PROCODE AI Esports Platform Secures Pre-Seed Funding

Bahrain-based startup PROCODE is developing an artificial intelligence-driven operating system designed to streamline the complex backend of competitive gaming. Founded in 2024 by Shahd AlZaki and Rami Jamal, the company aims to address the significant fragmentation and manual processes that plague the rapidly expanding esports industry, particularly within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The esports sector, valued globally at approximately $540 million with MENA contributing over $100 million in player value, often relies on disparate tools for tournament organization, player development, and financial transactions. PROCODE's platform seeks to unify these functions, offering a centralized solution for managing competitions, training, payments, and operational deployment. This integrated approach is crucial in an environment where, according to industry research, nearly half of all tournaments are still managed manually, and coaches dedicate substantial time to administrative tasks.

PROCODE's AI-native system is structured around four core pillars: Compete, Train, Pay, and Deploy. This allows tournament organizers to run leagues and circuits, players to access coaching and AI-powered performance analysis, and facilitates seamless payment and prize distribution. For organizations, the platform offers white-label solutions, APIs, and advanced analytics. The underlying AI agents are engineered to automate many of the previously manual administrative burdens, enhancing efficiency across the ecosystem.

The startup has secured crucial early-stage funding, including a pre-seed round and grant capital from the Standard Chartered Foundation's Women in Tech Accelerator program. This initiative, implemented with support from Innovate for Bahrain and Village Capital, focuses on empowering women-led, tech-enabled businesses. The grant has been instrumental in advancing PROCODE's platform development and team expansion, highlighting the program's role in nurturing nascent ventures.

With a strategic focus on the MENA market, PROCODE is building a genuinely Arabic-native product, ensuring full right-to-left functionality and payment infrastructure tailored to regional financial systems. This localized approach is a key differentiator in a market where many existing solutions are merely translated English platforms. The company has already garnered significant user engagement, attracting 4,000 users and facilitating 10 tournaments, alongside building a network of three brand ambassadors with a combined following exceeding 550,000.

While its immediate ambitions are centered on establishing a strong foothold in the GCC and wider MENA region, PROCODE harbors global aspirations. The fundamental issues of fragmented tournament administration, player data management, and operational inefficiencies are universal. By proving its model in the dynamic MENA esports scene, the company intends to scale its AI-powered operating system to address these challenges worldwide, positioning itself as a comprehensive solution for the future of competitive gaming operations.