Shaimaa Ibrahim 

As Saudi Arabia’s food technology sector continues to evolve at a rapid pace, Calo has emerged as a leading success story. The company has effectively combined innovation with nutrition, redefining the way personalized, ready-to-eat meals are delivered and consumed.

Calo was founded with a clear mission: to make healthy living simpler. By leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced supply chain systems, the company offers daily, customized meals tailored to individual needs. What started as a bold idea in the Kingdom has grown into a fast-scaling regional player, now expanding into major European markets.

The company recently secured $64 million in a significant funding round, marking a key milestone in its growth. This was followed by the acquisition of two well-known UK-based health food brands, highlighting Calo’s global ambitions. With plans to list on the Saudi stock exchange, the company is well positioned to accelerate its international expansion.

In this exclusive interview, Sharikat Mubasher speaks with Ahmed Al Rawi, Co-founder and CEO of Calo, about the company’s origin, the challenges it has faced, and its long-term vision. He also offers insights into the current state of the food tech sector in Saudi Arabia and the key opportunities shaping innovation and entrepreneurship in this dynamic industry.

Can you tell us about the inception of Calo in the Saudi market and the founding vision that has driven the company’s journey since its launch?

Calo was born out of a simple observation: people want to eat healthy and personalized meals, but most don’t have the time or energy to prepare them daily. Our founding vision was clear — to make healthy easy. We launched in Saudi Arabia because we believed the Kingdom would be an ideal environment to grow this model, given the increasing awareness around health and fitness. From day one, our focus has been on personalization powered by technology and building a vertically integrated model that delivers a world-class experience starting from Riyadh.

Following your successful $64 million funding round, how does Calo plan to deploy this capital to diversify its product portfolio and accelerate its growth trajectory?

We are humbled by the strong investor interest in our Series B extension. This capital will be deployed across three main levers:

• Product expansion: introducing new segments such as athlete-focused macro personalization, premium “Chef’s Picks,” and a healthy CPG line.
• Geographic scaling: expanding both within Saudi Arabia and internationally, including our recent entry into the UK and Oman.
• Innovation and AI: investing in personalization technology and AI-driven customer experiences to ensure that the customer remains at the heart of everything we do.

What are the key markets in which you operate, and what is the current size of Calo’s customer base? How is this customer base distributed geographically?

Calo currently operates in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UK, with a recent launch in Oman where over 10,000 customers are already on the waiting list. Across these markets, we now serve hundreds of thousands of customers, with Saudi Arabia remaining our largest market.

How many retail outlets does Calo currently operate, and what are your near-term plans for opening new locations?

We now operate over 10 retail outlets across the GCC, including hospital-based locations, and we are committed to opening new sites every quarter. Our strategy is to complement our digital subscription model with physical locations that increase accessibility, enhance brand visibility, and allow for new customer touchpoints.

Calo reported over 50% year-on-year growth in the first half of 2025. What were the primary drivers behind this impressive performance, and how do you intend to sustain this momentum for the rest of the year?

Our growth has been driven by three main factors:

1. Segment diversification — expanding our offerings to athletes, lifestyle-focused customers, and clean-eating enthusiasts.
2. Localization — appointing General Managers in each market, giving us deeper customer understanding and stronger execution.
3. Brand strength — our positioning as the go-to personalized meal subscription in the region continues to build trust and loyalty.

Looking ahead, we will continue to double down on customer experience, expand our footprint, and embed personalization even more deeply into every interaction.

You recently acquired leading UK food brands such as Fresh Fitness Food and Detox Kitchen. What strategic goals do these acquisitions aim to achieve, and how will they strengthen Calo’s presence in the UK market?

Our acquisitions of Fresh Fitness Food and Detox Kitchen were strategic moves to accelerate our UK entry. Both brands came with strong teams, supply chains, and customer trust. The integration allowed us to bring Calo’s operational excellence and technology while respecting the DNA that made these brands successful. This dual approach strengthens our presence in the UK by combining local expertise with Calo’s mission and innovation.

What role do you believe AI plays in transforming the food technology industry, and how is Calo leveraging this technology to enhance its services and improve the customer experience?

AI is redefining what personalization means in food. At Calo, we are piloting Calo Black, an AI-powered private chef experience that uses natural conversation to capture nuanced preferences and generate personalized daily menus. Beyond the customer interface, AI is embedded across our workflows — from menu optimization to supply chain efficiency — making us faster, leaner, and more customer-centric. Ultimately, AI will help us bring our mission of “making healthy easy” to life at scale.

What are Calo’s plans for further geographic expansion within Saudi Arabia and internationally? Are there any upcoming partnerships or product launches you can disclose?

In Saudi Arabia, we continue to deepen our footprint with new retail outlets and partnerships such as our collaboration with Armah Sports. Internationally, we are scaling operations in the UK, Oman, and evaluating other markets where we see strong demand. On the product side, we are preparing to launch our own line of healthy CPG products as well as expanding into on-demand delivery to meet customers across more occasions.

As Calo prepares for its public listing on the Saudi stock exchange, what are the key objectives of this move, and how will it support the company’s future growth and expansion?

Our planned IPO is an important milestone. It reflects our ambition to cement Calo as one of the Kingdom’s leading consumer-tech success stories while giving us access to capital markets to fuel further global expansion. Beyond financial growth, a public listing will deepen our transparency, governance, and ability to attract top talent as we scale globally.

How do you evaluate the current state of the food tech sector in Saudi Arabia? What major opportunities do you see, and what advice would you offer to entrepreneurs looking to enter this space?

Saudi Arabia is one of the most exciting markets globally for foodtech. Rising health awareness, strong digital adoption, and government support for innovation create immense opportunities. For entrepreneurs, my advice is simple:

• Obsess over the customer — build around real needs, not assumptions.
• Invest in local expertise — talent that understands the culture and customer is your greatest asset.
• Balance speed with sustainability — rapid growth is exciting, but thoughtful execution builds long-term success.

 Above all, never lose sight of your core mission. Expansion and innovation should strengthen your identity, not dilute it.


 

Kholoud Hussein 

Greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) is no longer episodic, it’s compounding. In the first half of 2025 alone, investors announced 203 greenfield projects worth $9.34 billion, a 30% year-on-year jump in project count that underscores Saudi Arabia’s evolving appeal as a platform for new capacity, plants, data centers, and service hubs rather than mere capital transfers or acquisitions. Riyadh leads by a wide margin—100 projects and $2.3 billion—with Dammam (21 projects; $1.28 billion) and Jeddah (13 projects; $1.22 billion) emerging as secondary magnets in a multi-city investment map that policy planners have sought to build since Vision 2030’s launch. 

Why greenfield—and why now?

Three policy levers have altered investor behavior. First, regulatory reforms—commercial courts, a modernized civil transactions law, and faster company formation—are gradually reducing transaction friction and legal uncertainty. The Regional Headquarters (RHQ) program adds a powerful demand-side nudge: multinationals that want to win government business now need a Saudi RHQ, helping seed executive talent, procurement, and shared services in the Kingdom. As Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih noted earlier this year, nearly 600 global firms have committed to an RHQ in Saudi Arabia, well ahead of the original 2030 target. 

Second, the Premium Residency framework—expanded in 2024–2025—simplifies long-term settlement for skilled professionals, investors, and founders, including dedicated tracks for entrepreneurs and investors. That matters in greenfield projects where expatriate leadership and specialist technicians must relocate to design, commission, and operate new assets. Applications crossed 40,000 between January 2024 and July 2025, a leading indicator of human-capital inflows tied to investment. 

Third, sectoral strategy has become more “bankable.” Industrial policy in advanced manufacturing, logistics, clean energy, and digital infrastructure is translating into investible pipelines. The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources reports 1,346 new industrial licenses in 2024, channeling SR50 billion ($13.3bn) of fresh commitments and bringing private investment in industrial cities to SR1.9 trillion—a base that foreign manufacturers can plug into for suppliers, utilities, and land. 

The city map: Riyadh ascendant, co-anchors emerge

Riyadh’s dominance in greenfield projects is not accidental. The capital now bundles market access, procurement proximity, and talent density. The once-quiet King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is filling with global names—HSBC, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley—turning the skyline into substance and giving CFOs and general counsels a neighborhood to recruit from. As one recent analysis put it, regulatory reforms have improved the legal framework even as investors continue to ask for greater clarity across agencies. 

But the geography is widening. Dammam channels industrial and energy logistics through the Eastern Province’s ports and suppliers, while Jeddah—with its Red Sea connectivity—pulls in logistics, tourism, and consumer projects. The distribution of project counts and capital across these cities—Riyadh 100; Dammam 21; Jeddah 13—confirms a multi-node investment story rather than a single-city bet. 

Greenfield meets startups

The most important complement to greenfield FDI is the startup engine that services, localizes, and extends foreign projects. Saudi venture activity rebounded sharply in 2025: by mid-year, the Kingdom posted a 116% YoY jump in capital deployed and a 31% rise in deal count, matching the UAE for the first time in H1 deal volume. This matters because international manufacturers and digital operators increasingly source innovation from local SaaS vendors, AI integrators, and robotics startups orbiting their plants and offices. 

Policy alignment is visible in the Entrepreneur License and the RHQ rules. The entrepreneur track allows qualified foreign founders to set up 100% foreign-owned startups—often as service providers to greenfield entrants—while the RHQ push draws corporate venture arms and innovation budgets into Riyadh. By mid-2025, 550 foreign startups had been licensed under the entrepreneur scheme—up 118% year-on-year—with 364 incubators and accelerators licensed nationwide to help scale them. A founder of a European industrial-AI firm now opening in Dammam put it succinctly at a private investor roundtable: “Our Saudi entity exists because our customers’ Saudi plants now exist”—a network effect where greenfield begets startup formation and vice versa. 

Where the projects are going

The sector distribution of H1-2025 greenfield announcements tracks three structural themes:

1) Advanced industry and clean tech. With new industrial licenses and utility corridors in place, manufacturers are building for the GCC and wider MENAT region. Chinese-Saudi ties have deepened beyond crude: from 2021 to Oct-2024, China became the top source of greenfield FDI into Saudi Arabia—$21.6 billion—mostly in clean technologies. Expect more battery materials, solar components, and grid-adjacent electronics as localization ratios rise. 

2) Digital infrastructure and AI services. RHQ mandates bring CIOs and CTOs closer to Saudi demand centers, driving data center builds, cloud points of presence, and AI integration work. The transition of KAFD from a real-estate project to a functioning financial and advisory hub puts more dealmakers and systems integrators within walking distance—important for multi-year transformation programs.

3) Logistics and tourism. Red Sea assets and the Kingdom’s burgeoning visitor economy are catalyzing warehousing, freight forwarding, and destination infrastructure. Greenfield FDI is attractive in these sub-sectors because global operators can standardize formats and import operating playbooks while training local teams to scale.

Interactions with executives reveal a pattern. One European mobility CEO whose firm is commissioning a Riyadh assembly facility noted privately that the “RHQ rule changed our cost-benefit analysis—being here is now the default”, adding that proximity to large government buyers reduced bid risk. That sentiment echoes broader coverage that the RHQ rule has become a decisive factor in competitive positioning for contracts. 

A US manufacturing executive added that talent visas and premium residency eased the relocation of commissioning engineers—“We used to rotate teams; now we can plant them”—crediting the expanded residency categories for compressing timelines. The sustained influx of premium residency applicants in 2024–2025 supports that operational angle. 

Startups as force multipliers

For foreign investors, the Saudi startup scene is a force multiplier, not a sideshow. Corporate innovation managers are now writing local checks to automate back-office functions, deploy industrial IoT, and stand up Arabic-first AI copilots. The rebound in Saudi venture funding in H1 2025 (+116% YoY) provides foreign companies with a denser supplier ecosystem for software and services, reducing vendor concentration risk and enabling pilots to scale faster. 

Policy has synchronized on the supply side too. The Entrepreneur License enables 100% foreign-owned tech startups with incubator endorsements or IP/patent credentials—critical for specialist vendors that prefer full control over code and export rights. As that cohort scales—550 foreign startups licensed by mid-2025—large greenfield investors can source more of their localization roadmaps domestically. 

Headwinds

Investors are not naïve about risks. Execution complexity on giga-projects, uneven agency coordination, and cost inflation remain top of mind. Reporting in late 2024 and 2025 highlighted delays and scope resets at mega-developments, prompting some boardrooms to stage capital in tranches tied to off-take, permitting, or infrastructure milestones. Officials have framed signature projects like NEOM as “generational investments,” signaling tolerance for long runways while trying to avoid over-promising short-term outcomes. 

At the same time, ministers have emphasized macro resilience and non-oil momentum to reassure investors during bouts of geopolitical noise or commodity volatility. In late-2024 remarks, the investment minister argued that non-oil activity has maintained a 4–5% trend since 2017, even as the IMF adjusted near-term growth forecasts due to oil market management. That narrative—stability plus reform—is part of why greenfield decisions are continuing rather than pausing. 

What to expect next 

Deal flow broadens beyond Riyadh. Riyadh will remain the anchor, but Dammam and Jeddah should capture rising shares in energy-adjacent manufacturing and logistics/tourism, respectively. The H1-2025 distribution offers a baseline for the next two years as supply chains are rerouted closer to demand and ports. 

Premium Residency and RHQ continue to clip friction. With tens of thousands of residency applications and ~600 RHQs already committed, the soft infrastructure for talent mobility and corporate governance is maturing. Each additional RHQ is effectively a funnel for supplier mandates and local procurement that greenfield operators can tap. 

Startups become embedded vendors. The 118% annual jump in licensed foreign startups and the 116% YoY leap in H1-2025 venture funding are not cosmetic. They are the early signs of a procurement market where Saudi-based SaaS, AI, and Industry 4.0 firms are preferred partners for localization and Arabic-first adaptation. Expect corporate venture capital and joint labs to proliferate inside KAFD and nearby innovation districts. 

Greenfield spreads into services. Not all greenfield is smokestacks. Banks, insurers, and professional services are standing up operating centers and shared-services hubs to serve the GCC, anchored by RHQ mandates and deepening local client rosters. The visible “re-tenanting” of KAFD is one barometer of that pivot. 

A founder’s lens

For founders—Saudi and foreign—the opportunity is unusually bidirectional. Greenfield projects create demand-side certainty for B2B startups: quality assurance, maintenance, workflow automation, Arabic NLP, ESG reporting, and workforce upskilling. The entrepreneur pathway enables foreign technologists to establish Saudi-based entities directly; accelerators and incubators—364 licensed as of mid-2025—can mitigate the risks associated with the first year by providing customer introductions and guidance on product-market fit. In turn, startups make foreign factories and service hubs more competitive regionally, helping parent companies justify additional waves of capex. 

One Riyadh-based industrial AI founder described the flywheel candidly: “We built for a single multinational plant; six months later we were in four facilities across two cities.” That is what Greenfield looks like when it works: physical assets anchoring software demand, and software compressing time-to-productivity for physical assets.

Finally, Saudi Arabia’s greenfield story is not simply about large checks; it is about institution-building that converts checks into capacity, jobs, and exportable know-how. The 203 projects in H1-2025 document momentum; the RHQ numbers document commitment; the startup licensing and venture rebound document optionality. Together, they form the scaffolding of a non-oil economy that investors and founders can model around.

Challenges remain—predictability, inter-agency clarity, and global macro headwinds—but the direction of travel is unmistakable. As one policymaker put it on stage in Riyadh late last year, the Kingdom is “resilient and investable” even as it manages near-term oil and fiscal variables. For greenfield investors and the startups that orbit them, the actionable question is no longer if Saudi Arabia fits the strategy. It’s where—Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah—and how fast.

Ghada Ismail

Every founder dreams big. Maybe you want to build the next unicorn, shake up an entire industry, or just prove the doubters wrong. We spend endless hours chasing product-market fit, pitching investors, and running growth experiments. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of it matters if your startup can’t survive its first real storm.

And storms will come. That’s where crisis management—an unglamorous but vital skill—quietly decides whether a startup folds or fights through.

The Crisis You Don’t See Coming

Startups rarely die from the challenges we expect. It’s the curveballs that sting. A regulator rolls out new rules that wreck your business model. An investor pulls out right before payroll. Your product crashes just as your first big wave of users arrives. Veteran founders know this. They don’t waste energy pretending crises won’t happen. Instead, they prepare, because preparation beats panic every time.

Why Founders Don’t Talk About It

Let’s be honest: talking about crisis planning doesn’t sound positive. It feels like admitting weakness. Founders prefer to pitch bold visions, not “what if everything breaks?” scenarios. But the thing is, investors and teams don’t expect perfection; they expect adaptability. A founder who says, “Here’s what could go wrong, and here’s how we’ll handle it,” isn’t sowing doubt. They’re building trust.

Building Your Startup’s “Crisis Muscle”

You don’t have to wait for chaos to test you, but you can train for it in the following ways:

1. Scenario mapping. Write down your top “nightmare” risks. For each, note warning signs, who acts first, and what immediate moves you’d make. That’s your crisis textbook.
2. Cash contingencies. Know your minimum runway. Keep an emergency cash reserve that you can fall back on when things go wrong, like a sudden drop in sales, a lawsuit, or a supply chain problem. This safety net gives your startup breathing room to survive a crisis and plan the next move. Founders who survive downturns usually made financial discipline a habit long before.
3. Communication protocols. Don’t wing it when bad news hits. Decide now how you’ll brief your team, investors, and customers. One clear, honest message beats a dozen scattered ones.
4. Be Ready to Pivot. A crisis can reveal weaknesses in your business model. Use it as a chance to adapt, whether that means adjusting your pricing, changing suppliers, or targeting a new customer group.
5. Prepare your employees for the worst. Run “what if” rehearsals with your team and prepare them for different scenarios. What if the platform goes down for 48 hours? What if your biggest client walks? This protocol can save your company later.

Crises Can Spark Breakthroughs

Crises are tough, but they can also open new doors. In Saudi Arabia, startups like HungerStation and Jahez used the disruption of COVID-19 to adapt fast and secure their lead in the market.

The bottom line: a crisis might show you what’s broken, but it can also point you to opportunities you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

To Wrap Things Up…

Vision gets people excited to join your journey. Resilience keeps them there when the dream feels shaky. You don’t need to obsess over every disaster scenario, but you do need a framework for how you’ll respond when—not if—the storm comes.

Think of crisis management as founder insurance. Not the glamorous part of the job, but the part that keeps your dream alive. That’s how you build a startup that doesn’t just grow fast, but rather lasts.

Noha Gad 

The e-payments have become the backbone of modern commerce as they enable everything from online shopping and bill payments to peer-to-peer money transfers and business-to-business transactions. The adoption of e-payments has surged in recent years thanks to their convenience, speed, and security features, such as tokenization and biometric authentication. Both businesses and consumers benefit from the ability to make instant or near-instant payments anytime and anywhere with minimal friction, setting the foundation for a cashless economy. 

Voice payments emerged as one of the latest innovations in the broader e-payments ecosystem. They allow users to perform financial transactions simply by speaking commands to voice-enabled devices like smartphones, smart speakers, or virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri. 

Voice payments leverage artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and voice recognition to interpret spoken instructions, authenticate users, and process payments seamlessly without the need for physical interaction with devices. By saying commands, users can enjoy a faster, more convenient, and hands-free transaction experience.

This type of payment integrates with payment gateways and banks behind the scenes to complete these transactions securely, often using voice biometrics and multi-factor authentication to ensure safety.

How do voice payments work?

To conduct financial transactions via voice, users must follow few steps:

       *Activation: users activate their voice assistant by saying a wake word or opening a voice payment app and tapping the microphone button.  

       *Instruction: the user clearly states their payment command, specifying the action, the recipient, and the amount to be paid or transferred.

       *Voice recognition and processing: The voice assistant captures the spoken command and converts it into text using voice recognition technology. NLP algorithms then interpret the intent and details of the transaction.

       *Authorization: The assistant securely communicates with the user’s linked financial accounts to authorize the transaction. 

       *Authentication: Security steps, such as voice biometrics, passcodes, or multi-factor authentication, may be required.

       *Transaction processing: Once authorized, the payment instructions are transmitted to the payment service provider, which verifies the details and transfers the funds between accounts.

       *Confirmation: The user receives confirmation via voice feedback or on-screen notification.

Although voice payments offer great convenience and innovation in the digital payment space, they also come with several significant challenges and concerns that must be addressed for widespread adoption and trust. This includes:

       *Security risks. The risk of unauthorized transactions grows, as voice commands can be accidentally or maliciously triggered on voice-enabled devices.

       *Privacy. Voice payment systems collect sensitive data, including voice recordings and biometric profiles. Thus, protecting user privacy through secure storage, encryption, and adherence to data protection regulations is critical.

       *Accuracy. Voice recognition still faces challenges regarding accuracy, especially in noisy environments or with diverse linguistic accents and speech patterns.

       *Integration and standardization. The lack of universal standards makes it difficult to integrate voice payments across different devices and platforms. 

Future outlook

The future of voice payments is promising, driven by the rapid growth and transformative innovations that are expected to reshape the way consumers and businesses make financial transactions.  The voice payments market is expected to grow significantly, driven by key trends, including advanced biometric authentication, AI-powered personalization, and the integration of blockchain technology.

With the rising popularity of voice assistants and smart devices, along with consumers’ increasing comfort with voice commands, voice payments are expected to become an integral part of daily financial activities. This shift reflects a broader trend toward more natural, seamless, and user-friendly interactions in digital commerce. 

As voice payment technology matures, it will offer unprecedented convenience, enabling users to conduct transactions with simple spoken commands anytime and anywhere. Businesses and financial institutions are poised to leverage these technologies to streamline payment processes, reduce friction, and engage consumers more effectively.

Finally, voice payments are set to become a mainstream, trusted method of payment, fundamentally changing the way society conducts financial exchanges in the upcoming years.

Kholoud Hussein 

In the evolving landscape of global entrepreneurship, a new breed of companies is taking center stage: AI-first startups. Unlike traditional businesses that adopt artificial intelligence as an enhancement or add-on, AI-first startups are built on the premise that artificial intelligence is not just a tool but the very foundation of their business models. These startups are not simply using AI to optimize; they are reimagining entire industries by placing algorithms, data, and machine learning at the core of their value proposition.

What Makes a Startup “AI-First”?

The distinction between AI-enabled and AI-first is subtle yet transformative. An AI-enabled company might apply machine learning to streamline existing processes, such as automating customer service or improving logistics. An AI-first company, however, is designed with AI as its primary engine of value creation. Its products and services would not exist without AI capabilities—whether it’s predictive healthcare platforms that detect diseases before symptoms emerge, or financial tools that automate lending decisions in real time.

This orientation requires more than just technology adoption; it demands a mindset shift. Founders of AI-first startups begin by asking, “What problem can AI solve that humans alone cannot?” From there, the business model, operational structure, and customer interactions are built around the unique strengths of artificial intelligence.

The Competitive Edge of AI-First Models

Placing AI at the center offers several advantages. First, AI-first startups benefit from exponential scalability. Algorithms learn, improve, and adapt at a speed no human team can match, making it possible to handle vast data volumes and complex decisions with minimal incremental costs.

Second, these companies often create high barriers to entry. Proprietary data sets, refined models, and constant feedback loops mean that competitors without the same AI infrastructure face difficulty catching up. Consider the healthcare AI startup that trains on millions of patient records; its predictive accuracy becomes more robust over time, creating defensible value.

Third, AI-first startups are positioned to unlock entirely new markets. In sectors like education, AI tutors can scale personalized learning experiences to millions of students simultaneously. In agriculture, machine-learning models enable precision farming that boosts yields while conserving resources. In finance, algorithm-driven startups are redefining credit scoring, wealth management, and fraud detection.

Challenges on the AI-First Journey

Yet the AI-first path is far from frictionless. Building such companies demands heavy upfront investment in data infrastructure, talent, and computational resources. Unlike conventional startups that can bootstrap with minimal technology, AI-first ventures often require specialized machine learning engineers and access to high-quality datasets—both of which are scarce and costly.

Moreover, questions around trust and transparency loom large. Customers, regulators, and investors increasingly demand explainable AI. Startups that fail to demonstrate ethical standards risk reputational damage and regulatory pushback. Data privacy and security are also paramount, as breaches or misuse can dismantle consumer confidence overnight.

Another challenge lies in the talent war. Skilled AI professionals are among the most sought-after globally, and early-stage companies must compete with tech giants that can offer far greater compensation. Startups that succeed often do so by creating mission-driven cultures that attract talent motivated by the impact they can make, rather than salary alone.

Why Investors Are Paying Attention

Despite challenges, investors are flocking to AI-first startups. The global surge of funding into generative AI is a testament to the belief that these companies will shape the next decade of innovation. For venture capitalists, the appeal lies in the asymmetry of outcomes: the potential to back companies that can dominate entirely new categories.

A McKinsey report estimates that AI could contribute up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy. Startups that position themselves at the frontier of this transformation stand not only to capture market share but also to dictate the rules of new industries.

The Future Belongs to the AI-First

As industries across the world digitize, the difference between surviving and thriving may come down to how deeply companies embed artificial intelligence into their DNA. AI-first startups are not waiting for incumbents to lead the way; they are rewriting the script entirely.

For founders, this represents both an opportunity and a responsibility: to leverage AI in ways that solve real-world problems, create equitable growth, and maintain trust. For investors and policymakers, the rise of AI-first startups signals a paradigm shift—one where the most valuable companies of the future may not just use AI but will exist because of it.