About Araya Labs
Arāya Labs is the founder development and venture platform built by Arāya Ventures to help ambitious AI companies become venture scale businesses.
As AI makes software easier to build than ever before, competitive advantage is shifting away from code and towards customer validation, distribution, proprietary data and products that become embedded in everyday workflows. The companies that succeed will not simply build faster. They will find customers faster, create stronger competitive moats and become indispensable to the organisations they serve.
Built on the experience of reviewing more than 3,000 AI startups every year and investing in more than 20 AI companies, Arāya Labs brings together the practical lessons learned from backing founders through fundraising, commercialisation and international growth.
Great founders don't lose because they can't build. They lose because no one knows they exist. Arāya Labs exists to give founders the edge that matters most.
Arāya Labs is led by founders who have built, scaled and exited companies themselves. Combining entrepreneurial experience with one of the UK's most active AI investment platforms, the programme equips founders with the tools, network and capital to build globally significant AI businesses.
The Arāya Labs Model
Arāya Labs combines intensive 5 day Venture AI Sprints with a six week accelerator designed to help founders validate their market, refine their product strategy, strengthen go to market execution and become investment ready.
Each year, a select group of founders will receive a £200,000 investment, priced around their upcoming funding round, together with the opportunity to access follow on capital from the wider Arāya platform as they scale.
Venture Ai sprint
5 day venture sprint program
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Invite only program
6 week accelerator program
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What We Look For
We partner with exceptional founders at the earliest stages of building AI native companies across FinTech, HealthTech and the Future of Work. While every business is unique, we look for founders who share the following characteristics.
Domain expertise
We're looking for founders with deep, lived experience of the problem they're solving. Whether through industry expertise, technical research or first-hand operational experience, they understand the customer better than anyone else.
AI native thinking
We back companies designed for an AI first world, not software businesses with AI added later. Founders should be reimagining how work gets done using AI at the core of the product.
A clear customer problem
The solution may still evolve, but the customer problem should be real, urgent and meaningful. We're looking for founders solving problems worth building a company around.
Coachability and speed
The best founders learn quickly, test assumptions, seek feedback and iterate rapidly. We value intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to execute at pace.
Founder market fit
We invest in people as much as products. We look for founders whose experience, insight and motivation uniquely position them to solve the problem they've chosen.
Global ambition
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Dipesh Savani
CEO & Co-Founder
Venture builder and operator with over two decades of experience launching and scaling businesses within complex, regulated environments. At S60 Ventures he helped establish Saudi Investment Bank's corporate VC arm, and at SAIB Innovate he designed and led an AI-driven incubation programme from the ground up, taking founders from ideation through to live bank integration. His earlier work at McKinsey sharpened a rigorous approach to execution, transformation and measurable impact across global markets.
Rupa Popat
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Exited entrepreneur and Founder & Managing Partner of Arāya Ventures: The first solo GP fund backed by the British Business Bank. Eight years in investment banking at RBC Capital Markets before founding Millennial 20/20 / FUTR Group in 2014, building a 100,000+ community of global business leaders and start-up founders, exited to Hong Kong-listed Pico Group in 2019.
She has built a $60M+ platform across three funds, the $26.3m Super Angel Fund, the $30m Global Fund and the £20m Arāya Sie Fund, deploying capital across AI, Health, Fintech and Future of Work in the UK, GCC and Asia. As part of democratising access to the venture capital asset class, a private investment membership was also launched in 2026.
Mark Adam
Co-Founder
Serial entrepreneur and global thought leader at the intersection of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500. Known as "Hollywood's AI Insider," he has guided over 150 global icons; from heads of state to Buckingham Palace to the A-list through AI adoption. From a unique vantage inside the brain trust of Hollywood's elite, Mark has been an architect of defining moments in modern culture, from the Box Office to the Ballot Box.
Our Funds
Three distinct vehicles. One shared conviction.
Arāya Super Angel Fund
$0M
An S/EIS-qualifying fund backing exceptional pre-seed and seed founders across the UK and beyond, with 80% deployed domestically and 20% into high-conviction global opportunities.
UK · Pre-Seed · Seed · S/EIS
Arāya Global Fund
$0M
An S/EIS-qualifying fund backing exceptional pre-seed and seed founders across the UK and beyond, with 80% deployed domestically and 20% into high-conviction global opportunities.
Global - Seed
Araya Sie Fund
$0M
An S/EIS-qualifying fund backing exceptional pre-seed and seed founders across the UK and beyond, with 80% deployed domestically and 20% into high-conviction global opportunities.
UK & Europe · Pre-Seed & Seed · Female-led · S/EIS
The ARĀYA Portfolio
Our Investments
+ Pitch to us
Frequently asked questions
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John Lopez
Entrepreneur and host
Contact Us
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