Disrupt.com to invest $100m to fuel AI-first startups from the UAE

The firm’s $100 million commitment targets five strategic sectors: artificial intelligence as a cross-cutting theme, plus cybersecurity, Web 3.0, automotive technology, and retail innovation.

The company said it primarily targets pre-seed to Series A stage startups that demonstrate strong organic growth potential and clear paths to profitability.

The announcement comes as regional funding has declined sharply, with MENA venture capital investment down 29 per cent to just under $2 billion in 2024, according to Magnitt.

Global AI venture funding

Disrupt.com said its current portfolio showcases its model’s effectiveness, including ZigChain, a Web3.0 platform that has scaled to over 500,000 users and hundreds of millions in managed assets; PureSquare, a cybersecurity venture; and UAE-homegrown fitness apparel brand Squatwolf.

The firm has already deployed capital as a strategic investor in several AI-focused startups including organizational transformation platform Agentnoon and climate action scaling tool Ahya.

Founded by Aaqib Gadit, Uzair Gadit, and Umair Gadit – three Pakistani university friends who grew up in the same household – Disrupt.com represents the founders’ reinvestment of capital following their successful 2022 exit of cloud hosting platform Cloudways to US-listed Digital Ocean Holdings.

The founders are now channelling their entrepreneurial expertise and capital back into the ecosystem through a unique venture-building approach from their UAE headquarters.

“Now is the time to be doubling down on our experience, financial investment and commitment required to help build the next wave of startups that will shape the future of the world as we know it,” said Aaqib Gadit, founding partner of Disrupt.com.

“With Web 3.0 in its infancy and AI storming into our lives, the opportunity to problem solve and create businesses that will fit the needs of how people live and work is up for the taking,” he said.