Gulf Founders Are Building in 18 Months What Used to Take 8 Years : Sukna Ventures Is Backing Them - FINTECH.TV

Sukna Ventures is making a case that artificial intelligence has compressed the startup build cycle in the Gulf: companies that once needed eight years and roughly $20 million to reach prototype can now produce live prototypes in about 18 months with as little as $400,000 in friends-and-family funding, the fund's General Partner Mazin Alshanbari told Bassel Sabri at Money 20/20 Middle East in Riyadh. Sukna, a pre-seed and seed-stage investor, is backing founders who are leaning on AI and lean teams to deliver world-class products with far less capital.

Direct quote

“We invest in people, not companies,” Alshanbari said. On the role of storytelling he added: “The founder's ability to tell the story clearly is a huge one. It ensures they can raise capital. It ensures they can bring in talent to help them build the organisation.”

Context and details

Alshanbari, speaking with host Bassel Sabri, laid out Sukna Ventures’ thesis for early-stage deployment across the Gulf: at pre-seed and seed stages the primary signal is the team. “Towards the earlier stages, it is all about the team. The picture is murky. It is not very clear. As you advance more, it becomes about the fundamentals — the size of the problem the founders are trying to solve, and what makes them positioned among the best potential leaders to actually solve it and derive economic benefit by doing that,” he said.

He identified non-obvious indicators—prior collaboration history, first-time founder status, and founders’ credibility and authenticity—as critical inputs for the fund’s decision-making. Those human factors, Alshanbari argued, matter because early-stage companies need to attract talent and capital on tight budgets.

• Prototype timeline comparison: a Gulf startup produced a live prototype in approximately 18 months with $400,000 in friends-and-family funding versus a nearest U.S. competitor that required eight years and about $20 million.
• Stage focus: Sukna operates at pre-seed and seed and will follow on to Series A but typically evaluates later-stage metrics—KPIs, efficiency, growth trajectories—when Series A looms.
• Team assessment: Sukna prioritises “genuineness, credibility, and authenticity” alongside a founder’s narrative ability.

Alshanbari said the AI revolution is shifting unit economics and capital efficiency: “Teams can be very efficient. Your investable dollars can go a lot further today. Founders are more disciplined, they have the tools to make them more efficient, and they are building world-class businesses with a lot less capital.” He noted that later-stage investors focus heavily on measurable KPIs and an organisation’s adaptability—especially as many SaaS businesses pivot toward AI post-Series A.

Outlook

For Sukna Ventures, the implication is clear: deploy capital earlier into strong teams that can exploit AI-enabled tooling to compress timelines and reduce cash burn. If the 18-month, $400,000 prototype becomes the new baseline rather than an anomaly, early-stage investors in the Gulf will increasingly measure founders on team quality, storytelling, and operational focus rather than sheer capital commitments. That shift could channel more efficient capital deployment into startups positioned to scale quickly into Series A, where traditional metrics and growth economics will again dominate underwriting decisions.