logo
Markopolo.ai raises USD 2 million Seed round led by Joa Capital to scale in Saudi Arabia

Markopolo.ai raises USD 2 million Seed round led by Joa Capital to scale in Saudi Arabia

Markopolo.ai, the startup building autonomous AI marketing teammates, has raised a $2 million seed round led by Saudi based Joa Capital.
'We're engineering AI employees built to think, act, & scale like your best marketing minds. Our mission? Automate growth. Redefine scale. With Markopolo, your company doesn't just grow—it takes off. '— Tasfia Tasbin
RIYADH, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA, May 11, 2025 / EINPresswire.com / -- Markopolo.ai, the startup building autonomous AI marketing teammates, has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Joa Capital, a Saudi-based venture capital firm focused on high-growth tech ventures across the GCC. The round also saw participation from Team Ignite Partners and a group of strategic angel investors.
Founded in 2022, Markopolo.ai is pioneering a shift from fragmented marketing toolkits to AI-powered, unified platforms. The company's vision is to build AI employees that work alongside marketing and sales teams, automating repetitive tasks and enabling teams to focus on high-impact, strategic work.
Powering consumer growth through AI agents, Markopolo.ai provides a modular AI agent suite purpose-built for modern consumer businesses. The product lineup includes Mark: A media buying agent that can enhance marketing teams by autonomously running and optimizing campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Yahoo Japan; Nabiq: A scalable AI sales agent capable of executing millions of personalized, cross-channel conversational campaigns; and DeepDive: A real-time social listening and engagement engine that interprets public consumer data to activate relevant outreach. Together, these agents deliver an integrated solution that empowers brands to drive growth, optimize engagement, and unlock actionable insights.
Strengthening Roots in Saudi Arabia
Markopolo.ai has made strategic moves to anchor itself in the Kingdom. The company was supported by the Kingdom's National Technology Development Program (NTDP) to relocate its HQ to the Kingdom (under the 'Relocate Program') and has been accepted into Taqadam Cohort 8 2025 by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), receiving a USD 140K grant. In addition, the company also won the AI Oasis Hackathon at LEAP 2024 in Riyadh.
These steps reflect Markopolo.ai's commitment to contributing to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 goals—particularly in digital transformation, AI, and innovation for consumer sectors.
In previous funding rounds, the company received investment from Accelerating Asia, Startup Bangladesh and DIVC.
CEO Statement
Tasfia Tasbin, CEO and Co-founder of Markopolo.ai, said: 'At Markopolo.ai, we're not just building software— we're engineering AI employees built to think, act, and scale like your best marketing minds. This seed round is more than capital; it's a battle cry. We're going full throttle across the MENA region to empower thousands of businesses to outsmart, outcreate, and outgrow the competition. Our mission? Automate growth. Redefine scale. With Markopolo, your company doesn't just grow—it takes off. We're here to put company growth on autopilot.'
Investor Statement
Yousef Alyousefi CEO of Joa Capital, commented: 'Markopolo.ai is building precisely the kind of company we look to back—globally scalable, deeply technical, and solving a real pain point in how consumer brands grow,' said Yousef AlYousefi, CEO of Joa Capital. 'Their AI-first platform reflects the future of marketing and sales enablement, and their rapid traction across multiple markets validates their approach. We're proud to support their global expansion and excited to anchor that journey in Saudi Arabia, where innovation and AI adoption are accelerating in line with the Kingdom's strategic priorities.'

About Joa Capital
Joa Capital is a Saudi-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage ventures with high growth potential in KSA, the GCC, and beyond. Joa Capital backs founders who are solving complex problems with scalable, tech-driven solutions that align with the Kingdom's national development objectives. Markopolo's proven traction, their targeted use of AI and the speed of the development made it a strong fit for Joa's thesis.
Website: https://www.joa.capital/
Email: [email protected]
About Markopolo ai inc.
Markopolo ai inc. is a deep tech company incorporated in the USA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Japan and Bangladesh. Founded by two talented Bangladeshi entrepreneurs Tasfia Tasbin and Rubaiyat Mostofa, Markopolo AI has rapidly expanded its global footprint to 40+ countries.
Website: https://www.markopolo.ai/
Email: [email protected]
Rubaiyat Mostofa
Markopolo ai inc
+880 1751325670
[email protected]
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Facebook
X
Instagram
YouTube
TikTok
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

OpenAI CEO joins chorus of industry experts warning about "AI bubble"
OpenAI CEO joins chorus of industry experts warning about "AI bubble"

Yahoo

time21 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

OpenAI CEO joins chorus of industry experts warning about "AI bubble"

Tech giants have made clear that they'll spare no expense in their efforts to win out in the AI rat race. So much so, that tech giants like Meta () , Microsoft () , Amazon () , and Google () planned to spend up to $320 billion on AI tech in 2025. So when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who augured the great LLM-ification of AI and became a major investor in ChatGPT creator OpenAI in 2019, warned about "overbuild" of data centers after being part of the cohort signaling their spending ambitions, some analysts and industry experts seemed to perk up. Even more so when Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai echoed Nadella's concerns, calling the buildout in AI datacenters a "bubble." Microsoft, meanwhile, went on to deny additional capacity from hyperscaler CoreWeave () , which was in the process of IPOing (that capacity was bought by OpenAI instead.) Only, nobody really cared. On Wall Street, valuations in AI-fueled trades were taking off. The only real segway was April's tariff tiff. Then, it was back to all-time highs for U.S. equities. The attitude was: "don't fight the tape." In some techno-optimist circles, the advent of superintelligent AI was seen just around the corner. Their attitude: "Why sell now?" Investors might be more wary now, thanks to a recent MIT study warning that businesses are not seeing returns from AI investments. And making matters worse, more industry experts are warning that investors got ahead of themselves. MIT drops AI spending bombshell MIT researchers studied 300 businesses and how they were using AI and found that, despite claims that the businesses had invested $30 to $40 billion into generative AI, only 5% of companies had seen any return thus far. Where industry anecdotes fell on deaf ears, the MIT study cut through the noise. Immediately after the report dropped, so too did tech stocks. And dogpiling on, even more industry leaders are joining the chorus, explicitly calling out what they see as an AI bubble. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns of bubble Among them are OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who said in plain terms that, "investors as a whole are overexcited about AI." While emphasizing its long-term important, Altman cautioned that investors could get "burnt" by the 'dot com-like' dynamic in the market. Unfortunately, it won't just be the people betting on high-flying names like Palantir () . Many Americans' 401(K)s, IRAs, and brokerage accounts are tied up in indexes which are heavily exposed to the AI trade. In fact, these tech giants represent over a third of the S&P 500's weight. Altman remains an optimist over the long run, casting issues with his firm's latest frontier AI model as a "misfire" and promising an even more fantastic sequel in GPT-6. But that's what many AI optimists were hoping for GPT-5. And waiting even longer for "the future" to arrive might mean expending their optimism. That's not to say that AI models (including at competitors) are not progressing, but what investors' willingness to allow firms to become capital intensive businesses might not last much longer if they don't see light at the end of the tunnel. While they've learned to love the stratospheric growth coming from AI chipmaker Nvidia () and the double-digit strides in cloud services from Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, wariness about payoff might prompt a pullback. Mark's spend-a-thon comes to a close There's some evidence that it's already come — or maybe, somehow, AI is already replacing jobs — at Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent big to acquire AI talent and build out data centers. He's now almost fresh out of cash and looking to private credit to shore up his ambitions. Still, if you're confident there's a payoff, why pullback? Per WSJ, Meta is in the process of reorganizing its AI segment into different businesses prioritizing business endpoints. With it, exec departures, layoffs, and a hiring freeze. Is this a sign that Zuckerberg and management have looked around and collectively discovered that they're buying the top? Is this an unfortunate repeat of the company's failed metaverse ambitions? Or is this a wake-up call from within after squandering billions on comp packages for researchers and data centers? Too early to say, but after blowing through $31.8 billion in the last six months, you'd have to wonder if maybe, the industry gurus called it how it was. Now that Wall Street finally seems to be paying attention, what does that bode for the market? This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the Investing News, Analysis, and Tips section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Investing in early-in-career talent is vital to win the AI race
Investing in early-in-career talent is vital to win the AI race

Fast Company

timean hour ago

  • Fast Company

Investing in early-in-career talent is vital to win the AI race

advertisement AI is fundamentally changing how we work. People will increasingly oversee more AI agents, changing the way we think about teams. Business leaders must shape what's next—not shrink from it. From job elimination to job evolution EIC employees are AI natives who are already leading the transformation. They intuitively engage with tech, bring creative agility, and have the curiosity needed to thrive in fast-changing environments. According to the World Economic Forum, job loss between 2025 and 2030 will be more than offset by new roles, leading to a net gain of 78 million jobs. As some roles and tasks phase out, new ones emerge that require skills like AI and data fluency, creative thinking, resilience, and curiosity. Subscribe to the Daily newsletter. Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters If we don't protect and modernize the EIC pipeline, we risk widening the skill gaps and stalling the impact and ROI of AI solutions. EIC talent will be tomorrow's leaders, so we need to build pathways for them today. The demographic and leadership imperatives The talent pipeline is narrowing just as the pace of transformation is accelerating. U.S. birth rates are declining. Fewer 18-year-olds are entering the workforce. Higher education costs are skyrocketing, and many high school graduates are choosing two-year and technical degrees or trade jobs. That makes every EIC hire even more valuable. HR leaders help define the structure of the workforce and manage payroll—the largest line on the profit and loss statement—so where we invest matters. EIC roles are often the smartest entry point for workforce planning. We need to build AI-first cultures rooted in continuous learning, with roles that fuel business and personal growth. That means doubling down on equipping early-career talent with the skills, creativity, and adaptability to lead AI-powered organizations. And our succession pipelines must prioritize leadership capabilities like AI fluency, orchestration, and human-centered change management. That means focusing on these key steps: Reimagine strategic workforce planning As leaders, we must identify the skills AI won't replace and the skills that matter most to our businesses—from programming and UX design to collaboration, creative problem solving, and empathy. Then we should map those skills to evolving roles. For example, if AI handles research, an entry-level role could evolve into a prompt engineer or curator. Other future roles could include AI safety and ethics coordinators and AI agent trainers for front line workers. Design new rotations and exposure Companies that invest in internships build future-ready talent pipelines. Internships today are table stakes. To stand out, we need to build rotational programs, apprenticeships, and real-world experiences that give EIC hires exposure across the business. Reverse mentoring, for example, could give EIC talent a chance to connect directly with senior leaders, while giving those leaders a window into AI-native thinking. The goal is to retain top talent by creating a culture of growth, mobility, and connection. With clear goals, meaningful work, strong managers, and real learning experiences, EIC talent has the chance to thrive and drive innovation. At ServiceNow, 95.6% of our interns accepted our full-time offers in 2024, proof of meaningful investment. Embrace AI-first learning for growth and retention Retaining top talent, especially early-in-career talent, starts with listening followed by meaningful action. Sixty-five percent of EIC workers say they'd stay at least four years at a company if it offered robust development opportunities. We need to show EIC talent how they can grow, and design learning that matches their curiosity. EIC employees expect learning to be personalized, bite-sized, and built into the workflow. That's why we launched ServiceNow University—to train our employees and the broader technology ecosystem. It's working: EIC hires at ServiceNow have a 7% lower attrition rate in their first two years than their peers. The long game: Invest in young talent and AI Leaders don't need to decide between cutting costs and investing in the future. They can do both when they focus on transforming the workforce. Organizations that lead with intention—those that rethink roles, invest in AI enablement, and reimagine EIC talent—will attract the best minds and shape the next era of innovation. We all have a lot to learn in this new world, and we should evolve our strategies as we go. But EIC employees are essential. Their fluency with technology, drive to learn, and creative edge are exactly what we need to build the future. We can't afford to sideline them. Committing to EIC talent will require a lot of hard work and vision, but with the right strategy, it is possible. Jacqui Canney is chief people and AI enablement officer at ServiceNow.

Zuckerberg Is So Loathed That He Needs to Pay People Huge Extra Sums to Work for Him
Zuckerberg Is So Loathed That He Needs to Pay People Huge Extra Sums to Work for Him

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Zuckerberg Is So Loathed That He Needs to Pay People Huge Extra Sums to Work for Him

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been stealing headlines by offering AI talent mind-boggling financial offers, reportedly reaching $1 billion, to keep his social media company's floundering ambitions of winning the AI race alive. As Wired reported last month, Meta approached more than a dozen people at Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati — none of whom took the offer. That failure illustrates the grim truth at the heart of the outsize financial overtures, as New York Magazine's John Herrman points out: though Zuckerberg would like the world to see his poaching efforts as a sign of his belief in the power of AI, the reality feels more like a situation in which he's so widely loathed in the tech industry that he needs to bribe AI luminaries with heart-stopping paydays just to put up with him. While we can only speculate as to why AI talent is turning down hundreds of millions of dollars, Zuckerberg was broadly criticized over his vision for Meta's AI team last month, vaguely claiming that "automating all valuable work" will somehow put "power in people's hands to direct it towards what they value in their own lives" — instead of concentrating power for those who control the AI. "I think the most interesting thing about Zuck's vision here is how... boring it is," Transformer journalist Shakeel Hashim tweeted at the time. "Just entirely devoid of ambition and imagination." Potential hires might also be put off by Zuckerberg's unrealistic goals of creating a utopian society that can conveniently only be observed through a pair of smart glasses that he'll sell you. "That Mark Zuckerberg has a weaker future-of-AI pitch than the MechaHitler guy goes a long way toward explaining his company's outlier offers," Herrman wrote, referring to Elon Musk's AI chatbot experiencing a Nazi meltdown last month. Meta's infamously tough work culture could have something to do with it. The company's former AI researcher Tijmen Blankevoort warned in a blog post last week that workers fear getting fired "on a daily basis" and that management there fails to promote a "sense of camaraderie among employees, leading to a lack of sense of belonging." Blankevoort also accused Meta of having a "wavering vision that was tough for team members to enthusiastically rally behind." Meanwhile, even AI competitor Google hasn't been all too impressed with Meta's existing talent. Zuckerberg's firm hasn't been nearly as much of a target when it comes to poaching from competitors. "They already had the best people and lost them to OpenAI," a former Meta AI employee told Forbes. "This is Mark trying to undo the loss of talent." "We might be interested in hiring some of the new people Mark is hiring now," a senior AI executive at a frontier AI company added. "But it's been a while since we were particularly interested in the people who were already there." Compounding Meta's hiring woes was the company's Llama 4 AI model rollout. The April announcement became shrouded in controversy after experts accused the company of fudging the numbers and posting misleading benchmark results that pertained to a different AI model. As the AI race continues to heat up, Zuckerberg and Meta clearly have their work cut out to stay relevant. The company's efforts bear almost no brand recognition, while OpenAI's ChatGPT has become practically synonymous with AI chatbots. In short, Zuckerberg's lackluster vision and Meta's uninspiring work culture could be keeping key talent away. Even billion-dollar bids are seemingly failing to change that — likely infuriating Zuckerberg, who has always desperately wanted to be cool. More on Zuckerberg: Zuckerberg's Huge AI Push Is Already Crumbling Into Chaos Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store