The UAE investors are backing the California robotics company through the Presight Shorooq AI and Bedaya Funds as Maven expands autonomous systems for logistics and manufacturing.

Shorooq and Presight participated in Maven’s USD 100 million Series A through the Presight Shorooq AI and Bedaya Funds managed by Shorooq. The round also saw participation from RoboStrategy, LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures and XTX Ventures.

Why You Should Care

Industrial robotics is moving from research and demonstrations into commercial operations. That shift could affect how manufacturers and logistics companies handle repetitive physical work.

The development also matters for the Gulf’s technology ecosystem. Shorooq and Presight are using regional capital to back a US company developing technology for industrial automation. The deal connects Abu Dhabi’s growing AI investment ecosystem with a Silicon Valley robotics startup.

Maven’s expansion will also test how far physical AI can move beyond individual industrial tasks. The company is starting with palletizing and tote handling. It plans to expand into broader materials handling as it develops its next generations of robots.

The Details

Founded in 2024, Maven Robotics is an industrial robotics company building general-purpose autonomous robots for the real economy.  It develops wheeled, dual-armed robots that take on industrial tasks end to end. It begings  with mixed palletizing in distribution and logistics operations. 

Maven plans to build 250 third generation robots as it expands its operations. The new funding will support production of those machines and development of a fourth generation system.

Presight is an Abu Dhabi based applied AI company and a G42 company. Meanwhile, Shorooq is a multi strategy investment firm that invests across venture capital, credit, private equity and real assets.

The investment brings together Shorooq’s investment platform and Presight’s applied AI capabilities. The partnership intends to give their portfolios access to capital, AI expertise and enterprise relationships.

The Ripple

The deal adds industrial robotics to Shorooq’s portfolio of artificial intelligence and deep tech investments.

It also expands the investment focus of the Presight Shorooq partnership into physical AI. Unlike software based AI applications, physical AI systems interact directly with the environments where businesses operate.

For Maven, the backing adds Gulf based investors to a financing round that includes several international venture firms. The company can now use the new capital to increase production while broadening the tasks its robots can perform.

The deal also highlights a growing link between Gulf investors and technology companies developing outside the region. Maven is based in California, while Shorooq and Presight are based in Abu Dhabi.

What to Watch

Maven’s move into broader materials handling will be an important next step. Its initial focus is on palletizing and tote handling. Expanding into additional industrial tasks will show how adaptable its systems can be across different operations.

Production will be another key milestone. Maven plans to build 250 third generation machines while developing its fourth generation robot.

For Shorooq and Presight, Maven is an early test of their approach to investing in physical AI. How the partnership translates capital, AI capabilities and regional enterprise connections into commercial deployments will be worth watching as Maven scales.