Presight picks 12 startups for AI accelerator
Global AI startups land spots in Presight AI-Startup Accelerator Cohort II
#UAE #startup — Abu Dhabi-listed applied AI company Presight has selected 12 companies to join Cohort II of its AI-Startup Accelerator, chosen from 376 applications across 62 countries. The 33 companies that made the initial shortlist had collectively raised more than $341 million in capital and reached a combined valuation exceeding $2.1 billion, backed by investors including South Korea’s Samsung Ventures, US chipmaker AMD, and US asset manager Franklin Templeton. The selected firms span AI safety, satellite emissions monitoring, clinical early-warning systems, and data centre infrastructure, and will gain access to the ecosystems of Presight and its majority owner, Abu Dhabi AI and cloud company G42.
SO WHAT? — The calibre of applicants matters more here than the number of accepted participants in the accelerator. A shortlist that’s already raised $341 million and hit a $2.1 billion combined valuation before joining, shows that the programme is attracting the right ventures and hints at the filters being used in the selection process. The Presight accelerator is focusing on AI startups that are already exceptional candidates to further commercialise and deploy at scale and crucially G42 can provide the ecosystem to help them do exactly that.
KEY POINTS:
Abu Dhabi-listed applied AI company Presight has selected 12 companies for Cohort II of its AI Accelerator programme, narrowed from 376 applications across 62 countries since April.
The initial 33-company shortlist had collectively raised more than $341 million in capital, generated over $28 million in contracted annual recurring revenue, and reached a combined valuation exceeding $2.1 billion.
Backers of shortlisted companies include Samsung Ventures, AMD, LG, Atlantic Labs, Airbus Ventures, KDB Capital and Franklin Templeton.
The 12 selected companies span AI safety and red-teaming, satellite methane monitoring, clinical early-warning systems, drone-based infrastructure inspection, data centre AI infrastructure, and financial-fraud detection, drawn from South Korea, Germany, the US, the UK, Singapore, Kazakhstan and the UAE.
An eight-member jury including representatives from the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, Abu Dhabi AI university MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi AI and cloud company G42, and Singapore venture firm K3 Ventures evaluated the finalists.
The AI startups selected for Cohort II are:
AIM Intelligence (South Korea) — AI safety and security company
AIRMO (Germany / Lux. / UAE) — Satellite monitoring of methane emissions
AITRICS (South Korea) — Clinical early-warning AI for hospitals
Dtonic (South Korea) — Edge computing for real-time operational intelligence
Featherless AI (USA) — Serverless AI inference & flexible fine-tuning
FlyNex (Germany) — Automated, drone-based inspection platform
FortyGuard (UAE) — AI-powered temperature intelligence for business
MangoBoost (South Korea / USA) — HW-SW codesigned infrastructure
rahd·AI (UK) — AI analytics for energy sector decommissioning processes
TheStage AI (USA) — Automated AI model acceleration
Transparently.AI (Singapore) — Forensic-finance AI for accounting
Trust Exam (Kazakhstan) — AI proctoring and exam security
Cohort II participants gain access to G42 and Presight’s technical guidance, an international advisory board chaired by Presight Chairman Mansoor Al Mansoori, and potential investment from Presight’s venture capital arm, following the same model used for Cohort I.
The Cohort II Bootcamp will run in the coming months, connecting participating companies to commercial opportunities across the UAE ecosystem.
Presight is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi-based G42 and is listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).
ZOOM OUT — Presight launched the accelerator at Expand North Star in Dubai in October 2024, originally as a three-month programme aimed at early-stage AI startups with working prototypes across MENA, South-East Asia and Central Asia. The accelerator had a slightly narrower brief for its first cohort: to help companies refine their business models and reach product-market fit before scaling. Backed by access to Presight’s computing infrastructure, foundational language models, and the wider G42 Group ecosystem, the launch of the programme resonated immediately with startups. The new accelerator’s proposition was further bolstered last year with the launch of an accompanying $100 million million global AI innovation fund, formed in partnership with Abu Dhabi-headquartered investment firm Shorooq.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: AIREV, MEAIN
Read more about the Presight AI-Startup Accelerator:
Presight AI Accelerator triples applications for Cohort II (Middle East AI News)
NodeShift partners with Presight for global expansion (Middle East AI News)
Presight-Shorooq AI fund deploys capital in five companies (Middle East AI News)
Presight opens applications for second AI Accelerator (Middle East AI News)
Presight & Shorooq launch $100 million AI fund (Middle East AI News)