• UAE-based VC Crescent Enterprises has launched a $68 million investment programme to scale CE-Creates' venture-building platform.
• The investment, paired with the appointment of Rakhil Fernando as Head of CE-Creates, marks a major expansion of the platform’s mission to build high-growth, impact-driven startups from the UAE to global markets.
• CE-Creates operates as a sector-agnostic venture studio, deploying patient capital and hands-on operational support to turn early-stage ideas into scalable international businesses.
• The platform has already incubated ventures such as Kava & Chai (coffee and tea heritage), ION (sustainable mobility), and BreakBread (digital food experience platform).

Press release:

Crescent Enterprises today announced an investment programme of $68 million (AED 250 million) to scale CE-Creates, its venture-building platform. The fresh capital, combined with new leadership, marks a major expansion of CE-Creates’ role as a builder and scaler of high-growth, impact-driven startups from the UAE to the world.

Operating as a sector-agnostic venture studio, CE-Creates will deploy staged, patient capital alongside deep operational expertise and ecosystem access to turn early-stage concepts into globally competitive businesses capable of scaling from MENA to international markets.

Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises, commented, “The UAE has become a launchpad for serious builders, and our collective vision is for the country to be known as the start-up capital of the world. With CE-Creates, our venture-building platform, we’re helping entrepreneurs convert purpose into performance – locally proven, globally competitive.”

CE-Creates has already helped catalyse a number of ventures, including Kava & Chai (celebrating the region’s coffee and tea heritage), ION (developing sustainable mobility solutions), and BreakBread (a community-centred digital food experience and supper club platform).

“This AED 250 million allocation marks an exciting new chapter for CE-Creates and for regional entrepreneurship,” said Tushar Singhvi, Deputy CEO and Head of Investments at Crescent Enterprises. “Our model blends disciplined capital deployment with on-the-ground operating support in ways traditional venture funding often does not—creating the conditions for sustainable growth and international scale.”

CE-Creates follows a stage-gated methodology from idea validation to MVP, go-to-market, and scale-up – benchmarking each step against clear milestones and performance metrics to improve product-market fit, reduce risk, and accelerate growth.

“Having built and scaled companies from the ground up, I know the hurdles founders face. At CE-Creates, entrepreneurs can build with confidence – backed by capital, operating tools, and partnerships that unlock regional and global potential,” said Rakhil Fernando, the newly appointed Head of CE-Creates.

Rakhil Fernando has extensive entrepreneurial and operating experience as both a founder and a venture studio leader. Previously to CE-Creates, he served as CEO of Yabi, a personal finance platform built on AI-driven financial literacy and coaching; founder and CEO of Koko, a leading BNPL and consumer payments platform under Alibaba Group that scaled across South Asia; and Managing Director at Daraz (Alibaba Group), where he helped scale one of the region’s largest e-commerce platforms.

The initiative reinforces Crescent Enterprises’ broader commitment to innovation, sustainability, and inclusive growth, and aligns with the UAE’s ambition and positioning as a leading global hub for entrepreneurship and SMEs. The UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism’s newly launched campaign, ‘The Emirates: The Startup Capital of the World’ is set to further solidify the UAE’s position as a global hub for entrepreneurship. Having secured top ranking in the 2024-2025 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for the fourth year running, the UAE has also been recognised as the best destination for entrepreneurship and SMEs among 56 evaluated economies worldwide.