Scale AI alum raises $9 M for 1001 AI, a London- and Dubai-based venture building AI infrastructure for high-stakes sectors across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).
Bilal Abu-Ghazaleh, who previously held roles at Scale AI in California, has founded 1001 AI to tackle massive inefficiencies in industries such as aviation, logistics, oil & gas and construction across the Gulf. The startup announced today it has closed a $9 million seed round led by CIV, General Catalyst and Lux Capital, with participation from angel investors including Chris Ré, Amjad Masad, Amira Sajwani and Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud.
Abu-Ghazaleh told us the company will use the funding to deploy an AI-native decision-making operating system that automates operational workflows in critical, asset-heavy industries. “Looking at aviation, ports and construction alone, we see more than $10 billion in inefficiencies just in the Gulf,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch.
1001 AI is already engaging with major airports, mega-construction projects and flagship oil & gas companies, aiming to launch its first commercial product by year-end. The platform integrates real-time data from clients’ existing systems and uses AI to automate orchestration — for example rerouting fuel trucks, reassigning crews or adjusting gate operations without manual intervention.
Raised in Jordan and educated in the U.S., Abu-Ghazaleh brings deep experience: at Scale AI he scaled the contributor network responsible for labeling training data and later joined the company’s international public-sector unit. He left to found 1001 AI — a move he described as “bringing Silicon Valley AI practices to the MENA region.”
Investment in the MENA region’s AI ecosystem is surging. According to Wamda, the region recorded $4.5 billion in startup funding in Q3 2025. Investors such as Lux Capital emphasise that the region’s large-scale physical infrastructure projects — ports, airports and construction zones — are ripe for AI optimisation. “We’re extremely bullish on AI that solves physical-world problems at scale,” said Deena Shakir of Lux Capital.
With the seed round secured, 1001 AI is expanding its engineering and operations teams across Dubai and London. Abu-Ghazaleh said that over the next five years the startup aims to become the go-to AI orchestration layer across the Gulf’s infrastructure sectors, before expanding globally.