Even though venture capital funding contracted globally last year, three founders who turned their bootstrapped startup into a $350 million exit are taking a contrarian approach. UAE-based venture builder Disrupt.com announced a $100 million commitment to build and back AI-first technology ventures globally.
Launched by Aaqib Gadit, Uzair Gadit, and Umair Gadit – three university friends who grew up in the same household – Disrupt.com represents the founders’ reinvestment of capital following their successful 2022 exit from cloud hosting platform Cloudways to US-listed Digital Ocean Holdings.
The $350 million acquisition marked the largest exit in Pakistan’s technology sector to date. The founders are now channeling their entrepreneurial expertise and capital back into the ecosystem through a unique venture-building approach from their UAE headquarters.
Having already deployed over $40 million across their portfolio – including in four growth-stage companies built from idea stage, seven investments in early-stage companies, and an exit valued at $350 million – this new $100 million commitment represents a significant expansion of their venture-building activities. And with a dedicated team of 650+ professionals, Disrupt.com provides capital and the technical and operational expertise startups need to scale.
Unlike traditional venture capital firms, Disrupt.com uses a three-pronged approach to creating value: building their startups from scratch, co-building ventures alongside external founders, and making strategic investments in early-stage startups and VC funds. And through their unique ‘CoBuild’ model, they function as fractional co-founders, providing dedicated engineering, go-to-market, and operations teams to drive early adoption in a capital-efficient way.
The firm’s $100 million commitment targets five strategic sectors: AI as a cross-cutting theme, plus cybersecurity, Web3.0, automotive technology, and retail innovation. Disrupt.com primarily targets pre-seed to Series A stage startups that demonstrate strong organic growth potential and clear paths to profitability rather than pursuing growth at all costs.
Disrupt.com’s current portfolio showcases its model’s effectiveness, including ZigChain, a Web3.0 platform that has scaled to 500,000+ users and hundreds of millions in managed assets; PureSquare, a cybersecurity venture; and UAE homegrown fitness apparel brand Squatwolf. The firm has already deployed capital as a strategic investor in several AI-focused startups, including organizational transformation platform Agentnoon and climate action scaling tool Ahya.
In the future, Disrupt.com will direct its $100 million commitment toward ventures with strong product-market fit, well-researched idea-market alignment, and sophisticated unit economics pointing toward profitability.
KEY QUOTES:
“Now is the time to be doubling down on our experience, financial investment and commitment required to help build the next wave of startups that will shape the future of the world as we know it. With Web 3.0 in its infancy and AI storming into our lives, the opportunity to problem solve and create businesses that will fit the needs of how people live and work is up for the taking. Our region can not only keep up, but lead the way. We are excited to see where this journey will take us.”
- Founding partner Aaqib Gadit.
“Some investors write checks. Disrupt.com builds with you. They’ve helped us scale from a few early adopters to managing hundreds of millions in assets and launching our own blockchain.”
- Bartolome R. Bordallo, Co-Founder & CEO of ZigChain
“With Disrupt, you get founder-friendly partners because they’re founders themselves. They understand our challenges and opportunities in a way traditional investors simply cannot.”
- Anam Khalid and Wajdan Gul, Co-founders of UAE-based fitness apparel brand Squatwolf