Crescent Enterprises Invests $68 Million to Scale CE-Creates

Crescent Enterprises on Friday announced an investment programme of $68.07 million to scale CE-Creates, its venture-building platform. The fresh capital, combined with new leadership, marks a major expansion of CE-Creates’ role as a builder and scaler of high-growth, impact-driven startups from the UAE to the world.

Operating as a sector-agnostic venture studio, CE-Creates will deploy staged, patient capital alongside deep operational expertise and ecosystem access to turn early-stage concepts into globally competitive businesses capable of scaling from MENA to international markets.

The initiative reinforces Crescent Enterprises’ broader commitment to innovation, sustainability, and inclusive growth, and aligns with the UAE’s ambition and positioning as a leading global hub for entrepreneurship and SMEs.

The UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism’s newly launched campaign, ‘The Emirates: The Start-up Capital of the World,’ is set to further solidify the UAE’s position as a global hub for entrepreneurship.

Having secured top ranking in the 2024-2025 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for the fourth year running, the UAE has also been recognised as the best destination for entrepreneurship and SMEs among 56 evaluated economies worldwide.

Launchpad for Builders

Crescent Enterprises CEO Badr Jafar said that the UAE has become a launchpad for serious builders, and their collective vision is for the country to be known as the start-up capital of the world. With CE-Creates, the company will be helping entrepreneurs convert purpose into performance – locally proven, globally competitive,” he added.

CE-Creates has already helped catalyse a number of ventures, including Kava & Chai (celebrating the region’s coffee and tea heritage), ION (developing sustainable mobility solutions), and BreakBread (a community-centred digital food experience and supperclub platform).

Deputy CEO and Head of Investments at Crescent Enterprises Tushar Singhvi said that this allocation marks an exciting new chapter for CE-Creates and for regional entrepreneurship.

He added: “Our model blends disciplined capital deployment with on-the-ground operating support in ways traditional venture funding often does not—creating the conditions for sustainable growth and international scale.”

CE-Creates follows a stage-gated methodology from idea validation to MVP, go-to-market, and scale-up – benchmarking each step against clear milestones and performance metrics to improve product-market fit, reduce risk, and accelerate growth.

Rakhil Fernando, the newly appointed Head of CE-Creates, said that having built and scaled companies from the ground up, he was aware of the hurdles the founders faced. At CE-Creates, entrepreneurs can build with confidence – backed by capital, operating tools, and partnerships that unlock regional and global potential, he said.

Rakhil Fernando has extensive entrepreneurial and operating experience as both founder and venture studio leader.

Previously to CE-Creates he served as CEO of Yabi, a personal finance platform built on AI-driven financial literacy and coaching; founder and CEO of Koko, a leading BNPL and consumer payments platform under Alibaba Group that scaled across South Asia; and Managing Director at Daraz (Alibaba Group), where he helped scale one of the region’s largest e-commerce platforms.

Crescent Enterprises is a subsidiary of the Crescent Group, one of the most progressive family business groups that has been actively contributing to the economic landscape of the Middle East and North Africa region since 1971.