Venture Builder Disrupt.com to Invest $100M to Fuel the NextGen AI Startups from the UAE

Disrupt.com, a UAE-based venture builder firm, has announced a $100 million commitment to create and support AI-first technology ventures worldwide.

Founded by Aaqib Gadit, Uzair Gadit, and Umair Gadit – three university friends who grew up in the same household – Disrupt.com is the result of their reinvestment following their successful exit in 2022 of cloud hosting platform Cloudways to US-listed Digital Ocean Holdings. The $350 million acquisition remains the largest exit in Pakistan’s tech sector to date. Now, the founders are channeling both their entrepreneurial expertise and capital back into the ecosystem through a unique venture-building approach from their UAE headquarters.

Having already invested over $40 million across their portfolio, which includes four growth-stage companies, seven early-stage investments, this new fund commitment marks a significant expansion in their venture-building activities. Disrupt.com’s dedicated team of over 650 professionals offers not just capital, but also the technical and operational expertise startups need to scale.

“Now is the time to double down on our experience, financial investment, and commitment required to help build the next wave of startups that will shape the future," said Aaqib Gadit, founding partner. "With Web 3.0 in its infancy and AI rapidly advancing, there is a unique opportunity to solve problems and create businesses that will meet the evolving needs of how people live and work. Our region is not just capable of keeping up; it has the potential to lead the way.”

Disrupt.com sets itself apart from traditional venture capital firms by taking a three-pronged approach: building startups from scratch, co-building ventures with external founders, and making strategic investments in early-stage startups and VC funds. Their unique "CoBuild" model allows them to act as fractional co-founders, providing essential engineering, go-to-market, and operational teams to help startups scale in a capital-efficient manner.

The firm’s $100 million commitment targets five strategic sectors: artificial intelligence as a cross-cutting theme, cybersecurity, Web3.0, automotive technology, and retail innovation. Disrupt.com primarily focuses on pre-seed to Series A stage startups with strong organic growth potential and clear paths to profitability, prioritizing sustainability over growth at all costs.

This announcement comes as funding in the MENA region has declined significantly, with venture capital investment in MENA down 29% to just under $2 billion in 2024, according to Magnitt. Saudi startups experienced a 44% funding drop to $750 million, while UAE funding decreased 8% to $613 million, presenting a challenging environment for early-stage ventures.

Disrupt.com’s current portfolio showcases the effectiveness of their model, including ZigChain, a Web3.0 platform that has scaled to over 500,000 users and manages hundreds of millions in assets; PureSquare, a cybersecurity venture; and Squatwolf, a UAE-based fitness apparel brand. The firm has also invested strategically in several AI-focused startups, including the organizational transformation platform Agentnoon and the climate action scaling tool Ahya.

"They've helped us scale from a few early adopters to managing hundreds of millions in assets and launching our own blockchain,” commented Bartolome R. Bordallo, Co-Founder and CEO of ZigChain. “With Disrupt, you get founder-friendly partners because they’re founders themselves,” added Anam Khalid and Wajdan Gul, Co-founders of Squatwolf.

Looking ahead, Disrupt.com plans to direct its fund toward ventures that demonstrate strong product-market fit, well-researched idea-market alignment, and robust unit economics that point toward long-term profitability.