Propeller, a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure and deep software, has launched Kernel Camp, an eight-week, fully sponsored residency program designed to accelerate early-stage AI and deep-tech startups from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by immersing them in Silicon Valley.
Scheduled to debut in April–May 2026, the program will host selected founders in San Francisco, offering housing, curated workshops, site visits, and direct mentorship from global technology leaders, engineers, investors, and operators.
According to Zaid Farekh, Founder and Managing Partner at Propeller, the residency is structured to place founders “in an environment where global deep-tech thinking, engineering excellence, worldwide distribution, and ambitious company-building come together every day to solve challenges with frontier technologies.”
Kernel Camp, he added, gives founders “the chance to accelerate their product’s development” by embedding them directly within the world’s most influential technology ecosystem.
What Is Propeller?
Founded in 2017, Propeller is a global venture capital firm investing from Seed to Pre-Series A stages, with a sharp focus on AI infrastructure, AI-native applications, developer tools, and core software systems.
Its investment scope spans from silicon-adjacent technologies to enterprise workflows, positioning the firm squarely in the foundational layers of the AI economy rather than consumer-facing applications alone.
The launch of Kernel Camp follows Propeller’s USD 50 million Fund III, which targets AI infrastructure and deep software startups across both the United States and the MENA region, underscoring the firm’s dual-market strategy.
What Is Kernel Camp and What It Means for Founders
Kernel Camp is an eight-week residency program hosted in San Francisco, placing MENA-based founders inside Silicon Valley’s dense network of technical talent, capital, and institutional knowledge.
The program provides fully sponsored housing, curated technical and business workshops, weekly guest sessions, and one-on-one office hours with world-class builders.
Participants will also engage in site visits to leading technology companies and venture capital firms, culminating in a demo day where founders present their products to Propeller’s Silicon Valley community.
In practical terms, Kernel Camp is designed to compress years of exposure to global startup best practices into a focused two-month experience.
This is to enable founders to refine products, validate assumptions, and build relationships that are often difficult to access from outside the world’s primary AI hubs.
Eligibility: Who Can Attend the Program
Kernel Camp targets early-stage but execution-ready founders from the MENA region. Ideal participants are technically strong, working full-time on their startups, and already building demo-ready products with early signs of traction.
The emphasis is not on raw ideas, but on founders who are already solving concrete problems and are prepared to test, iterate, and scale their solutions within a highly competitive global environment.
This selective focus reflects Propeller’s broader investment thesis around founders capable of building defensible, infrastructure-level technology.
Why Propeller Is Doing This
Kernel Camp represents a strategic extension of Propeller’s investment platform, rather than a standalone accelerator.
By creating a structured bridge between MENA talent and Silicon Valley capital and expertise, Propeller deepens deal flow, strengthens founder readiness, and increases the global competitiveness of the startups it backs.
As stated by the firm, the initiative is intended to “deepen the bridge between talent, capital, and knowledge” across regions.
For Propeller, the residency also creates a front-row seat to emerging AI infrastructure founders at a stage where mentorship and environment can meaningfully influence company trajectory.
Artificial Intelligence and Deep Tech in This Context
Kernel Camp is explicitly focused on AI infrastructure and deep technology, rather than surface-level applications.
This includes startups building horizontal AI platforms, developer tools, core software systems, and foundational technologies that enable AI deployment at scale.
These categories form the backbone of the global AI economy, shaping how models are trained, deployed, secured, and integrated into enterprise workflows.
By concentrating on these layers, Propeller aligns Kernel Camp with the most durable and capital-efficient segment of the AI value chain.
Why This Matters for MENA Ecosystem Development
For the MENA startup ecosystem, Kernel Camp addresses a long-standing structural gap: direct access to global AI networks at the infrastructure level.
While the region has produced a growing number of technically capable founders, many still face barriers related to distribution, capital access, and global market integration.
By embedding founders in Silicon Valley for eight weeks, Kernel Camp does not merely export talent; it equips MENA startups to compete globally while retaining regional roots.
The program positions MENA not just as a consumer of AI innovation, but as an active contributor to the technologies shaping the future of artificial intelligence worldwide.
Talking Points
Kernel Camp is a strategically sound and well-timed intervention, but its real impact on the MENA ecosystem will depend on execution, inclusivity, and long-term follow-through rather than symbolism.
By focusing on AI infrastructure and deep techs, areas that demand high technical depth, capital intensity, and global networks, Propeller is targeting the most consequential layer of the AI value chain, which is commendable and far more durable than consumer-facing hype cycles.
However, limiting deep exposure to an eight-week Silicon Valley residency risks reinforcing a long-standing dependency on Western validation unless it is paired with sustained post-program support, capital deployment, and ecosystem reinvestment back in MENA.
The program’s selectivity and emphasis on demo-ready startups may accelerate a small cohort of already-advantaged founders while leaving earlier-stage or under-resourced innovators behind, particularly in less mature MENA markets.
Ultimately, Kernel Camp will be measured not by the quality of its workshops or demo days, but by whether alumni go on to build globally competitive companies that scale from, or meaningfully reinvest in, the MENA region, contributing to local talent development, knowledge transfer, and long-term technological sovereignty rather than talent extraction.
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