Five MENA startups join Propeller’s Silicon Valley cohort - My Startup World - Everything About the World of Startups!

Propeller has announced the inaugural cohort of Kernel Camp, its annual deep‑tech residency program based in Silicon Valley, welcoming five startups from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt to an intensive eight‑week residency in the Bay Area. The program, announced in December 2025 as a core pillar of Propeller’s cross‑border strategy following the launch of Fund III, places MENA founders at the centre of the global AI and infrastructure ecosystem and will culminate in a demo day for Propeller’s Bay Area community in May 2026.

“Kernel Camp is a statement of our belief in the extraordinary talent emerging from the MENA region. Seeing this cohort land in Silicon Valley is a milestone we’ve been building toward since the launch of Fund III. These founders are technically exceptional, and this environment will push them to build faster, think bigger, and connect with the networks that matter most at this stage of their journey,” said Zaid Farekh, Founder & Managing Partner at Propeller.

The cohort

The inaugural Kernel Camp cohort brings together five companies operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure, developer tooling and cybersecurity. Propeller has positioned the residency to close what it describes as a structural gap: enabling technically strong, demo‑ready founders from MENA to access Silicon Valley’s networks of engineers, operators and capital.

• OORB (Tunisia) — a cloud robotics workspace for building and testing ROS projects in the browser.
• Techbible (Morocco) — an AI Stack Manager that provides companies with full visibility into their SaaS and AI tool spend.
• Firstflow (Jordan) — an onboarding and analytics layer for AI agents.
• Nexguards (Egypt) — a personalized cyber attack simulation and security awareness platform.
• Flowbrave (Morocco) — an intelligent operations platform that transforms static processes into AI‑guided workflows.

“Founders don’t build alone. The Kernel Camp cohort isn’t just here to learn, they’re here to become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. We’ve curated an environment where community, technical depth, and cross‑border networks converge. These are the kinds of founders who will define MENA’s contribution to global deep‑tech over the next decade,” added Hani Azzam, Partner at Propeller.

Program details and context

Kernel Camp targets founders working full‑time on companies that are demo‑ready and showing early signs of traction. The residency provides fully sponsored housing, curated workshops, weekly guest sessions, one‑on‑one office hours with world‑class builders, and site visits to leading technology companies and venture firms across the Bay Area. Propeller says the programme is designed not only to place founders physically in Silicon Valley but to embed them into the conversations and communities shaping AI and infrastructure globally.

Over the eight weeks, the startups will gain exposure to engineers, operators and investors in the Bay Area and will conclude the residency with a demo day in May 2026 aimed at Propeller’s local network. The initiative follows Propeller’s broader cross‑border strategy tied to Fund III and reflects the firm’s effort to create more structured pathways for MENA founders into Silicon Valley’s ecosystem.

Outlook

Propeller expects the cohort to accelerate product development, expand networks and attract follow‑on capital as founders leverage Silicon Valley technical depth and operational know‑how. With Kernel Camp positioned as an annual residency, the firm signals a sustained commitment to building bridges between the MENA deep‑tech community and the global hubs where AI infrastructure and developer tooling are rapidly evolving.