AI in Oman

In Muscat's fast-growing hospitality sector, a quiet revolution has been underway since 2021. Fascano, an Omani cloud platform built for restaurants, cafés, and hotels, closed a $10 million third funding round in April 2026, backed by the Oman Investment Authority. It is now one of the most well-funded hospitality tech startups to emerge from the Gulf outside Saudi Arabia.

🍽️ What Fascano Does (In Plain English)

Running a restaurant is harder than it looks. Most operators juggle five or six disconnected tools: one for ordering, another for inventory, a third for loyalty cards, and a separate system for the kitchen. Fascano replaces that patchwork with a single cloud platform, built from the ground up for MENA operators.

The company's tagline says it plainly: Fast. Scan. Order. Diners scan a QR code, browse a digital menu, and pay without waiting for a waiter. Behind the scenes, the restaurant gets a real-time view of every order, every inventory item, and every branch, all in one dashboard.

The platform covers:

• Point of Sale (POS) for dine-in and counter service
• Multi-channel online ordering via QR codes, web storefronts, and delivery platform integrations
• Kitchen Display System (KDS) to coordinate back-of-house operations in real time
• Real-time inventory tracking with automated cost analysis
• CRM and loyalty programs so restaurants own their customer data directly, without a third-party middleman
• Analytics dashboards for branch-by-branch performance comparison
• Secure payment processing with local payment gateway integrations across MENA

Target customers span the full hospitality spectrum: full-service restaurants, cafés, food trucks, food courts, hotels, cinemas, event venues, and kiosks. Offline functionality is built in, which matters in areas with unreliable connectivity.

🏆 How Fascano Stacks Up Against Regional Competitors

The MENA hospitality tech market is not empty. Saudi Arabia's Foodics serves more than 22,000 restaurants across 17 countries. Dubai-based Syrve MENA claims 45,000+ F&B clients worldwide. Both have significant head starts in terms of customer count and geographic breadth. So where does Fascano fit?

The sharpest edge is the commission-free ordering model. Delivery aggregators like Talabat and Careem charge restaurants a cut of every order, typically between 15% and 30%. Fascano's direct-ordering channels let restaurants own their customer relationships and retain more revenue per transaction. As CEO Al Kharusi described the philosophy, the goal was to build "a platform that reflects the realities of our market: deeply integrated tools that work together as one ecosystem, with pricing that is accessible for small and mid-sized businesses."

📅 The Journey: From a Muscat Startup to a MENA Contender

Ahmed Al Kharusi and Murak Al Muairki co-founded Fascano in 2021. The timing was deliberate. The global hospitality industry had just been forced to accelerate contactless payments and QR-code menus out of pandemic-era necessity, and MENA operators were actively looking for tools built for their specific context, not adapted from US or European markets.

The founders spent their earliest years building a deep understanding of Omani operator pain points before expanding. That disciplined focus paid off: by November 2024, the Oman Future Fund, backed by the Oman Investment Authority, led a second undisclosed round, signalling institutional confidence in Fascano's retention metrics and product quality.

By April 2026, Fascano had surpassed 70 million orders processed across 2,000+ customers in six countries. Its third and largest round, a $10 million close, brought in Cyfr Capital and HH Sayyid Dr. Kamil bin Fahd Al Said alongside continued OIA support, as Oman Observer reported. A parallel report from Arab Founders described the platform as "designed to eliminate operational friction" for hospitality businesses across MENA.

The 12-to-18-month plan, according to Al Kharusi, prioritises deepening the vendor base in existing markets before entering new regional territories with strong digital demand.

💰 Funding Timeline

🔗 Find Fascano Online

• Website: fascano.com
• Company LinkedIn: Fascano on LinkedIn
• CEO and Co-founder: Ahmed Al Kharusi on LinkedIn
• Co-founder: Murak Al Muairki on LinkedIn

Note: Fascano does not publicly list pricing tiers. Businesses are directed to book a demo for a custom quote. Team headcount and exact tech stack details are not publicly disclosed as of June 2026.

🇴🇲 Why This Matters for Oman

Fascano's story illustrates three things Oman's startup ecosystem is getting right.

First, sovereign capital is now playing a genuine multi-stage role. The Oman Investment Authority's Future Fund has backed Fascano across at least two consecutive rounds, demonstrating patience and conviction rather than a one-time seed cheque. That kind of institutional depth is what Vision 2040's private-sector development agenda is designed to create.

Second, Fascano is building in Oman and expanding outward. Many regional tech startups treat Muscat as a proof-of-concept stop before relocating to Dubai or Riyadh. Al Kharusi is explicit about rejecting that path: Oman remains the central hub for innovation, operations, and talent. That commitment matters for the local ecosystem because every hire Fascano makes, and every supplier it works with, stays in Oman.

Third, the hospitality sector is a direct Vision 2040 priority. Oman's tourism diversification targets are ambitious, and technology that helps hotels and restaurants operate efficiently underpins the whole strategy. Government programs like the Sas for Excellence initiative, which channels RO 1 million into Omani tech firms, exist precisely to back companies at earlier stages of exactly this kind of trajectory.

For founders watching from the sidelines, Fascano is a useful proof of concept: an operational software problem that most people overlook, solved locally, scaled regionally, and now funded by some of the Gulf's most credible institutions.

On 2 June 2026, Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) launched its most comprehensive support package yet for locally owned technology companies. The Sas for Excellence initiative combines direct financing, wage subsidies, and procurement advantages in a single programme, targeting Omani firms working in AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Up to RO 1 million in direct financing per qualifying company
• Wage subsidies covering up to 40 Omani employees per firm
• Priority access to government and SOE tenders
• Strict eligibility: 100% Omani ownership, 3+ years operating, 15%+ CAGR required
• Four priority sectors: AI, cybersecurity, electronic systems, emerging tech
• Backed by six government bodies including OIA and PDO
• Part of Oman's push to grow the digital economy to 10% of GDP by 2040

🏗️ What Is the SAS Programme?

The SAS Centre has been MTCIT's primary vehicle for building Oman's technology company ecosystem since 2013. Based at Innovation Park Muscat, it operates several sub-programmes for tech companies at different growth stages, according to the MTCIT SAS platform.

Its growth sub-programme Numo has already engaged 152 tech and startup companies across its first two editions, delivering over 230 consulting hours and 16 specialised workshops, according to MTCIT. The third edition, launched in April 2026, added 66 more companies to the programme.

Sas for Excellence sits a tier above. Where Numo focuses on consulting and capacity-building, this new initiative provides hard financing and structural business advantages to Oman's most capable and fastest-growing tech firms.

💰 What Sas for Excellence Offers

According to Times of Oman, selected companies receive a four-part support package:

The combination matters. Wage subsidies directly reduce the largest operational cost for a scaling tech firm. The RO 1 million financing provides working capital to build products and pursue international customers. And priority procurement access means qualifying companies can secure multi-year government contracts that generate the stable revenue needed to invest in R&D.

✅ Who Can Apply?

The initiative sets a deliberately high bar. As The Arabian Stories reported, eligible companies must meet all of the following criteria:

• 100% Omani ownership: no foreign shareholders
• Minimum 3 years operating in the technology sector
• At least 50% Omanisation with a minimum of 15 Omani employees on payroll
• Locally developed and owned technology product or service (not a reseller)
• A clear foreign market expansion plan
• Minimum 15% compound annual revenue growth over the past two years

The 15% CAGR threshold is the sharpest filter. It concentrates public resources on companies that have already demonstrated market traction. A firm posting 15% compound revenue growth for two consecutive years is winning customers and deploying a product people pay for. That is exactly the stage where additional capital and market access can have multiplied impact.

🤖 Priority Technology Sectors

According to TechAfrica News, the initiative gives priority to four areas:

• Artificial intelligence: products, platforms, and AI-driven solutions
• Cybersecurity: tools, services, and managed security products
• Electronic systems development and design: hardware and embedded systems
• Emerging technologies: blockchain, IoT, and related fields

MTCIT has already invested over RO 79 million in AI across the digital economy, producing approximately 22 specialised AI companies in the Sultanate, according to an MTCIT infrastructure report. Sas for Excellence could meaningfully accelerate that count by giving the most capable AI firms the capital to scale. The initiative also complements the AI Special Economic Zone established under Royal Decree No. 50/2026 earlier this year. Our earlier coverage of Oman's new AI Special Zone has the full breakdown on the zone's regulatory framework and investor incentives.

🤝 Six Partners, One Goal

The depth of institutional coordination behind Sas for Excellence is unusual for a technology support programme. As Muscat Daily reported, six organisations co-implement the initiative:

• Ministry of Finance: co-funding and fiscal mechanisms
• Ministry of Labour: wage subsidy administration and Omanisation compliance tracking
• Oman Investment Authority (OIA): financing access and investment coordination
• Authority for Projects, Tenders and Local Content: procurement preference implementation
• Petroleum Development Oman (PDO): enterprise customer access for qualifying firms
• Development Bank: concessional financing and cash liquidity facilities

PDO's participation deserves particular attention. As Oman's dominant energy operator and one of the country's largest technology buyers, PDO can open doors to enterprise contracts that dwarf what any startup could win independently. Including it as an implementation partner turns Sas for Excellence into something rarer than a grant: a structured pathway from early-stage tech company to enterprise supplier.

🇴🇲 From Roadmap to Mechanism

Oman's 2026-2030 Digital Economy Roadmap targets growing the digital sector's contribution to GDP from roughly 2% today to 10% by 2040. That goal requires more than policy declarations. It requires viable, scalable Omani tech companies generating real revenue and, eventually, export earnings.

Oman has historically had a strong base of micro and small tech firms. The missing tier has been mid-market companies capable of competing regionally. Sas for Excellence is designed to close that gap, targeting companies already growing at 15%+ CAGR and pairing them with the financing and market access to accelerate further.

The question of whether Vision 2040's ambitions are translating into concrete mechanisms has been examined closely at omanvision2040.com in their piece on whether Vision 2040's regional promise is moving beyond announcements. Sas for Excellence is one of the clearest examples yet that implementation is catching up with intent.

🔍 Why This Matters for Oman

Three things distinguish Sas for Excellence from previous MTCIT support efforts:

1. It combines supply and demand. Most support programmes offer either funding or market access. This initiative provides both simultaneously, considerably de-risking the growth path for qualifying companies.
2. It sets a performance threshold. The 15% CAGR eligibility filter directs public resources to firms that have demonstrated market fit, not just good intentions.
3. It targets export potential. The foreign market expansion plan requirement signals that Oman is trying to build regionally competitive tech firms that generate export revenues, not just domestic service providers.

For Omani entrepreneurs already running a qualifying tech company, the message is direct: if you have built something real, Oman's government is ready to back you with serious resources. Application details and eligibility information are available through MTCIT's SAS platform.