Cloud startup Ori backed by Wa’ed Ventures as it eyes Saudi Arabia growth
Ori, a UK-based provider of cloud infrastructure for AI, has secured a key strategic investment from Wa’ed Ventures, Saudi Aramco’s venture capital arm, as it eyes up explosive growth in the Middle East market over the coming 12 months. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of news that Ori was one of the UK’s first AI infrastructure companies to deploy NVIDIA’s H200 chips as the startup positions itself as the go-to AI infrastructure provider of choice in the UK, Middle East, and globally.
Ori is a UK-based startup that enables large-scale AI model training, inference, and deployment for large corporates, enterprises, and fast-growth AI scaleups through its cloud platform. Since launch in 2019, the business has rapidly scaled to a presence in over 20 locations, predominantly across North America and Europe.
Now the fast-growth startup is eyeing a rapid growth into the Middle East as the region’s demand for AI infrastructure balloons. With Wa’ed Ventures’ strategic backing, Ori will accelerate its localisation in Saudi Arabia, where it will power AI innovation across the region.
Ori’s localisation in Saudi Arabia will kick off with the launch of a regional subsidiary based in Riyadh. The new subsidiary will focus on fostering talent as a direct contribution to supporting the country’s Vision 2030 initiative to advance technology and innovation.
Wa’ed Ventures is the VC arm of Saudi Aramco, the petroleum and natural gas giant – the world’s fourth largest company by revenue as of 2024. The $500 million fund invests in industry-leading tech startups across various technology verticals.
The Saudi Arabian fund moved its sights internationally in 2022, looking for founders who can localise leading technology platforms and services into the Saudi Arabian market as the nation seeks to strengthen its capabilities in key technology verticals such as artificial intelligence.
The fund has recently backed startups including the AI chipmaker Rebellions, and real estate fintech company Stake.
Ori recently raised £140 million in investment and already has another larger raise underway which is due to complete in 2025. The firm is partnered with leading global technology firms including Nvidia, Supermicro, and Dell, and is backed by investors including Telefónica, NextEra Energy, Episode 1 Ventures, and 6DC.
Founder and CEO of Ori, Mahdi Yahya, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Saudi Aramco’s VC fund Wa’ed Ventures as a strategic investor in Ori. This partnership not only provides us with the resources to scale faster into the Middle East, but also aligns with our vision to provide end-to-end AI infrastructure for innovators and businesses around the world.”
CIO of Wa’ed Ventures, Muhammed Zeeshan Hassan, said: “At Wa’ed Ventures, we seek to empower pioneering startups that bring transformative technologies to the local and regional market. Our investment in Ori reflects our commitment to advancing AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. As demand for GPU cloud solutions accelerates, Ori’s technology enables businesses to scale AI workloads efficiently. This partnership will also provide our AI portfolio companies with cutting-edge cloud infrastructure, ensuring they have the computing power needed to build and scale transformative AI solutions. We are excited to support Ori’s vision in shaping the future of AI-driven computing.”
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