Mastercard Lighthouse UAE Picks Six AI Startups

Mastercard Lighthouse UAE has selected six AI startups for its inaugural UAE cohort: Loyyal, NewForm Technologies, NodeShift, Polynome, Valura.Ai and zypl.ai. Chosen from 14 finalists, the companies will participate in a four-month mentorship programme run by the UAE Artificial Intelligence Office together with Mastercard’s Center for Advanced AI and Cyber Technology in Dubai, concluding with a Demo Day and opportunities for pilot collaborations with financial institutions and investors.

"Investing in AI startups is a direct investment in the future economy. Initiatives such as the Mastercard Lighthouse UAE program provide an integrated ecosystem that enables high-potential companies to refine their solutions, accelerate growth, and scale internationally," said Dr. Abdelrahman Al Mahmoud, Director at the Artificial Intelligence Office.

The cohort reflects a focus on agentic AI, fintech, smart commerce and risk management. The six selected firms offer a mix of vertical specialisations:

• Loyyal — an AI and blockchain-powered loyalty platform serving banks, airlines and retailers.
• NewForm Technologies — creator of FinAI Studio, an agentic AI platform that automates banking operations for regulated institutions.
• NodeShift — provides secure access to leading AI models with data anonymised prior to processing.
• Polynome — builds multilingual agentic AI solutions for banks, government and aviation in Arabic and English.
• zypl.ai — specialises in AI risk management built on synthetic data for credit scoring and fraud detection, active in more than 20 markets.
• Valura.AI — an AI investment platform covering onboarding to portfolio rebalancing, licensed in the UAE and India.

Mastercard Lighthouse has operated globally since 2018, expanding from the Nordic and Baltic regions to Türkiye and now the UAE. The programme reports more than 300 collaborations, over $1.3 billion in investments and 228 alumni, including several that reached unicorn status. The UAE edition launched in May and prioritises solutions that can be piloted with financial institutions and scaled internationally.

"Mastercard Lighthouse UAE is proud to welcome its first cohort of founders. Delivered under our Center for Advanced AI and Cyber Technology, the selected startups bring together different strengths, diverse perspectives and a shared ambition to build bold solutions that can shape the future of financial services and AI in the UAE," Mastercard said in announcing the cohort.

The selection adds to a broader pattern of activity in the Emirates that targets AI startups across public and private channels. Recent initiatives include a Mastercard-backed founder finance offer at Dubai Founders HQ, experiments allowing AI startups access to systems at Dubai’s largest bank, and an early-stage AI programme in Abu Dhabi. Smaller funding rounds continue alongside accelerator moves; earlier this year a Dubai customer-intelligence startup raised a $1 million pre-seed round.

For the six cohort companies, the next four months will centre on mentorship from Mastercard’s global experts, technical and commercial pilots with regional partners, and investor engagement culminating in a Demo Day. Success in the programme could accelerate regional adoption and prepare participants for global expansion, leveraging Mastercard Lighthouse’s network and track record of follow-on investment and corporate collaborations.