Abu Dhabi’s Shorooq to invest $9m in two content creation ventures

Amount will be offered to winners of a competition at the 1 Billion Followers Summit

The 1 Billion Followers Summit is contributing $4 million for the two co-investment deals. Antonie Robertson/The National

Shorooq, an alternative investment company based in Abu Dhabi, is investing $9 million in two ventures that participated in the one billion pitches competition as part of the 1 Billion Followers Summit.

Shorooq, which invests across several asset classes, will invest $6 million into Halo AI, a platform that allows brands with influencers to build autonomous marketing campaigns and reduce the amount of manual work by about 85 per cent.

It will also invest $3 million in Eugenius, a cross-culture storytelling platform led by Korean media expert Eugena Jung, who is helping to create Korean-style dramas using Middle East content.

The 1 Billion Followers Summit, the three-day global content-focused event, which concludes in Dubai on Monday, is also contributing $4 million for the two co-investment deals.

The two winners were selected from the top 25 applications that were shortlisted by a jury of experts and prominent investors, based on feasibility, pitch quality, market potential, creativity, scalability, potential social and economic impact, as well as leadership capabilities criteria.

In November, the summit and Shorooq agreed to jointly provide Dh50 million for the competition.

Shorooq has contributed Dh30 million in funding and direct investments for the programme, while the summit has provided Dh20 million, offering start-ups and entrepreneurs with content-focused ideas the opportunity to secure potential funding and support.

Influencer economy

Mahmoud Adi, the founder and chief executive of Shorooq, says investing in the emerging content creator economy aligns with "who we are".

"You will always find us where there's a new economy, new opportunities, and a new value creation that is happening," he told The National.

The creator economy, or influencer industry, was valued at $250 billion in 2024, and is expected to double in the next three to four years, according to Goldman Sachs.

Mr Adi said Shorooq's targets for investment are not big-hitting mainstream influencers but rather micro-influencers, or those with a social media following higher than the average person's but less than a celebrity's – generally between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. Their reach is much less than those of macro-influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, but they engender greater engagement.

"A macro-influencer or large influencer, they're good at driving a brand and brand awareness, but to help you in the decision of buying this product versus that product, actually micro-influencers usually have the highest engagement," he said.

Shorooq sees great potential in the future of the content creator and influencer market and aims to become a major player in the fast-growing market.

"We don't invest in anything that we don't believe will generate 10x for us," he said. Choosing the right partners to do this with, such as Eugenius and Halo AI, is a carefully undertaken process to identify early-stage companies that are driven and have the skillsets and knowledge needed to become a key future industry player.

As with Eugenius, which is geared to bring a greater Korean audience to Middle East content and storytelling, this is a type of micro-influence that is using inclusivity to drive purchasing power.

"Where you'll find a really good investment at is when we kind of drive inclusivity, and inclusivity drives efficiency, and efficiency drives value creation – and value creation is very big profit," he said.

Shorooq, which is regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in Abu Dhabi, has a diverse portfolio with investments in the Middle East and North African markets and beyond.

With a focus on FinTech, software, deep tech and platforms, the gross equity value of its portfolio is $5 billion. It has made 85 investments across 11 countries that generate more than $500 million in revenue.

The company’s portfolio of investments includes agriculture company Pure Harvest, buy-now-pay-later platform Tamara, tech-driven logistics solutions provider TruKKer, AI-powered financial solutions provider Mozn, digital payment solutions provider NymCard and wealth management and trading platform Sarwa.

Shorooq is backed by regional and global investors, as well as sovereign wealth funds and corporates in the Middle East and Asia including Abu Dhabi’s holding company ADQ, Lunate, Mubadala Investment Company and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In December, Shorooq announced a partnership with South Korea’s Hanwha Life, a life insurer and investor, to bridge the investment corridors between Asia and the Middle East.