UAE based artificial intelligence startup MilkStraw AI has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Dubai based venture capital firm VentureSouq, with participation from Ibtikar Fund and M Capital, according to reports by The SaaS News and financial disclosures published by Mubasher. The funding will be used to expand product development, strengthen operational capabilities, and support regional and international growth.
Founded in 2023 by Jawad Shreim, MilkStraw AI builds an AI powered cloud optimisation platform designed to automate infrastructure cost management for technology driven organisations. The platform continuously analyses cloud usage data and executes automated optimisation actions across major cloud providers. Since its launch, MilkStraw AI has onboarded more than 100 customers, including regional digital platforms such as Thndr, Maqsam, Ziina, Beyond Limits, and Zero, according to reporting by Middle East AI News.
The seed funding follows a previously announced $600,000 pre-seed round led by Flat6Labs, which supported early stage product development and initial market entry. Coverage by Middle East AI News indicates that the pre seed round enabled MilkStraw AI to validate its platform with early adopters and establish a customer base among startups and scaleups operating cloud-native infrastructure.
MilkStraw AI has disclosed plans to introduce additional platform capabilities, including The Feed, a real time infrastructure activity and cloud spend monitoring interface; Right Sizing features aimed at identifying underutilised cloud resources; and an AI powered conversational interface allowing engineering teams to interact with cloud data using natural language, as reported by The SaaS News.
The funding round comes as global cloud expenditure continues to rise. According to a forecast released by Gartner, worldwide end user spending on public cloud services is expected to surpass $830 billion in 2025, driven by increasing adoption of infrastructure as a service and platform as a service offerings from providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Internationally, cloud cost management and FinOps platforms have drawn sustained investment as enterprises seek improved visibility into infrastructure spending. US based cloud cost intelligence company CloudZero has raised more than $50 million to date, while software delivery and cloud optimisation platform Harness has expanded its enterprise footprint following multiple funding rounds, according to publicly available company data.
With this latest seed financing, MilkStraw AI becomes part of a growing cohort of MENA based infrastructure SaaS startups developing AI driven tools to address cloud efficiency and cost management challenges across regional and global markets.
