Some current and former staffers at Builder.ai, a once-promising AI start-up, were issued subpoenas from the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan just days before the company declared insolvency.
A former high-level employee at the Microsoft-backed company confirmed that, on the advice of counsel, some employees have been asked to preserve documents and other evidence related to a potential criminal investigation.
“They’re looking into inflated sales numbers and round tripping,” a former staffer said, referring to a method for evading taxes. Regardless of whether or not the investigations lead to any litigation or prosecutions, the London-based Builder.ai's days as a high-flying start-up are done.
“They’re entering insolvency and every jurisdiction is different, so all of our end dates are all different, but the company is essentially done,” the former employee said. The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined The National's requests for comment.
It's a precipitous fall for a company that once achieved unicorn status, receiving a valuation of more than $1 billion. Another former employee spoke to The National last week to raise concerns about Builder.ai.
“Founder Sachin Dev Duggal, who has since moved to Dubai, has also been a prominent speaker at many conferences across the region, contributing thought leadership to the tech and business community,” the former employee said in an email.
Mr Duggal was removed as chief executive in March, though he retained an association with the company, along with the title of “chief wizard”. In 2024, when Builder.ai was flush with investor cash and in the tech world's good graces, Mr Duggal briefly spoke to The National as he appeared at an event hosted by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, which had just announced a new AI centre.
“With this centre, we're helping to unveil a portal to global commerce,” he said at the time, reflecting on why Builder.ai chose DMCC as an ecosystem partner.
“We didn't want to be a software company just surrounded by other software companies, we wanted to be surrounded by potential customers and peers,” Mr Duggal added, referring to DMCC's reach and partnerships with gold, diamond, tea, coffee, crypto and gaming entities, to name a few.
According to employees and media reports, Builder.ai failed to meet revenue expectations. It had promised to make mobile app development as “easy as buying a pizza” but struggled to create reliable products, disappointing investors and creating a chasm between expectations and financial reality.
Mr Duggal requested additional investment funds, as well as an emergency loan months before he was stripped of the chief executive title. Audits later revealed a high likelihood that sales projections had been fudged, causing concern about other potential financial irregularities.
Builder.ai's LinkedIn page, which has 288,000 followers, turned off the comment section for a post announcing the company's insolvency proceedings.
“Despite the tireless efforts of our current team and exploring every possible option, the business has been unable to recover from historic challenges and past decisions that placed significant strain on its financial position,” the post reads. “We will work closely with the appointed administrators to ensure an orderly process and to explore all available options for parts of the business, where possible.”
The company has become a cautionary tale of high-flying AI expectations meeting the realities of a competitive and crowded tech market. It's unclear if there will be any surviving pieces of intellectual property that might help Builder.ai survive in a different guise.
Mr Duggal, whose confidence and bold projections helped to put Builder.ai on the map, did not immediately respond to The National's requests for comment. He did, however, post some thoughts on a Builder.ai alumni LinkedIn group.
“I don’t think the story is done yet, but irrespective if I can be of any help to any of you as you make this transition in life please know I’m only a message away,” he posted in part. “And more importantly – if I didn’t listen, if I was short, if I was unreasonable – I’m sorry.”
In the UAE, the DMCC, with which Builder.ai had an “ecosystem partnership”, said it was evaluating developments. The company has its headquarters in London and offices in Dubai, with workers in the US as well.
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
