ARUSTO, a New York-based AI EdTech startup, has emerged as the winner of the Creative Industries Track at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF) 2026. In addition to securing the top prize in its category, the company was also voted the “Crowd Favorite” by the festival’s attendees. The victory comes as ARUSTO gains significant momentum in the MENA region, leveraging the festival’s platform to connect with a diverse pool of regional investors, partners, and educational institutions.
Accelerating Global EdTech Innovation from Sharjah
The SEF 2026 Pitch Competition, held at the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, provided ARUSTO with a strategic gateway into the Middle East’s rapidly evolving education market. Following the win, the company reported a surge in interest from regional stakeholders looking to modernize learning content through automation. Co-founder and CEO Yuvraj Singh Shergill noted that the festival served as a powerful catalyst for new partnerships, culminating in the startup entering final negotiations to close a major deal with one of the world’s largest online learning platforms immediately following the event.
Revolutionizing Content Creation for the MENA Region
ARUSTO’s platform addresses a critical bottleneck in the education sector: the time-intensive nature of creating high-quality, structured learning materials. By using a single input—such as a document or a rough idea—the AI-driven engine produces full courses, interactive videos, assessments, and podcasts. For the MENA market, ARUSTO’s built-in multilingual support is particularly relevant, enabling universities and corporate L&D teams in the region to localize global content or export Arabic-first educational materials to international audiences with unprecedented speed.
Relevance to the MENA Tech Scene
While headquartered in the United States, ARUSTO’s success at Sharjah’s flagship entrepreneurship event highlights the growing role of the UAE as a testbed for global deep-tech startups. The festival’s ability to attract and reward international ventures like ARUSTO underscores Sharjah’s ambition to become a global hub for the creative and educational industries. For MENA-based founders and VCs, ARUSTO’s victory serves as a benchmark for how AI can be applied to solve structural inefficiencies in traditional sectors like education and professional training.
About ARUSTO
ARUSTO is an AI-powered educational technology company that streamlines the creation of structured learning content. Founded by Yuvraj Singh Shergill and Cane Punma, the platform is designed for universities, training providers, and corporate L&D teams. ARUSTO enables users to transform raw information into polished, multi-format assets—including SCORM-compliant modules and AI-narrated videos—aligned with specific pedagogical goals. The startup aims to democratize expert-level content creation by making it 30 times faster than traditional methods.
Source: LinkedIn
