Dubai’s BY Venture Partners closes $60M third fund for global AI-native startups

BY Venture Partners has closed its third fund at $60 million to back early-stage AI-native startups, extending a global investment strategy that has taken two-thirds of its capital outside MENA.

Dubai Future District Fund anchored the vehicle, alongside investors including data infrastructure company MultiLane, Transmed Capital and Saudi Arabia’s Idriss Family Office. The close takes BY’s reported AUM including co-investment vehicles, above $200 million.

Fund III will primarily write cheques of up to $1 million at pre-seed through Series A, targeting businesses built around AI, particularly those developing software for enterprise workflows. It has already made 15 investments towards a planned portfolio of 40 companies, including PQShield, Cosyne, Isometric, Huspy and Invisible.

The new vehicle follows a $46 million first fund and a $50 million second fund, which closed in October 2021. Fund II’s backers included Mubadala Investment Company, Bahrain’s Al Waha Fund of Funds, Tamar Capital and MMK Capital.

Founded in 2015, BY has invested across regional consumer and financial technology businesses as well as software companies in Europe and North America. Several of its’ investments have gone on to attract substantial international funding. BY participated in Huspy’s $59 million Series B led by Balderton Capital in July 2025, supporting the Dubai company’s expansion across Europe and the Middle East. NymCard raised a $33 million Series B led by QED Investors in March that year.

The portfolio also includes companies that have been acquired. Entrust completed its purchase of Onfido in April 2024, while automotive software group Pinewood.AI acquired Dubai-based Seez in 2025, a transaction announced at an aggregate consideration of $46.2 million, including Pinewood’s earlier investment. BY was an investor in both companies.

BY says its first two funds each backed two companies that reached valuations of at least $1 billion.

For DFDF, the investment rests partly on BY’s ability to bring international companies to Dubai while helping regional founders expand abroad. BY says it invests across more than 16 markets, with two-thirds of its capital deployed in North America and Europe.

“We committed to Fund III because BY’s model works in both directions. It brings global AI-native companies into Dubai and takes founders from this region into international markets,” said Nader Albastaki, DFDF’s managing director.

“The flow of companies and founders across that bridge is the basis on which we will measure this partnership.”

BY is led by Ghaith Yafi, Abdallah Yafi, Rami Jisr and Sohrab Jahanbani. Alongside the new fund, the firm has secured a mandate backed by Lebanon’s Ministry of Technology and AI to operate the Lebanese Angel Investor Network, connecting diaspora investors with early-stage founders in the country.