Press release:
Oman-headquartered Phaze Ventures announced the launch of two new venture funds targeting over $75 million.
Phaze Ventures Fund II, anchored by ITHCA Group (a subsidiary of Oman Investment Authority), Ominvest and Oman LNG Development Foundation, continues the firm’s global AI and deeptech investment mandate, while Phaze Ventures Oman Fund, anchored by Future Fund Oman, establishes a dedicated capital pool for homegrown AI-enabled businesses.
Together, the two-fund venture platform has secured over $40 million in investor commitments, with ongoing discussions to grow the funds to $75 million. The announcement comes as Oman builds the International Financial Centre of Oman, a new hub for international companies and investors.
“AI is the most disruptive technology shift of our generation. Oman and the Gulf can’t afford to be spectators, and our participation can’t be limited to playing catch-up through investments in hyperscalers, data centres and public market offerings. We need to invest in the founders disrupting industries at home and across the globe, and we need to be a part of that disruption early,” said Abdullah Al Shaksy, Co-founder and CEO of Phaze Ventures.
The new funds’ first 10 investments include Arabic.AI, Sully.ai, Andromeda Surgical, Boardy.ai and Metal, with co-investors including a16z, 8VC, Standard Capital, Y Combinator and Baidu Ventures.
“We back founders who combine domain expertise with strong engineering and learn from every real-world deployment,” said Masoud Al Rawahi, Co-founder and Partner at Phaze Ventures.
Nour Al Hassan, Founder and CEO of Arabic.AI, said: “Getting to know the Phaze Ventures team convinced me they were the right partners. They shared our ambition to build AI our region can own and our long-term commitment to make it happen.” Arabic.AI develops Arabic-language enterprise AI, supported by investment from Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN and a partnership with Qualcomm Technologies.
Ahmed Omar, Co-founder and CEO of Sully.ai, said: “Phaze Ventures understood early how Sully could leverage AI to bring more capacity and real returns to the global healthcare system. They backed us every step of the way as we scaled globally, and were able to connect us with healthcare providers who could put our product to work.” NVIDIA highlighted Sully.ai in a case study showing a 90% reduction in inference costs and a 65% improvement in response times for medical workflows.
That early conviction extends to Andromeda Surgical, which Phaze Ventures backed before its US$15 million Series A led by Standard Capital. Nick Damiano, Co-founder and CEO of Andromeda Surgical, said: “Phaze Ventures didn’t shy away from a frontier problem like building the autonomous AI-guided future of robotic surgery. They recognised our team’s rare combination of medical and autonomy expertise, backed us early, and have been proactive in opening doors through their regional network.”
The new fund platform has backed players in the capital markets ecosystem, including Metal and Boardy.ai. Phaze Ventures invested in Metal’s seed round alongside Y Combinator and a16z. Metal’s AI fundraising platform helps hundreds of founders manage their capital raise uses AI to connect founders with investors, customers and talent.
Usman Gul, Founder and CEO of Metal, said: “In today’s venture landscape, slow capital is expensive. I’ve raised from some of the world’s leading venture firms, and Phaze Ventures brings the same speed and foresight. They moved quickly to back us early and became committed partners as we rapidly scaled Metal’s AI-driven operating system for founders raising venture rounds.” A two-time founder, Usman previously raised US$120 million from investors including First Round Capital and 20VC.
With team members in Muscat, Dubai and Riyadh, Phaze Ventures manages capital for over 50 investors, including sovereign entities, listed companies, corporates, family offices and business families across Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India and beyond.
“Investors across Oman and the Gulf want a stake in the next generation of AI companies while they are still taking shape. This platform is our answer” said Mohammed Al Wahaibi, Co-founder and Partner at Phaze Ventures.