Abu Dhabi's Shorooq, Presight back US robotics firm in $100M round

Summary

• Shorooq and G42-backed Presight joined a $100 million Series A in US-based Maven Robotics
• Maven, founded 2024 in Santa Clara, builds robots for logistics and manufacturing floors
• Deal pushes Gulf capital into Silicon Valley's physical AI race, beyond software models

The latest

A $100 million Series A has gone to Maven Robotics, the Santa Clara-based maker of industrial robots, with Abu Dhabi's Shorooq Partners and Abu Dhabi-listed Presight among the backers. The two invested through the Presight-Shorooq AI Fund and the Bidaya Fund, both managed by Shorooq. Robo Strategy, Local Globe, Vine Ventures and XTX Ventures also took part.

Details

• The company: Maven Robotics was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, designing, building and deploying intelligent robots for logistics and manufacturing. The company says it is building the first general-purpose robotics system, according to the announcement.
• Operating numbers: Maven's robots currently run up to 16 hours a day at customer sites with reliability above 99%, per the statement. The company started with two workflows, mixed-load pallet building and case handling, which it estimates address a market worth about $80 billion.
• Use of funds: The new capital will fund a third-generation fleet and the design of a fourth generation, as Maven moves from pallet building toward broader material handling. The company plans to build 250 third-generation machines, without giving a delivery timeline.
• Shorooq's position: Bilal Piot Bilouch, partner at Shorooq, said the first wave of AI reshaped how the world handles information while the next will reshape how the physical economy runs. Maven's distinction, he added, is solving one industrial problem at a time rather than chasing a research benchmark.
• Presight's position: Presight chief executive Thomas Pramotedham said AI creates value when it works reliably inside real business environments. He described Maven as applying intelligence to physical work, moving and handling goods, where performance is measured by operational results rather than model scores.
• Why together: According to the statement, Shorooq brings investment discipline and a company-building record, while Presight contributes applied AI expertise and access to a compute and AI ecosystem through G42. The stake is managed through the first Presight-Shorooq fund.
• Founder's framing: Hamza Darbas, Maven's chief executive and co-founder, said his company is not racing to build the largest model but to solve the industrial labour problem. He said the investors supply compute, data and enterprise relationships that accelerate deployment, and described the region as a launch point for taking the robots global.
• The investors: Presight is publicly traded on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange under the ticker PRESIGHT, with Abu Dhabi-based G42 holding a majority stake. Shorooq invests in artificial intelligence and deep-tech companies globally. Bilouch said backing such a company from Abu Dhabi into Silicon Valley is what investing in advanced technology from the region means in practice.
• Not disclosed: The announcement did not specify the size of the stake Shorooq and Presight acquired in Maven, nor the company's valuation after the round, nor a schedule for the fourth-generation design work.

Background

Physical AI refers to embedding AI models in machines that operate in the real world, such as warehouse robots and production lines, as opposed to models that only process text and images. The warehouse automation market is valued in the tens of billions of dollars, per the statement.

Between the lines

Choosing a California-based company rather than a regional one suggests the joint Shorooq-Presight fund is aimed at reaching advanced technology outside the region more than developing it inside. The way Bilouch and Darbas both linked Abu Dhabi to global expansion points to the Emirati ecosystem being positioned as a distribution and compute channel, not only an end market for the robots.

What's next

Trackable signals: the start of deliveries for the 250 third-generation machines, any disclosure of the investment's impact in Presight's results on the Abu Dhabi exchange, and further deals from the first Presight-Shorooq fund.

Source: Zawya (press release)