• UAE-based climatetech Planno has secured a strategic investment from Incubayt Investments, the sustainability-focused venture firm founded by Sami Khoreibi, to accelerate its international expansion and strengthen its geospatial AI platform for the solar industry.
• Founded in 2023 by Daniel Domingues, Planno develops a geospatial AI platform that combines satellite imagery and local market data to help solar developers, EPC firms, and public agencies identify high-potential commercial and industrial rooftops for solar installations.
• Following Incubayt's investment, Planno has expanded from the GCC into 16 markets across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the United States, serving customers ranging from regional solar developers to global energy companies.

Press release:

Planno, the Dubai-headquartered Geospatial AI (GeoAI) platform for solar developers, today announced a strategic investment from Incubayt Investments, the sustainability-focused venture firm founded by Sami Khoreibi, who built the Arab world's first utility-scale solar developer and exited it to a UK pension fund. The investment is Incubayt's first in geospatial AI for solar, and it carried Planno from Dubai into 16 markets.

"We invest in founders building globally ambitious projects from the UAE on problems that matter at scale," said Sami Khoreibi. 

"The solar industry has never been short of capital or sunlight. What it has lacked is intelligence. Where to build, and who owns the roof. In a data-driven economy, that insight is as valuable as the projects themselves. Planno is exactly that."

Global electricity demand is climbing as AI data centres come online and geopolitical tension pushes energy costs higher. "Oil and gas are global commodities. Even countries that produce them feel every shock because the price is set somewhere else," said Daniel Domingues, Founder and CEO of Planno. "Rooftop solar is one of the few cost-control levers a commercial operator actually owns."

Energy assets sit idle

Dubai is one of the most active rooftop solar markets in the Middle East. Solar-equipped rooftops in the city grew by 39% between late 2023 and the first quarter of 2025.

Even so, Planno’s analysis of every commercial and industrial rooftop in the Emirate shows the market remains mostly untouched. Of 15,283 commercial and industrial rooftops, only 5.6% host solar today. The remaining 4 GW of capacity goes unbuilt.

The pattern repeats across most major Gulf cities. Tens of thousands of buildings draw power when they could be generating it.

From Dubai to four continents

Since Incubayt’s investment, Planno has expanded from the Gulf across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the United States, with active customers ranging from regional solar developers and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms to global energy operators.

“We want every solar developer in every market, not just the largest ones, to have proper data to work with,” said Domingues. “Incubayt’s early backing gave us the foundation to build that. We’re now applying the same playbook country by country.”