FAST Ventures, a marketing holding company, at the intersection of marketing, technology, and consumers has launched FAST Foundry, its investment arm and venture studio backed by a $3 million fund to boost early stage startups across the wider MENA region.
FAST Foundry will invest in startups building the next wave of adtech, retail, creator, AI and marketing products with global potential.
The initiative combines investment with FAST Venture’s full ecosystem, giving startups access to specialist teams in product, marketing, creators and AI, plus a clear path from idea to traction.
“For years, the region has relied on imported, white-labeled technology. It solved short-term gaps, but it never built a real ecosystem,” said Waseem Afzal, CEO of FAST Ventures.
“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.”
FAST Foundry 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
Research shows that around 90 per cent of MENA startups fail and close within the first few years before reaching profitability, while 43 per cent say they struggle to increase and build repeatable demand.
The venture is designed to solve this challenge.
Selected startups receive investment plus workspace at either FAST Ventures HQ in Internet City, Dubai, as well as FAST’s offices in Riyadh, where they will receive engineering and go to market support from various services and entities under the FAST Ventures umbrella.
These include ‘Platformance’, the fastest growing growth marketing platform in the region, delivering real business outcomes; ‘Lion’, the award winning AI-creative shop of Platformance; and ‘Calibrate’, an end to end digital commerce studio; as well as preferred access to cloud credits, and on call senior talent across product, creative and commercial roles.
Since 2022, the FAST Ventures system has delivered business growth outcomes across marketing, product, creators and data. The team includes seasoned veterans with over two decades of experience in building brands, scaling platforms and driving growth for clients across MENA and beyond.
FAST Ventures’ Intellectual Property consists of platforms, AI models/agents, and services, all focused on simplifying marketing operations, building commercial infrastructure and accelerating measurable growth.
