Gamechangers: AHOY's Jamil Shinawi

Having established startups across multiple geographies (and with more than nine exits under his belt), Jamil Shinawi is one of the co-founders of AHOY, a core tech infrastructure company based in the UAE that builds advanced tools and systems for movement, mobility, and logistics.

In addition to helping companies move people and goods, Shinawi notes that AHOY is also making artificial intelligence (AI) more accessible to businesses and governments across the region. “We lower the barrier of entry to AI adoption for governments, enterprises, and startups alike,” he says. “AHOY provides scalable solutions, and it has scaled from a single client to 29 airports in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it is supporting hundreds of companies in the GCC and thousands around the world.”

Shinawi’s company—which, by the way, is a decacorn, a privately held company with a valuation that exceeds US$10 billion—is now expanding beyond the GCC. “We are the first deeptech decacorn from the GCC to not only thrive in our market and enable the rest of the ecosystem and value chain, we’ve also now started entering the European Union and the Americas,” he says.

He credits this momentum to AHOY’s core principles—data sovereignty, client independence, and sustainable development—which he believes are becoming increasingly important in a rapidly evolving global tech landscape. “The region is now becoming the world’s capital for data centers and AI adoption,” he points out. “And we are shipping AI and capabilities due to the geo-location and access to energy and talent.”

Pictured in the lead image is the founder and CEO of AHOY, Jamil Shinawi. Courtesy of AHOY.

Jamil Shinawi was one of the artificial intelligence (AI) innovators celebrated in Gamechangers, a special feature built for Inc. Arabia's April/May 2025 issue. For the full list of Gamechangers, please click here.