Grace Ashiru
A venture capital firm with roots in the MENA region has brought its most ambitious cross-border bet to life, landing five founders from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt in the Bay Area for an eight-week residency designed to embed them into the heart of the global AI ecosystem.
Propeller, the VC firm focused on AI infrastructure, has unveiled the inaugural cohort of Kernel Camp — its annual deep-tech residency program based in Silicon Valley. The five companies, all operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure, developer tooling, and cybersecurity, have arrived to begin an intensive program of workshops, mentorship, and direct exposure to the engineers, operators, and investors shaping the next wave of global technology.
The cohort brings together a diverse set of technically ambitious companies. OORB from Tunisia is building a cloud robotics workspace that lets developers build and test ROS projects directly in the browser. Eli by Techbible from Morocco is an AI Stack Manager giving companies full visibility into their SaaS and AI tool expenditure. Firstflow from Jordan provides an onboarding and analytics layer specifically designed for AI agents. Nexguards from Egypt offers a personalised cyber attack simulation and security awareness platform. Rounding out the cohort is Flowbrave, also from Morocco, which transforms static business processes into AI-guided workflows through an intelligent operations platform.
The rationale behind Kernel Camp is straightforward: while the MENA region has demonstrated deep reserves of technical talent, founders have historically lacked the structured pathways needed to access Silicon Valley’s dense networks of capital and expertise. Propeller is positioning the residency not merely as a Bay Area visit but as a genuine ecosystem insertion — curated access to the communities and conversations that matter most at an early but critical stage of company-building.
Propeller Founder and Managing Partner Zaid Farekh described the cohort’s arrival as a milestone the firm had been working toward since the launch of Fund III. He noted that the founders are technically exceptional and that the Silicon Valley environment is designed to push them to build faster, think bigger, and connect with networks that can meaningfully accelerate their trajectory.
Partner Hani Azzam emphasised the program’s community dimension, pointing out that the goal is not just education but belonging — helping these founders become genuine participants in the Silicon Valley ecosystem rather than visitors to it.
Kernel Camp was first announced in December 2025 as a core pillar of Propeller’s cross-border strategy. The program provides fully sponsored housing, curated workshops, weekly guest sessions, one-on-one office hours with world-class builders, and site visits to leading technology companies and venture firms across the Bay Area. It targets technically strong, demo-ready founders working full-time on companies with early signs of traction.
The eight-week residency culminates in a demo day for Propeller’s Bay Area community in May 2026. Founders, operators, engineers, and investors based in the Bay Area interested in engaging with the cohort can register their interest at propellerinc.me/kernel-camp-partners-investors.
