Abu Dhabi-based Applied AI has closed a pre-Series B funding round led by Mubadala's MENA Venture Capital Fund and Arbor Ventures. The company did not disclose the size of the round.
The investment comes just months after Applied AI raised a $55 million Series A at a reported $300 million pre-money valuation in February 2025. The new capital will be used to accelerate global expansion of Opus, the company's AI-native workflow platform for regulated industries.
Founded in 2021 by Arya Bolurfrushan, Applied AI builds automation tools for mission-critical processes in healthcare, insurance, banking, energy, and government. The company now has over 350 employees and active deployments across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.
According to an annual letter from MEVP, which participated in the oversubscribed Series A, Applied AI was on track for $20 million in revenue for 2025.
Opus, which launched in self-serve beta last October, allows non-technical users to design and deploy AI-powered workflows using natural language prompts. The platform emphasises human oversight throughout the process rather than just at the final review stage, an approach the company says delivers up to 20x productivity improvements.
A key differentiator is the company's proprietary dataset. Through what it calls the Opus Data Project, Applied AI has mapped approximately 1.5 million of an estimated 2.7 million business processes globally. This data powers Opus's workflow generation capabilities and represents a significant moat in an increasingly crowded enterprise AI market.
The company has also developed an unconventional pricing model, charging $1 to $1.50 per "AI man-hour" compared to $36 or more for human labor. This allows enterprises to determine their preferred ratio of AI to human work, effectively positioning the product as a labor cost rather than a software expense.
"This partnership reflects a shared belief that the future of enterprise AI will be defined by trust, scale, and operational substance," said Bolurfrushan. "With the support of Mubadala and Arbor Ventures, we will accelerate the global expansion of Opus while continuing to build an enduring global AI company from Abu Dhabi."
For Mubadala, the investment aligns with the UAE's strategy to develop homegrown technology companies capable of competing internationally.
"Our investments in AppliedAI support our vision to nurture transformative technology leaders from the MENA region who can set new global benchmarks in innovation and responsible AI," said Ali Eid AlMheiri, Executive Director of Diversified Assets at Mubadala's UAE Investments Platform.
Arbor Ventures partner Khaled Lababidi pointed to the company's track record with Fortune 500 clients as evidence of commercial maturity. "AppliedAI represents the convergence of three powerful trends: enterprise AI adoption, regulatory complexity, and the need for operational transformation," he said.
