Dasco Capital and QIC Close $50M Fund for AI and Creative Sectors

Kazakhstan's Dasco Capital and QIC have sealed a $50 million fund dedicated to artificial intelligence and creative industries, according to a report by trend.az.

The deal establishes a joint investment vehicle with a reported corpus of $50 million. Its mandate spans two of the most heavily capitalized sectors in global venture markets: AI and the creative economy.

Dasco Capital brings Kazakhstan-based sponsorship to the partnership. The firm operates from a market where sovereign institutions and private investors have pushed to diversify beyond oil, gas and mining into technology-driven asset classes. The tie-up with QIC pairs that regional positioning with a partner whose remit the report links to the same target sectors.

The $50 million ticket size places the fund in the mid-range of emerging-market vehicles focused on AI. Funds of this scale typically pursue early- and growth-stage positions rather than anchoring late-stage rounds. The report does not specify the fund's target number of portfolio companies, its geographic allocation between Kazakhstan and other markets, or its investment horizon.

What the deal signals is intent. A dedicated AI-and-creative allocation from Kazakhstan-linked investors tracks the broader pattern of Central Asian capital seeking exposure to technology themes that dominate deal flow in larger markets. The creative-industries component adds a second leg — sectors such as media, design and content production — that investors increasingly treat as adjacent to AI rather than separate from it.

The report does not disclose the fund's first closing date, subsequent closings, or whether additional limited partners may join beyond the two named partners. It also does not state whether the $50 million represents a hard cap or an initial target subject to expansion.

For Dasco Capital and QIC, execution now turns on deploying the corpus. The sectors they have chosen carry high competition for assets and demanding technical diligence. How quickly the fund moves from signing to first investments will indicate whether this is a strategic build-out or a single-mandate vehicle — a question the partners have yet to answer publicly.