Araya Ventures: Inside the Corporate Development Playbook (M&A Panel + Portfolio Showcase)
Overview:
We're bringing 15 of our AI portfolio founders to San Francisco from September 8th to 11th for a curated three-day trip. They're based across the UK, Europe and the GCC, ranging from Pre-Seed to Series A.
As part of the trip, we're hosting a closed-door panel hosted by Latham & Watkins on how strategic partnerships evolve into acquisitions, concluding with demos from 15 of Araya's Porfolio founders.
Panelists & Corperate Attendees:
Zoom (Joel Fluss), Salesforce (Shivani Patel), Adobe, Oracle, L&W, & more
Moderator:
Mitul Ruparelia, Partner, Arāya Ventures
A preview of who's in the room
An AI-powered network built to increase women's access, ownership, and wealth - +72% YoY membership revenue growth
A vertical AI platform giving in-house corporate development teams an alternative to expensive external M&A advisors, replacing fragmented legacy databases with a single integrated workflow - 10.5x faster target discovery, trusted by all Big Four firms, Airbus, and Chevron
An AI data-infrastructure company arming the frontier labs with exclusive, IP-compliant training data they can't source elsewhere - $8.5m in enterprise contracts signed, trusted by ElevenLabs and Shutterstock
An enterprise AI platform trusted by Havas and growing revenue 25% quarter over quarter
A clinic-automation platform already live in 75 paying clinics, trusted by Cleveland Clinic
A patient-support platform with 1,000+ patients validated and an NHS pipeline converting
An embedded insurtech platform working with Deel, AXA, and Markel, growing 15% QoQ
A metabolic health platform trusted by British Airways and Transport for London, growing 87% QoQ
An enterprise intelligence platform delivering an 18x average ROI
A creator-commerce platform posting 363% higher sales than incumbent solutions
What we'll cover:
Why companies acquire startups instead of building in-house
What makes a company strategically valuable to an acquirer
Partnerships as a path to acquisition
Technical integrations that create stickiness
Commercial and channel partnerships as M&A signal
Common mistakes founders make when positioning for acquisition
When acqui-hires make sense, and when they don't
Schedule:
🕡 6:30 PM — Drinks & Food Welcome
🕖 7:00 PM — Panel
🕢 7:30 PM — Demos
About Arāya Ventures
Arāya Ventures is an award-winning early-stage venture capital firm investing across AI, Health, FinTech, Future of Work, and Commerce, with over 70% of its portfolio focused on AI application companies. Its debut fund was the $26.3m Super Angel Fund, backed by the British Business Bank, with 29 investments to date. Arāya Ventures also manages a dedicated $30m Global Fund focused on investments across the GCC, Europe, and Asia, supporting high-potential founders at the earliest stages of growth.
In addition to investing, we are home to the House of Arāya - a global community of Angel investors. Through membership, our community have access to high quality, vetted deal flow, are able co-invest alongside the Arāya Ventures funds, connect with an international community of angels and operators, and access an investor education platform focused on developing the next generation of angel investors with practical tools, real-world insights, and disciplined decision-making frameworks. Operating across London, Dubai, Riyadh, and beyond, Arāya Ventures is known for its clarity, integrity, and no-hype approach to early-stage investing, and remain at the forefront of innovation.