UAE-based startup Yozo.ai has successfully secured $1.7 million in a pre-seed funding round to advance its AI-powered e-commerce marketing platform. The investment was co-led by Access Bridge Ventures and Disruptech Ventures, with a syndicate of prominent regional VCs including Arzan VC and Oraseya Capital also participating. This capital injection will fuel the company's mission to automate complex growth and retention marketing for online merchants worldwide, transforming how they capture revenue.
Addressing a Persistent E-commerce Challenge
Yozo.ai targets a critical issue in online retail known as "demand leakage," where over 97% of website traffic fails to convert into sales. This gap between customer intent and completed purchases represents a massive untapped revenue source for merchants globally. The startup aims to solve this by automating the intricate lifecycle marketing processes that most brands lack the internal capacity or resources to manage effectively.
An Autonomous AI Growth Agent
The company is developing an AI-native revenue engine that functions as an autonomous growth team for its clients. This AI agent independently manages, tests, and optimizes marketing campaigns across email, WhatsApp, and SMS without requiring constant manual intervention from merchants. By handling everything from strategy and segmentation to copywriting and experimentation, the platform frees businesses to focus on other core operational areas.
According to founder Hossam Ali, traditional marketing platforms depend heavily on human bandwidth, leaving their full potential unrealized due to complexity. Yozo’s system, however, is designed to operate as a complete team of analysts, copywriters, and experimentation specialists working around the clock. This innovative approach leverages generative AI to encode the judgment and creativity of an entire growth team into a single, automated system.
The platform has already demonstrated significant early traction, attracting tens of paying brands within just three months of its launch. During this short period, Yozo's automated flows and targeted campaigns have successfully reached more than 250,000 customers on behalf of its clients. This rapid adoption underscores the market's strong demand for more efficient and intelligent marketing solutions that deliver measurable results with minimal effort.
Strategic Funding for Global Expansion
The newly acquired $1.7 million will be strategically allocated to accelerate product development and expand the company's core engineering team. A primary objective is to drive international expansion beyond the Middle East, targeting global e-commerce markets like the United States. The company aims to establish itself in regions where hiring skilled growth marketing teams is often costly and challenging for merchants.
Investor confidence is high, buoyed by the founding team's proven track record, which includes building and exiting the B2B marketplace Fatura. Issa Aghabi of Access Bridge Ventures praised the team's practical approach to embedding AI into daily e-commerce workflows. Mohamed Okasha of Disruptech Ventures reaffirmed his firm's belief in the team's ability to solve a global problem with a world-class product.
With this significant pre-seed funding, Yozo.ai is strongly positioned to redefine lifecycle marketing for the global e-commerce industry. The company's vision is to become the default AI-driven growth layer for digital merchants, simplifying operations and unlocking previously unrealized revenue streams. As automation becomes essential for competitiveness, Yozo's autonomous platform offers a scalable and powerful solution for brands aiming for sustainable international growth.