Founding MENA #20
Welcome to the Founding MENA newsletter, bringing you the top stories from across the region every week.
I hope you find the newsletter insightful, but I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Let’s get into it!
💰 Investment Rounds
- No announced fundraises this week 😮
📰 Startup News
A major partnership for EdTech in Saudi
Classera partners with Zain KSA to launch one of the world's largest AI-powered education initiatives to reach millions of students across Saudi Arabia.
Classera is delivering AI-integrated learning infrastructure directly into homes across Saudi Arabia.
Smart devices, AI-powered learning experiences, and advanced educational platforms. All deployed at scale through partnership with Zain KSA's telecom infrastructure.
Zain KSA brings cutting-edge digital infrastructure and advanced networks. Classera brings an AI-powered education platform already operational across Saudi Arabia.
Together, they're building an integrated educational ecosystem at an unprecedented scale.
The expansion plan: Saudi Arabia first, then multiple regional and international markets. The initiative targets millions of students with personalised AI-driven learning experiences powered by Saudi-developed technology.
Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a global AI hub with HUMAIN, sovereign AI models, and massive data centre investments.
Now extending that AI infrastructure into education with full-stack AI deployment across Vision 2030 priorities.
Read more here.
The UAE matches the USA on world-class AI researchers per million people
That's not a projection. That's the data from Dealroom.co's 2026 MENA AI Talent Ranking.
When you adjust for population, the UAE sits at the same level as the United States for researchers with h-index ≥50 (world-class) and h-index ≥100 (frontier), the top tier of AI academic research globally.
Most countries measure AI progress by total headcount. How many AI professionals do we have? How many startups have raised funding? How many research papers have been published?
The UAE flipped this. They focused on density, not just scale. Build a world-class research infrastructure per capita that rivals nations 30x larger.
The numbers backing this up:
- 64% of UAE's working-age population uses AI, the highest in the world (Microsoft AI Diffusion Report, January 2026). Singapore is second at 60.9%. The US ranks 24th.
- 84% of UAE AI professionals were born outside the country, mostly from India. The UAE doesn't just train talent. It attracts talent that's already world-class and gives them the infrastructure to do their best work.
- 67% AI trust level in the UAE vs 32% in the USA (Edelman Trust Barometer 2025). That's a 35 percentage point gap. When people trust AI, adoption accelerates. When adoption accelerates, use cases multiply. When use cases multiply, talent follows opportunity.
- AED 543 billion (~$147bn) invested in AI since 2024. Not announced. Deployed. Data centres, compute infrastructure, research labs, talent visas, regulatory sandboxes.
Compare this growth to traditional tech hub development. Silicon Valley took 50+ years to build network effects. Bangalore took 30+ years. Shenzhen took 20+ years through a manufacturing-to-tech transition.
The UAE is compressing this timeline by recruiting established talent, providing world-class infrastructure, and removing regulatory friction.
Read more here.
📰 Other News
The story of the man behind MENA’s leading vertical farm
An American private equity investor moved to Abu Dhabi in 2017 with a PowerPoint, a pile of dirt, and a promise to grow tomatoes in the desert.
Most people said it was impossible. Sky Kurtz built it anyway.
Today, Pure Harvest Smart Farms operates 16 hectares of climate-controlled greenhouses across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, has raised $387M, supplies major hypermarkets, and is profitable.
The company is expanding into Singapore, Morocco, and Kuwait while spinning off Saudi operations into an independent entity.
This is the story of how an outsider addressed one of the Gulf's most pressing challenges: food security.
Sky Kurtz was working in private equity in San Francisco. Successful career. Good money. But he wanted to build something that would make a lasting change in the world, not just generate returns.
He met co-founder Robert Kupstas, who introduced him to controlled-environment agriculture.
The concept: use technology to grow fresh produce in places where traditional farming is impossible.
Kurtz looked at the Gulf and saw the problem immediately. The UAE imports 90% of its food. Saudi Arabia bans water-intensive crops because aquifers are depleting. Regional governments are tightening water regulations.
But millions of people live here. They need fresh produce. The supply chain is entirely dependent on imports and vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions, supply chain shocks, and climate volatility.
Raising capital for agriculture in the Middle East as a first-time founder with no track record in farming was incredibly difficult.
Shorooq backed the pre-seed with $1.1M. Then Pure Harvest closed the largest seed round in MENA history (at the time): $4.5M in 2017.
Now, the numbers are incredible:
- Annual production capacity: 15+ million kg of crops
- Yield advantage: 15x traditional farming output
- Water efficiency: 95% less water usage, 100% recirculation
- Carbon reduction: 8,293 metric tons CO2 saved annually
- Growing area: 16 hectares of climate-controlled greenhouses (UAE + Saudi)
- Total raised: $387M (pre-seed through latest round, October 2025: $180.5M)
Sky picked an unsexy category (agriculture) in an unexpected market (UAE), solving an existential problem (food security). No competition. Government support. Clear need.
But most importantly, he moved to Abu Dhabi. Didn't try to build from San Francisco. Embedded himself in the ecosystem. Understood local context. Built relationships with the government. Proved operational capability before talking about global expansion.
Read more here.
🤝🏼 Tools for Founders
Founding MENA has partnered with CapQuest, MENA’s leading equity management platform.
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All of our readers can get 20% off their first year with CapQuest using the code: scalingmena20.
That’s all for this week, thanks! All of our MENA based readers: please stay safe. Sam
First published 1 Jun 2026 on Substack
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