Propeller announced the inaugural cohort of Kernel Camp, its annual deep-tech residency program based in Silicon Valley. Five startups from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt have arrived in the Bay Area to begin an intensive eight-week residency, bringing MENA founders into the heart of the global AI and infrastructure ecosystem.
Despite the depth of technical talent emerging from the MENA region, founders have historically lacked structured pathways into Silicon Valley’s networks of engineers, operators, and capital. Kernel Camp is designed to close that gap, not just by placing founders in the Bay Area, but by embedding them into the ecosystem through curated access to the communities and conversations shaping the global AI landscape.
The inaugural cohort brings together five companies operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure, developer tooling, and cybersecurity. These include OORB (Tunisia), a cloud robotics workspace for building and testing ROS projects in the browser; Techbible (Morocco), an AI Stack Manager that provides companies with full visibility into their SaaS and AI tool spend; Firstflow (Jordan), an onboarding and analytics layer for AI agents; Nexguards (Egypt), a personalized cyber attack simulation and security awareness platform; and Flowbrave (Morocco), an intelligent operations platform that transforms static processes into AI-guided workflows.
Zaid Farekh, Founder & Managing Partner at Propeller, said: “Kernel Camp is a statement of our belief in the extraordinary talent emerging from the MENA region. Seeing this cohort land in Silicon Valley is a milestone we’ve been building toward since the launch of Fund III. These founders are technically exceptional, and this environment will push them to build faster, think bigger, and connect with the networks that matter most at this stage of their journey.”
Hani Azzam, Partner at Propeller, added: “Founders don’t build alone. The Kernel Camp cohort isn’t just here to learn, they’re here to become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. We’ve curated an environment where community, technical depth, and cross-border networks converge. These are the kinds of founders who will define MENA’s contribution to global deep-tech over the next decade.”
Kernel Camp was first announced in December 2025 as a core pillar of Propeller’s cross-border strategy following the launch of Fund III. The residency targets technically strong, demo-ready founders working full-time on companies showing early signs of traction. 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.
The startups will spend eight weeks embedded in Silicon Valley, culminating in a demo day for Propeller’s Bay Area community in May 2026.
