One Global Holding completed its conversion into a venture builder in 2023. Founded in 2004 and headquartered at Awtad Tower on Fahd Al-Salim Street in Kuwait City, the group now focuses on building, validating and funding new ventures. Founder and Executive Chairman Mohammed Al-Rashidi has described the mission as restoring trust between investors and ventures.
MENA startups raised a record $3.8 billion in 2025, according to data platform MAGNiTT, with the third quarter alone reaching an all-time high of $1.2 billion. Saudi Arabia and the UAE accounted for 91 per cent of the total, while Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain shared the remainder. The GCC’s venture ecosystem grew at a 19 per cent annual rate during the period. Boston Consulting Group classifies Saudi Arabia and the UAE as “AI contenders” and places Kuwait among the “practitioners”.
At the state level, the Kuwait Investment Authority became the first non-founder anchor investor in the AI Infrastructure Partnership in June 2025, alongside Microsoft, BlackRock and MGX. The vehicle targets $30 billion in equity and up to $100 billion including debt financing. In March 2025, Kuwait signed an agreement with Microsoft to establish an AI-powered Azure region, including an AI Innovation Centre and Copilot deployment across government. The national AI strategy runs to 2028.
Against this backdrop, One Global organises venture creation through three subsidiaries that map to a company’s lifecycle. One Global Innovation develops and operates the group’s platforms. One Global Hub incubates and accelerates ventures, providing market validation and strategic guidance. One Global Capital secures funding through digitised venture capital practices. The company says its equity model involves taking positions alongside ecosystem stakeholders.
Behind the model is a two-decade operating record. From 2004 to 2009, the group built a telecom, IT and media business across three continents, achieving its first Microsoft Gold Partner status and launching Sharraf Mobile in Sudan along with Payit, its original financial platform. Payit later expanded into full mobile banking on iOS and Android, joined by Travelmate, Og Health and a patented payment-order mechanism. The group’s regulatory footprint now spans three markets, including a service-provider role at the Central Bank of Bahrain, aggregator status in Egypt and an electronic payment agency licence in Kuwait. It also holds principal membership of Mastercard and Visa, payment facilitator status and a grant from Hedera.
According to a 2023 Mastercard announcement, Og Money (as Payit was renamed) serves 3.2 million customers across six markets: Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The app covers bill payments, transfers, QR payments and airtime top-ups in more than 21 countries, as well as digital gift cards and gaming vouchers. Mastercard, a partner since 2007, launched Click to Pay on the platform in Kuwait in 2023, marking the first deployment of the standard in the country.
One Global says it is launching a $10 million pre-seed fund to back deep-tech and high-tech startups in Kuwait. Ventures that have already graduated from the group include Casheer, One Engage, Flytern and Capital House. Analysts at the Middle East Institute have argued that Kuwait’s progression from AI participant to AI shaper depends on vehicles that coordinate capital, talent and compute.
The 2025 data shows that 91 per cent of regional funding went to two markets. Future figures will show whether that concentration holds, and whether any shift is built from within Kuwait.
