BY Venture Partners closes $60M Fund III for AI-native startups

DUBAI — BY Venture Partners has closed a $60 million Fund III to back AI-native companies from pre-seed to Series A, taking total assets under management past $200 million including co-investment vehicles.

Dubai Future District Fund anchored the raise, with MultiLane, Transmed Capital and Saudi Arabia's Idriss Family Office among the LPs. DFDF's managing director Nader Albastaki tied the cheque directly to Dubai's D33 agenda: bringing global AI-native companies into Dubai and taking regional founders out to international markets.

The fund writes tickets up to $1 million into enterprise-workflow AI, and fifteen of a planned forty investments are already deployed, including PQ Shield, Cosyne, Isometric and Huspy. Founding partners Ghaith Yafi, Abdallah Yafi, Rami Jisr and Sohrab Jahanbani started the firm in 2015; earlier funds backed NymCard, Toters and Onfido.

This is the fifth regional fund-formation story inside 48 hours, after Noha, Phaze, Nclude and Tanmiya. The Gulf's dry powder is being rebuilt at every stage at once.

Watch the Lebanon angle: BY has pledged half the carry from its new Lebanese Angel Investor Network mandate to rebuilding that ecosystem, a structural bet that diaspora capital follows formal vehicles.

Wamda first reported the close.