For Founders the World Hasn't Found Yet
Building the next generation of venture backed AI companies.
In an era where code is no longer the moat,
Arāya Labs makes the best AI founders impossible to ignore.
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.
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.
3000+
Startups Reviewed Annually
30+
Portfolio Companies
$60M
Platform Value
400+
Angel Investors Community
Built by founders. Backed by investors.
The programme is led by serial entrepreneurs, operators and thought leaders who have built, scaled and exited companies themselves.
Dipesh Savani
Co-Founder
Exited founder, venture builder, and operator with over two decades of experience building and scaling businesses across 25+ countries. He has mentored 100+ founders, helping them move from idea to traction. Previously, he was a founding member at S60 Ventures, helping establish Saudi Investment Bank’s $100 million corporate venture capital arm and leading SAIB Innovate.
Earlier, he spent seven years at McKinsey as a Digital Leader. He is a founding member of Venture School, an AI-native venture operating system.
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. Exited her B2B Media business in 2019, building a global community of hundreds of thousands of business leaders.
She has built Arāya Ventures, an early stage VC firm, deploying capital across AI, Health, Fintech and the Future of Work in the UK, Europe, GCC and Asia. House of Arāya, the private investment membership, was also launched in 2026.
Mark Adams
Co-Founder
Serial entrepreneur who's exited companies to multiple Hollywood studios, William Morris Endeavor and VICE Media, which he helped scale to a $5.7 billion valuation. Led AI and digital transformation for over 150 iconic public figures, from Barack Obama to Buckingham Palace, receiving over 100 awards from Cannes Lions to Emmys.
Chairman of the AI Leadership Council, named Star of Tech City (The Guardian), Most Influential Londoner (Evening Standard) and one of the Top People in Britain (The Sunday Times).
The Programme
Venture asks the riskiest question last. We ask it first.
Most pre-seed cheques get written on a deck and a warm intro, and the question of whether anyone actually wants the product gets answered eighteen months later. Arāya Labs runs it the other way. Five days to test the demand. Six weeks to build on what survives. Investment for the founders who hold up, priced around their upcoming funding round, with follow on capital available from the wider Arāya platform as they scale.
FROM IDEATION TO VALIDATION
5 Day Venture AI Sprint
Open by application
What it is
Five days of structured validation with our partners, our customer network and the frameworks we have built across hundreds of pre-seed deals. Ideation and concepting with experts. Determining the pain the product solves. Designing the business model. Distribution first go to market design.
What you leave with
By Friday you know whether you are sitting on a venture scale opportunity, a sharper version of the idea you walked in with, or a clean reset. A clear go or no-go decision at the end of the week.
What happens next
Founders who validate are invited into the 6 Week Accelerator.
Next Cohort · October 2026
From validation to investment
6 Week Accelerator Programme
Strictly By Invitation only
What it is
Six weeks of building alongside the team that has already backed your idea. You spend the time doing what actually moves a pre-seed company: shipping, getting the product into users' hands, signing first pilots and building unit economics that survive a Seed conversation.
What you leave with
MVP shipped and in users' hands. First revenue, pilots or signed LOIs. A summary report with recommendations. Warm introductions to the most active AI investors in the UK.
What happens next
A fast-tracked investment decision. Sprint first. Investment after.
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.
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.
Arāya 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
A global seed-stage fund investing across Europe, the GCC, and Asia, with 40% of capital reserved for Series A follow-on investments into our highest-conviction portfolio companies.
Global - Seed
Araya Sie Fund
$0M
A dedicated fund backing exceptional women-led startups at pre-seed and seed stage, focused on healthcare, climate, fintech, and deeptech/AI — sectors where diverse leadership drives outsized returns.
UK & Europe · Pre-Seed & Seed
· Female-led · S/EIS
Frequently asked questions
What are the selection criteria for the 5 Day Sprint?
How does the 6 Week Accelerator Programme work?
How do I find out if my startup is the right fit?
Register for Next Cohort · October 2026
Ready to find out if this is your moment?
Start your application →
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