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For Saeed Zarrouk, the business of connecting markets has always been personal.
His relationship with the United Arab Emirates stretches back more than four decades through his family’s work with members of the UAE Royal Family. Those longstanding ties predate his current activity in sports, media and investment and form an important foundation for the network he is building today.
Yet Zarrouk is constructing a network of his own. Through Zar Cap, his holding and investment platform, he is assembling companies, investments and new ventures across education, sports and media, technology and artificial intelligence. The broader strategy is to link international businesses and capital with opportunities across the Middle East and Africa. Sports has been one of the most visible expressions of that approach. The larger story, however, is Zarrouk himself—and the position he is increasingly carving out between UAE capital and relationships, American and global businesses, and African growth markets.
A Relationship With the UAE That Predates the Business
Zarrouk’s connection to the UAE did not begin with DAZN. His family’s relationship with the country goes back more than 40 years and includes work with members of the UAE Royal Family. That history gave him an early understanding of the country’s business and institutional environment and created relationships that have continued across generations.
His own career expanded that foundation. After establishing an entrepreneurial track record in education, Zarrouk developed relationships across the Gulf, the United States, Europe and Africa. Today he is deploying those relationships as part of a broader institutional strategy. The UAE is not simply one market in which he operates; it is becoming a central element of the architecture connecting the businesses and opportunities he pursues globally.
Young Entrepreneur to Global Operator
Before sports and institutional capital became central to his work, Zarrouk established himself as an entrepreneur in education. He founded Edutest, a technology-focused education company designed to help students access international universities, scholarships and financial-aid opportunities. The company grew out of an earlier effort and expanded across MENA and African markets.
Forbes Middle East named Zarrouk to its 30 Under 30 list in 2020, identifying him at age 20 as Founder and CEO of Edutest Group. At the time, Forbes described Edutest as a pan-African and MENA-based online platform. Zarrouk has described the progression as a sequence of increasingly ambitious ventures: launching Edutest at 19 and becoming the youngest entrepreneur on the Forbes Middle East list at 20.
That history establishes Zarrouk as more than an advisor or connector. He has built and operated companies, and he has used those experiences to develop relationships across markets. Edutest remains part of that entrepreneurial foundation; Zar Cap represents the next stage.
Cap: Building the Platform
Zar Cap is the vehicle through which Zarrouk is consolidating his companies, investments and new ventures. Operating between Dubai and New York, the platform focuses on strategic advisory, sovereign relationships, institutional capital formation and global corporate development. Zarrouk serves as Founder and Chairman.
The strategy spans industries. Education remains part of the platform’s history. Sports and media have become major areas of activity. Technology and AI form part of the broader investment thesis, and new financial-technology ventures are expanding the scope further. The common thread is geography and connectivity: bringing international companies, capital and institutional relationships into the Middle East and linking them with opportunities in Africa. Zar Cap functions less as a conventional single-sector investment vehicle and more as a platform built around relationships, access and cross-border execution.
Dhabi, DAZN and the Football Track Record
One clear example of that strategy is Zarrouk’s work with DAZN and Abu Dhabi. At 24, Zarrouk was appointed Senior Advisor to DAZN Group, becoming one of the youngest executives to hold a senior advisory role at a major global sports-media company.
He subsequently developed and led DAZN’s relationship with International Holding Company (IHC) in Abu Dhabi, establishing a strategic link between the global sports-media group and one of the UAE’s largest investment groups. With DAZN backed by Access Industries, Zarrouk has also worked to deepen the broader relationship between the Access Industries ecosystem and Abu Dhabi’s institutional and investment landscape.
That positioning places Zarrouk at the intersection of global sports media, technology and institutional capital—and reflects the broader strategy he is now pursuing through Zar Cap.
His football track record provides another illustration. He helped close DAZN’s opportunity around the FIFA Club World Cup and led DAZN’s working relationship with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from start to finish. One key outcome was bringing the CAF Champions League onto DAZN for the first time. He is now advancing future opportunities around the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and continuing to develop the broader CAF relationship. For DAZN, Africa represents a major growth market. For Zarrouk, it is a setting where global capital, media, technology and local institutional relationships can intersect.
The same approach extends beyond sports. Zar Cap has been involved in developing relationships that connect American businesses and institutional capital with the Middle East, including work linking Cantor Fitzgerald and DAZN. Together with the Access Industries and Abu Dhabi activity, these relationships illustrate the bridge Zarrouk is attempting to build: identifying overlapping strategic interests and creating the institutional relationships needed to move opportunities forward.
The Next Venture and the Consistent Thesis
Zar Cap’s ambitions also reach into financial technology. One major new venture is Pragmarket, a prediction-market business being developed for the Middle East and Africa. The concept reflects another strand of Zarrouk’s strategy: introducing emerging financial and technology models into markets where they can be adapted to local audiences and regulatory environments.
Despite the growing focus on sports and investment, education remains central to Zarrouk’s identity. Edutest addressed a clear problem: talented students in the Middle East and Africa often face significant barriers to international educational opportunities.
That early work helps explain the geography of his current strategy. Education connected students with opportunities abroad. Sports connected global media with African football. Institutional work connects American and global companies with the UAE. Zar Cap is intended to bring those experiences together.
The common thread is not a single industry but geography. The UAE supplies capital, institutions and relationships. The United States and global markets supply companies, technology and capital. Africa offers a rapidly developing market with significant long-term growth potential. Zar Cap is being built at the intersection of those three worlds.
The evolution from Edutest to DAZN and now Zar Cap is an expansion, not a departure. The young entrepreneur who built an education company around connecting students with international opportunities is now building a platform designed to connect companies, institutions and capital across borders. Sports is one major vertical. Education is another. Technology, AI and prediction markets add further dimensions.
The larger thesis remains consistent: connect people with opportunity, capital with growth, and markets that have historically operated too far apart.
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