BY Venture Partners Closes $60M Fund III for AI Startups
BY Venture Partners, a Dubai-headquartered early-stage venture firm, has closed its third vehicle, Fund III, at US$60 million. The close brings its total assets under management to more than US$200 million.
The Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF) anchored the round. Other investors include regional institutions, corporate venture arms and family offices, among them MultiLane, Transmed Capital and Saudi Arabia's Idriss Family Office.
Fund III will mainly make investments of up to US$1 million in companies at the pre-seed to Series A stages. It has already made 15 investments toward a planned portfolio of 40 companies, including PQ Shield, Cosyne, Isometric, Huspy and Invisible.
BY Venture Partners invests in AI-native startups, with a focus on those using AI to reshape enterprise workflows and an emphasis on businesses built to serve international markets from the outset.
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The firm invests across more than 16 international markets, with two-thirds of its capital deployed outside MENA, in North America and Europe. Its first two funds backed companies including NymCard, Toters, Huspy, Onfido and Invisible Technologies. According to the firm, its first two funds have backed four companies that reached unicorn status, two from each fund.
The firm is led by four partners, Ghaith Yafi, Abdallah Yafi, Rami Jisr and Sohrab Jahanbani, all of whom built and exited businesses before becoming investors.
"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, and that exchange is what Dubai's Economic Agenda D33 asks of us," said Nader Albastaki, Managing Director of DFDF.
Alongside the fund, BY Venture Partners has secured a mandate backed by Lebanon's Ministry of Technology and AI to manage and operate the Lebanese Angel Investor Network. The network connects capital from the Lebanese diaspora with early-stage founders in Lebanon and aims to develop a pipeline of regional angel investors. The firm will reinvest 50% of its carried interest into rebuilding Lebanon's startup ecosystem.
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