Ad Data Startup Journify Raises $12 Million at Four Times Its Previous Valuation

Al Mada Ventures led the round and existing investor Silicon Badia co-led it. Shorooq and Bunat Ventures increased their investments, and Du Ventures and Oraseya Capital joined as new backers.

Journify was founded in 2022 by Taoufik El Jamali, Amine Chouki and Omar Al Shoubaki and is headquartered in San Francisco. Its platform passes purchases, sign-ups and in-store sales back to ad platforms such as Google, Meta, TikTok, Snap and Amazon Ads, so that their algorithms learn from real customer outcomes instead of clicks alone. The company says it uses AI to monitor these data connections and to detect and fix quality problems.

Journify says more than 100 businesses use its service, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual ad spend. Customers include Saudi retailer Jarir Bookstore, which the company says raised its return on ad spend by 182 per cent, and Saudi e-commerce brand Baytonia, which it says raised return on ad spend by 80 per cent and cut cost per purchase by 44 per cent.

Hossam Shafick, a partner at Silicon Badia, said Journify's revenue has grown more than fivefold since the firm's first investment. The company will use the new money to expand into the US and Europe and to build out the AI in its platform. It has added Ryan Burke, a former chief revenue officer, to its board to help with the US push.

"AI is transforming advertising, but the intelligence behind it is only as good as the signals it receives," El Jamali said.

The round is a Gulf-backed bet on a less visible part of the AI economy: the data pipelines that feed automated ad-buying systems. Browser restrictions and broken tracking have made those pipelines less reliable. The investor list also shows UAE telecom and government-linked venture arms, Du Ventures and Oraseya Capital, backing a startup that built its customer base in the region before taking it to larger markets.