Stone Venture Research
Investment Thesis
Stone Venture is an Abu Dhabi/UAE-based investment firm established in 2024, positioned as a Gulf capital bridge into category-leading, growth-stage deep-tech companies primarily originating in China. The firm's public messaging frames its mandate around global megatrends, sustainability, and technological advancement, aiming to back companies with the potential to "dominate on a global scale, lead their industries, and shape the future." In practice, its earliest disclosed deals show a firm acting as a cross-border co-investor alongside major Chinese and international institutional names (HongShan, IDG Capital, NIO Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, Legend Capital) in large, late-stage rounds for companies in advanced air mobility, embodied AI/robotics, and autonomous vehicles. This suggests a strategic thesis of connecting UAE/Gulf capital and market access to Chinese frontier-technology champions ahead of Hong Kong or mainland listings.
Sector Focus
Stone Venture's stated focus areas span high-tech mobility (autonomous systems, ADAS, eVTOL), AI and robotics, the full battery value chain (raw materials through cell manufacturing and system integration), clean energy (including PV glass and solar), biotechnology/pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing. Its confirmed deal activity to date is concentrated in aerospace/advanced air mobility (Volant Aerotech) and robotics/embodied AI (EngineAI, LimX Dynamics), consistent with the stated mobility and robotics theses. No confirmed deals in biotech, battery, or clean energy were identified during this research pass, despite those being named focus areas on the firm's own site and third-party summaries.
Stage Focus
Confirmed transactions span a wide range: EngineAI's pre-Series A (~US$27.5M, April 2025) is the earliest-stage disclosed deal, while Volant Aerotech's Series C (~US$300M, April 2026) and LimX Dynamics' Series B (US$200M, February 2026) and subsequent pre-IPO round (~US$200M, July 2026) sit at growth and late stage. This pattern reads as a firm that plays across the growth-to-pre-IPO continuum on marquee deals rather than a dedicated early-stage seed investor, with the EngineAI deal as a notable earlier-stage exception.
Check Size
No standalone check-size disclosure was found for Stone Venture specifically. The rounds it has participated in range from roughly US$27.5M (EngineAI pre-Series A, full round size) to US$300M (Volant Aerotech Series C, full round size), but these are large syndicated rounds with many co-investors, so Stone Venture's individual allocation within each is not publicly broken out. This field is intentionally left unset rather than estimated.
Lead Tendency
Evidence points to a mixed lead/follow posture. Press coverage describes Stone Venture (referred to in some coverage as "STONE," an Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm) as having led both the Volant Aerotech Series C and the EngineAI pre-Series A round. By contrast, in LimX Dynamics' Series B and pre-IPO rounds, Stone Venture is named as one of several participating investors alongside larger syndicates, without a stated lead role.
Recent Activity
Stone Venture's most recent confirmed activity is participation in LimX Dynamics' ~US$200M pre-IPO round, closed July 14, 2026, which valued the Shenzhen-based humanoid robotics company at roughly 15 billion yuan (~US$2.2B). This followed the firm's participation in LimX Dynamics' US$200M Series B in February 2026 — the first time Stone Venture appeared in that company's cap table. Earlier disclosed activity includes leading Volant Aerotech's record US$300M+ Series C for the Chinese eVTOL/passenger-drone maker (April 2026) and leading EngineAI's ~US$27.5M pre-Series A round for the Chinese robotics company (April 2025). Taken together, this is a firm that has been actively deploying capital every few months since early 2025, entirely into China-based deep-tech companies, which reads as "actively deploying" rather than paused or between funds.
Portfolio Highlights
Confirmed portfolio companies are Volant Aerotech (Chinese eVTOL/advanced air mobility manufacturer, Series C led by Stone Venture, April 2026), EngineAI (Chinese robotics company, pre-Series A led by Stone Venture, April 2025), and LimX Dynamics (Shenzhen-based humanoid/embodied-AI robotics company, Series B and pre-IPO participant, February and July 2026). Third-party aggregators (PitchBook) reference roughly eight total investments for the firm, and some press coverage also links a "Stone Capital" or "STONE" entity to a separate US$310M DeepWay pre-IPO round; because that attribution was inconsistent across sources and could not be confirmed as the same legal entity as Stone Venture (stoneventure.ae), DeepWay was excluded from this submission's confirmed portfolio rather than risk a false attribution.
Team
Public information on Stone Venture's team is thin. Two individuals with confirmed LinkedIn affiliations to "Stone Venture" and a UAE/Abu Dhabi location were identified:
- Abdul Rafay Mirza — affiliated with Stone Venture, based in Abu Dhabi, background in accounting and finance (Institute of Business Administration). Exact title not confirmed from public sources.
- Hasna Kasmi — affiliated with Stone Venture, based in the UAE, with close to 20 years of private equity, family office, and principal-investment experience (including prior M&A advisory work and Abu Dhabi-focused buy-side transactions). Exact current title at Stone Venture not confirmed from public sources.
No additional partners, founders, or investment committee members could be confirmed from the firm's own website, which currently consists of a homepage and a single default "Hello world!" WordPress post with no populated team, portfolio, or thesis pages.
Decision Process
Not confirmed. With only two team members identified and no disclosed organizational structure, it is not possible to determine whether decisions run through a solo principal, a small partnership, or a broader investment committee. This field has been left unset rather than guessed.
Founder & Company Preferences
Based on confirmed deals, Stone Venture appears drawn to category-leading, capital-intensive deep-tech companies in China that are approaching a public listing (Hong Kong IPO/pre-IPO financing is an explicit theme in two of three confirmed deals) and that offer the firm co-investment access alongside blue-chip Chinese and global institutional investors.
Geographic Focus
Stone Venture is headquartered in the UAE, with company-level source data split between Dubai and Abu Dhabi (deal-specific press and structured databases such as PitchBook/Tracxn more consistently describe an Abu Dhabi headquarters). All three confirmed portfolio companies are based in mainland China, indicating a deliberate UAE-to-China cross-border investment corridor rather than a domestic-UAE or globally diversified mandate.
Data Limitations
Stone Venture's own website (stoneventure.ae) is a largely unbuilt WordPress site — the only indexed content beyond the homepage is a default "Hello world!" placeholder post from December 2024 — so almost all findings in this document come from third-party deal coverage (Yicai Global, Caixin Global, SiliconANGLE, The AI Insider, Asia Private Equity Centre) and investor-database aggregators (PitchBook, Tracxn, Crunchbase, Dealroom) rather than the firm's own disclosures. AUM, fund size, formal check-size ranges, and a complete team roster could not be confirmed and have been omitted rather than estimated.