• FAST Ventures launches FAST Foundry, a USD 3M venture studio backing early-stage MENA startups in AdTech, retail, creator, AI and marketing.
• The new arm pairs funding with product, marketing, AI and creator support, giving founders a clear path from idea to traction.
• Selected startups gain investment, workspace in Dubai or Riyadh, and access to Platformance, Lion, Calibrate, cloud credits and senior talent.

FAST Ventures

Dubai-based Fast Ventures, marketing holding company, launched Fast Foundry, its investment arm and venture studio, backed by a USD 3 million fund. This fund backs early-stage startups across the wider MENA region. It targets startups building the next wave of AdTech, retail, creator, AI, and marketing products with global potential.

The new investment arm combines investment with the full FAST Ventures ecosystem. This aims to give startups access to specialist teams in product, marketing, creators and AI. Moreover, this is to support them to build a path from idea to traction.

“We created FAST Ventures to address that – to build original, homegrown IP that understands this region deeply and can scale globally. FAST Foundry is the next chapter. We’re backing founders who want to create the tools, platforms and products that redefine how marketing and growth work – built in MENA, for the world,” said Waseem Afzal, CEO of FAST Ventures.

The fund will focus on four themes where technology, culture and commerce meet:

• AI native marketing agents
• Retail and commerce media infrastructure 
• Creator commerce and influencer infrastructure
• Emerging Consumer Verticals: FinTech, PropTech, TravelTech and EdTech

Investment

The fund aims to tackle the issue of young young companies closing when growth and revenues stall, even when the product is strong. FAST Ventures claims that around 90% of MENA startups fail and close within the first few years before reaching profitability. Meanwhile, it also claims that 43% of startups struggle to increase and build repeatable demand.

The selected startups will receive an investment. They will also receive workspace at either FAST Ventures HQ in Internet City, Dubai, and its offices in Riyadh. In these workspaces, they will receive engineering and go to market support from various services and entities under the FAST Ventures umbrella. 

This includes ‘Platformance’, a growth marketing platform in the region, delivering business outcomes. It also includes  ‘Lion’, an AI-creative shop of Platformance; and ‘Calibrate’, an end to end digital commerce studio. It will also give them preferred access to cloud credits, and on-call senior talent across product, creative and commercial roles.