Dubai, UAE, October 22nd, 2026, FinanceWire
The Dubai-based four-time founder and angel investor backed CrossVal as an investor in 2022, and now drives its growth, fundraising and partnerships as Chief Growth Officer.
Zohare (Zo) Haider, the Dubai-based technology executive, four-time founder and angel investor, is leading growth at CrossVal as the AI finance and accounting platform expands across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Haider joined CrossVal full time as Chief Growth Officer in February 2026, where he leads growth, fundraising and partnerships.
Zohare (Zo) Haider, Chief Growth Officer of CrossVal.
CrossVal, a UAE-based AI fintech startup backed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, has partnered with Core42, the G42 company specialising in sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure, to expand its sovereign AI finance and accounting platform. The platform automates tasks such as reconciliation, bookkeeping, intercompany matching and tax compliance, and is built to meet regional requirements including UAE Corporate Tax, VAT and Saudi Arabia’s ZATCA framework. Its rollout is underway in both markets.
From Angel to Operator
Haider’s path to CrossVal is an unusual one. He first backed the company as an angel investor in December 2022, then joined the team full time more than three years later. He describes the journey simply, as going “from customer to investor to teammate.”
It is a move that brings more than two decades of experience building digital businesses between Pakistan and the Gulf to a company working on one of the region’s most practical uses of AI, helping finance teams spend less time on manual accounting and more on the decisions that matter.
Two Decades of Building in the Region
Haider began his career in Islamabad as a project coordinator at Nortel. After the October 2005 Kashmir earthquake, he helped organise relief convoys and ran Shakethequake, a blog that rallied volunteers and drew coverage from Reuters, before leaving Nortel to join a relief agency.
He went on to senior digital roles at Wi-Tribe, part of the Ooredoo Group, and at the British Council, where he led digital across seven countries. Alongside those roles, he founded foona, a restaurant discovery platform, and Digital Street, a digital agency he bootstrapped from $10K to $2.5M in revenue while serving more than 150 brands.
Jalebi and the Full Startup Arc
In 2021, Haider co-founded Jalebi, a restaurant operations and inventory platform that expanded across six Gulf markets and was backed by investors including Techstars and Hub71. Jalebi was named to the UAE Ministry of Economy’s Future100, listed in Deloitte’s Middle East Technology Fast 50 in the Impact category in 2024 and 2025, and awarded the Majra Impact Seal (Gold) in 2025.
Haider himself was named Sheraa Inspiring Founder of the Year in 2022, and Jalebi was recognised as a GITEX Supernova Top MENA Startup in 2023. Jalebi announced its closure in July 2026, and Haider has been open about it, as he has been about failure throughout his career. That candour, including his reflections on early ventures that did not work, has made him a respected voice among founders in the region.
Investor, Mentor and Connector
Beyond CrossVal, Haider is an active angel investor whose public portfolio includes Fathom, Mappa and Tropicfeel. He serves as Hustle Fund Angel Squad Local Lead for the UAE, mentors founders and runs go-to-market workshops across the GCC accelerator circuit.
He is also a contributing author at Entrepreneur Middle East, where he writes for the region’s startup community. He studied Economics and International Relations at Bucknell University, where he is honoured with a bookplate in Bertrand Library.
After more than twenty years of building, backing and mentoring companies across the region, Haider is now focused on helping CrossVal bring AI-powered finance to businesses across the Gulf.
About Zohare Haider
Zohare (Zo) Haider is a Dubai-based technology executive, four-time founder and angel investor, and Chief Growth Officer of CrossVal, an AI accounting platform for businesses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He previously founded Jalebi, Digital Street and foona, and serves as Hustle Fund Angel Squad Local Lead for the UAE. More information is available at zohare.com and on LinkedIn.