Samer Choucair: Middle East Venture Capital Enters a Phase Where Returns Are Being Put to the Test
Investment leader Samer Choucair said the venture capital market in the Middle East and North Africa is entering a new phase that goes beyond focusing on the size of funding rounds and company growth rates, placing greater emphasis on the ability to generate actual returns and build companies capable of converting invested capital into productivity, cash flows, and realizable value.
Samer Choucair explained that the MENA startup market saw a wave of deals during the week of August 3–7 that revealed an important shift in how capital is being allocated. Around $259 million flowed into companies combining technology with operational infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and healthcare, while additional indicators suggest that the regional capital cycle is increasingly being measured by investors’ ability to recover their capital and generate actual returns—not simply by the size of funding rounds.
Choucair noted that the Moove deal was at the forefront of these developments after the company closed a $250 million Series C round at a $2.1 billion valuation, led by Mubadala Investment Company with participation from Woven Capital and Ion Pacific. In Dubai, Longevium raised $7 million to develop an AI and longevity research laboratory, while Riyadh-based Rime closed a seed round of more than $2 million to develop Physical AI solutions operating directly within real-world environments.
Samer Choucair said these developments paint a more complex picture than simply a strong week for startups. Institutional capital in the region has become more selective, favoring companies with scalable operating infrastructure, real revenues, and clear exposure to long-term economic transformations such as AI, automation, tourism, healthcare, and the digital economy.
Choucair added that venture capital is redefining the concept of growth, particularly as the global venture market enters a more disciplined phase compared with the era of low interest rates that preceded 2022. This tightening has not brought financing in the Middle East to a halt, but it has pushed investors to focus more heavily on asset quality, companies’ ability to reach profitability, and the existence of clear exit pathways.
Samer Choucair said the difference is fundamental from a capital-allocation perspective. Previously, the central question was, “How fast can the company grow?” Today, the question is more demanding: “How much capital is required to achieve each unit of growth, and when can that growth be converted into cash flow or an exit?”
Choucair noted that institutional investors do not treat the size of a funding round as an independent indicator of company quality. Instead, they focus on the relationship between invested capital, asset intensity, speed of expansion, revenue quality, and the ability to create realizable value.
Moove: From Vehicle Financing to Autonomous Mobility Infrastructure
Choucair explained that the Moove transaction is one of the clearest examples of the changing nature of the capital attracting major investors. The company, founded in Nigeria in 2020 and now headquartered in the UAE, raised $250 million in its Series C at a $2.1 billion valuation.
He said the significance of the deal lies not simply in the amount raised, but in Moove’s transition from a company focused on financing vehicles for mobility-service operators into an operational infrastructure platform for autonomous vehicles. This includes fleet ownership, charging, maintenance, operations management, and specialized facilities known as “Nests.”
Choucair explained that this transition partly accounts for the participation of institutional investors such as Mubadala and Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth investment arm. Investors are not merely betting on growth in transportation demand; they are investing in the infrastructure layer that autonomous vehicles will require to operate commercially at scale.
He said this represents a broader lesson in technology investing: economic value does not always accrue to the application or software model itself. During major technological transformations, a larger share of the economics can shift toward companies that own the assets, operations, and capabilities that make the technology scalable in the real world.
Choucair added that this distinction is particularly important for institutional investors. Artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles may appear to be technology themes, but investment returns may emerge in more traditional sectors, including infrastructure, energy, data centers, maintenance, logistics, insurance, and finance.
Rime and the Rise of Operational AI
Regarding Rime’s Riyadh round, Samer Choucair said the funding of more than $2 million reflects a different but related shift.
He explained that Rime’s significance goes beyond the size of its funding. The company is betting on transforming infrastructure that already exists inside businesses into an operational intelligence layer. Cameras previously used for security or monitoring can become sources of operational decision-making, potentially reducing the need for major capital investment in physical infrastructure.
Choucair noted that this concept aligns directly with Saudi Arabia’s AI priorities. The Saudi government designated 2026 as the Year of AI as part of a strategy aimed at strengthening data infrastructure, national capabilities, and investment in advanced technologies.
He added that HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund-backed company, is building an integrated ecosystem encompassing data centers, cloud infrastructure, models, and applications. This reflects the transition of AI in Saudi Arabia from a standalone technology sector into a component of economic and industrial policy.
Samer Choucair said one of the most important investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia lies in companies capable of connecting AI with real-world sectors such as retail, financial services, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. Such companies may have clearer revenue pathways than businesses selling generic tools without a direct connection to defined operating budgets.
Longevium and the Next Layer of Digital-Economy Capital
In Dubai, Choucair said Longevium’s $7 million round adds another sector to the map of emerging capital.
The company, which operates a network of clinics in Dubai, has begun developing a research and development laboratory at Dubai Science Park, scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Choucair explained that investment in this field also carries higher scientific and regulatory risks. Future value will not be measured solely by patient numbers or product-development speed, but by companies’ ability to demonstrate clinical efficacy, protect data, navigate regulatory frameworks, and turn scientific research into scalable revenue-generating products.
He added that this illustrates another shift in the Gulf digital economy: capital is moving beyond traditional consumer applications toward sectors requiring a combination of technology, infrastructure, scientific research, and regulation.
BirdNest and the Importance of Liquidity
Choucair said the Moove, Longevium, and Rime funding rounds demonstrate continued appetite for growth, but the BirdNest transaction provides an indicator of something even more important to institutional investors: the ability to generate liquidity.
He noted that BirdNest reported dollar-denominated revenue growth of more than tenfold during the investment period, alongside reaching profitability.
Choucair said this is particularly important for investors in emerging markets. Growth measured in local currency does not necessarily protect foreign-investor returns against exchange-rate risk. Dollar-denominated revenue growth combined with profitability provides greater protection for returns and increases a company’s ability to attract additional capital.
He added that the true value of the BirdNest transaction lies not in the 3.5x multiple alone, but in the combination of growth, profitability, and partial liquidity. A partial exit allows an investor to return part of its capital to its partners while retaining exposure to the company’s future upside—a structure that could become increasingly important in markets where exit options remain limited.
Saudi Arabia and the Changing Gulf Venture Capital Landscape
Choucair noted that the development of Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem has become part of a broader transformation in the structure of the economy. According to Vision 2030 data, venture capital investment in Saudi Arabia increased 25-fold between 2018 and 2025.
Startup financing has also become part of a broader ecosystem encompassing investment funds, SME financing programs, and institutional infrastructure supporting innovation.
He said this means competition among Gulf startup hubs is no longer simply about which market has the largest number of funding rounds. Competition is increasingly about the quality of the ecosystem itself, including capital availability, investor depth, talent attraction, scalability, the regulatory environment, the presence of major corporate buyers, and access to regional markets.
Choucair explained that Saudi Arabia has a clear advantage in some of these areas, particularly where private capital intersects with government spending and sovereign investment in AI, digital infrastructure, manufacturing, and tourism.
The UAE, meanwhile, retains a strong advantage in attracting international companies and cross-border capital, as demonstrated by companies founded in emerging markets relocating to Dubai or Abu Dhabi and then using the Gulf as a platform for global expansion.
Samer Choucair said Mubadala’s investment in Moove, together with the broader role of the Public Investment Fund and HUMAIN in AI, reveals a change in the function of Gulf sovereign capital.
Its role is no longer limited to owning stakes in listed companies or financing traditional infrastructure projects. It has increasingly become part of the process of building new industries, particularly in areas requiring substantial capital and long time horizons before returns can be realized.
From Artificial Intelligence to the Real Economy
Choucair emphasized that the common thread connecting Moove, Rime, and Longevium is not AI itself, but the use of AI to improve existing assets and operations.
In Moove, AI is connected to transportation, fleets, and infrastructure. In Rime, it is connected to cameras, sensors, and operations inside branches. In Longevium, it is connected to clinical data and medical research.
“This is the stage at which AI can transition from an investment theme into a productivity engine,” Choucair said.
He noted that this transformation is particularly important for Gulf economies because economic value does not come only from creating new technology companies. It also comes from increasing the productivity of established sectors such as tourism, financial services, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
Choucair added that this also explains why companies combining software and infrastructure have become more attractive to institutional investors. The competitive moat is not always the software model itself; it can lie in data, contracts, operating infrastructure, customer integration, and the ability to deploy a solution across thousands of locations.
Samer Choucair concluded that the next phase appears increasingly favorable to investors capable of distinguishing between capital-supported growth and growth that creates genuine economic value.
He explained that good capital does not necessarily seek the highest growth rate. Instead, it seeks the best relationship between growth, risk, funding requirements, and the ability to ultimately generate a return.
This equation becomes even more important as the cost of capital rises and investors become less willing to finance years of losses in the hope of reaching a massive market in the future.
From this perspective, regional opportunities can be divided into three layers:
1. Companies building the infrastructure of the digital economy.
2. Companies using AI to increase the productivity of traditional sectors.
3. Companies with business models capable of scaling across borders.
Choucair said this could direct a greater share of institutional investment toward applied AI, digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, financial services, logistics, tourism, HealthTech, and PropTech, rather than focusing exclusively on consumer applications.