Indian VCs, startups heading out to ride UAE's big tech wave
Stellaris Venture Partners and Blume Ventures have raised funds from the Middle East, while VC firms like Ideaspring Capital and Java Capital are exploring the region for potential investment opportunities.
An Indian early-stage venture fund, 100Unicorns, made its first international expansion to Abu Dhabi in December 2024 after a $200 million fund raise. Cricketer Shikhar Dawan's VC arm Yashaa Global Capital is set up in Abu Dhabi and is looking to raise $75 million.
Startups are also exploring the Middle East as a region for expansion and funding. Companies that have moved to the region include Nykaa, which has subsidiaries in the UAE, and fintech startup InCred that acquired Dubai-based Arrow Capital, according to reports. As per data from Venture Intelligence, Indian startups received $200 million in funding from middle-eastern investors in 2024.Blume Ventures partner Ashish Fafadia said apart from becoming investors in funds, UAE investors are looking to make direct investments in VC firm's portfolio companies as well.
Middle East advantageMore family offices, wealthy individuals and sovereign funds from the region are looking to expand beyond traditional businesses like oil and natural resources, offering opportunities for Indian fund houses and startups, said Sanjay Nath, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures.'This is being driven by increasing awareness and interest in startups, as they seek to take part in the technology shift the industry is witnessing,' he said.There is a trend of family offices in the UK and Switzerland wanting to move to Dubai, which might help ease capital raising from the region, said Naganand Doraswamy, managing partner, Ideaspring Capital.Vinod Shankar, cofounder and partner at Java Capital, said: 'We are seeing growing interest from the region and are currently in conversations with several HNIs and family offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for potential investment opportunities.'Gaming and digital entertainment company JetSynthesys is witnessing a huge opportunity in engaging with the youth in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, which is a large consumption market in the areas of eSports and video gaming, CEO Rajan Navani said. The Middle East is a fast-growing high revenue market and a base for global operations as more overseas businesses set up in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where Indian companies can work with them together, he said.
In October last year, Jetapult, a gaming investment startup backed by JetSynthesys and VC firms Accel and Fireside Ventures, invested $4.5 million in Saudi Arabia-based game developer UMX Studio. "Since the pandemic, the world has started to converge in the UAE and because of the trade free zones, which are governed by global laws, lots of international companies have moved there. We are also setting up a base in Abu Dhabi," Navani said.
Attracting startups
By creating institutions such as the Dubai International Finance Centre and incentives such as golden visa, an easy tax regime and massive AI infrastructure, the region is attracting Indian startups working in deeptech, financial services and AI/crypto. According to an earlier ET report, Indian startups account for about 30% of Dubai's tech startup community. 'Despite being a smaller market they have more access to compute than India on a per capita basis, because essentially it is a function of money,' said a Gurugram-based AI investor. 'If I can commit to you that I am going to have these many GPUs, and you are a compute-heavy company, you are more likely to be based in Dubai than in any part of India or even other regions for that matter,' he added.Dubai is trying to attract entrepreneurs by offering golden visas, which allows the entrepreneur and his or her family to move into the UAE, said Ashitha Bhagwan, managing partner at Inventus Law Technology Partners.Her law firm has worked with several startups that wanted to move to Dubai.But these are not without challenges.Ideaspring's Naganand said unless you know someone, raising money from the UAE is still hard.It is not easy running a business in the UAE if it does not contribute to the local economy.Bhagwan said one of the founders who moved to Dubai returned to India and emigrated to the US, as he was working on a global product. 'It only works if you are building for the Middle East market and it is much more challenging if the focus is a global product with customers outside the region,' Bhagwan said. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. As RBI retains GDP forecast, 4 factors that will test the strength of Indian economy
Is Shadowfax closing in on its closest rival?
Can Coforge's ambition to lead the IT Industry become a reality?
Berlin to Bharuch: The Borosil journey after the China hit in Europe
Stock Radar: Syngene International showing signs of momentum after falling 26% from highs; what should investors do?
Two Trades for Today: A life insurance major for a 4.85% upmove, a mid-cap diesel engine maker for almost 7% rise
Multibagger or IBC - Part 18: This auto ancillary started with wheels. It now also powers wind & war
Auto stocks: Yes, headwinds in the short term, but will structural change become tailwinds and prove analysts wrong?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
28 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Mark August 12, when the market might speak loud and clear, says Harshubh Shah
The Indian market closed lower for the sixth straight week, with the Nifty50 falling 0.8% as FIIs remained net sellers. Precision timing predictions accurately forecasted key intraday swings. August 12 is a crucial date to watch for potential trend shifts. Traders are advised to use identified support, resistance, and time clusters to navigate volatile markets in the coming week. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Our time clusters worked with remarkable precision: Monday: Tuesday: Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Important Date for Next Week Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Key Levels to Watch (Nifty) Intraday Time Clusters (High-Probability Zones) Trading Outlook (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of .) The Indian market closed lower for the sixth consecutive week. The Nifty50 fell by 0.8% for the week ended 8th August continued to be net sellers, offloading Rs 15,951.68 crore as of 8th August our previous outlook, we mentioned that August 8 could witness significant moves — and it played out exactly. On August 8, the Nifty dropped sharply by 232 points, confirming our forecast. We also highlighted August 7 as a volatile day, and the index showed sharp intraday swings, validating our timing-based given – 9:20 AM; day low formed around 9:45 AM.10:10 AM → swing low formed exactly at 10:10 AM.2:35 PM → day low near 2:45 PM.9:20 AM → day high around 9:20 AM.10:20 AM → swing low at 10:30 AM.12:15 PM → swing high formed exactly.2:10 PM → day low around 2:30 PM.9:15 AM → swing high at 9:30 AM.11:15 AM → swing low around 11:00 AM.9:20 AM → exact high at 9:20 AM.10:20 AM → swing low around 10:45 AM.1:25 PM → swing high at 1:00 early predictions hopefully helped many navigate the volatility with 12 stands out as a crucial date. Expect a big move around this date ±1 day. Stay alert — momentum may surprise both bulls and zones: 24,331 /24,143/23,875/23,320 /22,868Resistance zones: 24,380 /24,450/24,540 /24,650 /24,808 /24,850These levels may act as critical decision points — monitor price behaviour closely for potential reversals or breakouts.- Monday, August 11: 9:20 AM, 10:45 AM, 12:25 PM, 2:50 PM- Tuesday, August 12: 11:00 AM, 1:30 PM- Wednesday, August 13: 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM- Thursday, August 14: 9:20 AM, 10:20 AM, 1:55 PMTraders may see increased momentum or reversals around these slots. Time your intraday trades cautious yet opportunistic this week with only four trading sessions. Focus on August 12 ±1 day for possible trend shifts. Use the time zones to plan precise entries and exits, especially in volatile conditions.
Mint
28 minutes ago
- Mint
Why Big Tech is focusing on Indian languages
On Thursday, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman unveiled GPT-5 with native support for 12 Indian languages. Last year, Google expanded its AI model Gemini's native support for nine Indian languages. With artificial intelligence startups Anthropic and Perplexity also focusing on Indian languages, regional-language internet is fast emerging as a huge AI battleground. Mint explains why. Why are languages important for AI firms? Foundational AI models are trained on massive troves of data and produce responses in plain text. To do this, AI firms rely on publicly available information to train their models, and most information on the internet is in English. As a result, the world's top AI models are all natively based on data that's available in English. This leads to various biases in the way AI models understand user queries, which makes wider language access a fundamental necessity for AI companies. Why are Indian languages important for AI firms? Hindi, as per global language repository Ethnologue, is the world's third-most spoken language, after English and Mandarin. Cumulatively, 10 Indian languages are spoken by 1.7 billion people, or 21% of the world's population—ahead of English (with 1.5 billion speakers), and varying versions of Chinese (1.4 billion). This makes India the world's single-largest region for tech companies to tap into. Beyond the numbers, experts underline that each language has its own nuance, regional dialects, biases, and complications. Indian languages, owing to their scale, are crucial resources for AI models that cater to the world. Are all global firms targeting India? Yes. Last week, Sam Altman said OpenAI's latest model, GPT-5, natively supports 12 Indian languages. Last year, Google announced native support for nine Indian languages. Meta, too, said last year that its Llama family of AI models would support eight Indian languages. Anthropic's Claude supports Hindi and Bangla. Perplexity, another prominent Silicon Valley startup, supports inputs and outputs in Hindi. How important is India in terms of business potential? This is difficult to assess. India is one of the world's largest user bases for any AI firm. However, diverse consumer behaviour makes it difficult to monetize this market. As a result, India's contribution to the net revenue of global tech firms has only ranged between 1% and 4%. AI-first companies, however, are of the opinion that they can incrementally add to the way global companies have generated revenue from India, as most AI tools and platforms need enterprise-grade subscriptions to leverage AI. With a vast base of users, most tech firms expect India to become a major monetization hub. Can AI see the replication of India's DPI push? India, through the government's backing, is keen to build foundational models trained natively on Indian languages. Startups and industry veterans state that in the long run, an AI model trained on most Indian languages can be used as a template for other non-English AI models around the world. This, in the long run, could be akin to India's push to offer digital public infrastructure (DPI) to the world—which it did in digital payments via the unified payments interface (UPI). While other nations are also building their own sovereign AI models, India believes it can gain soft power by offering AI models to the global south.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
28 minutes ago
- Business Standard
JM Financial unit to sell 2.1% stake in JMFHLL to Bajaj Allianz Life
JM Financial Credit Solutions Ltd (JMFCSL), a wholly owned arm of JM Financial Ltd, has announced plans to divest a 2.1 per cent stake in JM Financial Home Loans Ltd (JMFHLL) to Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd for a consideration of ₹65.50 crore. Under an investment agreement signed on August 9, 2025, JMFCSL will offload 1,364,600 equity shares in JMFHLL at ₹48 per share, announced JM Financial through an exchange filing. The deal is scheduled for completion by August 31, 2025, during the second quarter (Q2) of the ongoing financial year. Post-transaction, JMFCSL's ownership in JMFHLL will reduce to 6.88 per cent from 8.98 per cent. Meanwhile, JM Financial's overall stake in the housing finance subsidiary, held through its various subsidiaries, will decline from 98.76 per cent to 96.66 per cent. In FY25, ending March 31, 2025, JMFHLL reported a total revenue of ₹368.45 crore, contributing 8.27 per cent to JM Financial's consolidated income. The company's net worth as of the same date stood at ₹797.43 crore, representing 8.24 per cent of the group's consolidated net worth. In the exchange filing, JM Financial noted that the divestment aligns with its strategic objectives and adheres to market regulator Sebi's norms. Allianz SE Stake Sale of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company In March this year, Allianz SE entered into binding share purchase agreements with Bajaj Finserv Ltd to divest its entire 26 per cent stake in its Indian insurance joint ventures, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd (BALIC) and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Ltd (BAGIC). The total consideration agreed upon was approximately ₹24,180 crore, with ₹10,400 crore allotted for the life insurance arm and ₹13,780 crore for the general insurance division.
