Strategies for securing financial funds and AI investments

AI business owners must adopt a forward-thinking mindset and remain adaptable if they are to successfully secure investment, experts told attendees at Ai Everything Global 2025.

At the global exhibition at the Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC), AI investments became a key topic of the inaugural edition.

The event hosted numerous engaging discussions and also featured a venture capitalist who shared his story behind the decision to invest in Elon Musk’s latest AI venture.

The Investor Programme

Hosting the Investor Programme, Ai Everything Global attracted over 150 top investors, including venture capitalists, family offices, funds, CVCs, accelerators and angels managing over $70 billion in assets.

As part of the programme, investors engaged in pre-scheduled targeted meetings through a concierge team, connecting with 250 innovative AI-driven start-ups to scout businesses that aligned with their investment thesis.

Perspectives and experiences

Among those who joined the stage was Igor Ryabenkiy, Managing Partner at AltaIR Capital and an early investor of several unicorns like PandaDoc, Miro, OpenWeb, Deel, Turing and many others.

Ryabenkiy has worked with more than 350 tech start ups, nine of them within the select group of pioneering and fast-scalable businesses surpassing the one billion valuation.

With the AI market accelerating at an unprecedented pace, demand for AI-focused businesses and start-ups is skyrocketing, creating growth opportunities.

“Time is changing rapidly and competition is fierce”

Ryabenkiy stressed that entrepreneurs seeking financial backing must not only impress with their product but also with a clear vision of where they want to go in the future.

Ryabenkiy commented: “The product is crucial, but thinking outside the box can help attract investment.

“The most important part is understanding where they want to be as a company in a few years’ time. This gives me insight into their current trajectory and future potential.

“Time is changing rapidly and competition is fierce, especially with so many companies vying to develop the same product.

“Understanding their future plans is crucial, but entrepreneurs also need to be prepared for the challenges they may face.

He concluded: “More importantly, they need to know their product really well, be adaptable to making changes if things are not working and articulate how they can bring their ideas to life.”

“Investing in Musk’s xAI company is a no-brainer”

Attendees also heard from Kevin Jiang, Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder, Mangusta Capital.

Jiang shared his excitement about AI’s transformative potential and the reasoning behind investing in xAI stating: “On xAI, one of the things that I’m very grateful for is, through my two partners and our networks, we were able to get an allocation to the round early last year.

“That was a strong performing investment for us and we’re now excited to have that in our portfolio. When we think about the thesis, a lot of it hinges upon Elon’s ecosystem that is built.

He continued: “There’s a ton of different pieces of his ecosystem that we think would drive significant benefits to xAI where there is a unique data set that no one else has.

“One of the key theses’ when we were looking at the investment was which company has the strongest ecosystem to tap into and without a doubt, it’s Elon Musk’s ecosystem.”