Key Takeaways
- A decade inside the NGO sector gave the founders direct knowledge of where the funding process breaks down, and they built the product specifically around those failure points.
- Within months of launch, organizations from 66 countries generated 350+ proposals on the platform with no paid acquisition, pointing to genuine demand in an underserved market.
- The company is positioned at the intersection of a $368 billion sector and a structural funding gap, targeting organizations that have the mission but lack the infrastructure to compete for grants.
Overview
NOVAI is an AI-powered grant management platform founded in 2026 and headquartered in Marseille, France, with a presence in Paris. The company was founded by Feryal El Moghraby, who serves as CEO, alongside co-founders Farah Abi Mosleh (COO), Liwaa Awar (CTO), Jawad Morby (CBO), and Rawad Moghraby, who provided the initial capital. The platform helps non-profit organizations find relevant grants, write proposals, and access specialist expertise. The team is part of the French Tech ecosystem.
Background
Feryal El Moghraby spent nearly a decade working inside the NGO sector before founding NOVAI, and the problem she kept running into was consistent across organizations. Finding relevant grants was slow and manual, and when organizations did find an opportunity, rejections were common, often not because the work was weak, but because the application failed on eligibility or compliance. Most organizations were using internal staff without specialist grant-writing experience to produce proposals that took 20 to 60 hours each.
She brought in Farah Abi Mosleh, who came from the same professional background, alongside a CTO, an engineer, and a co-founder who provided the seed capital. Structuring NOVAI as a commercial company rather than a non-profit was a deliberate call. An NGO operating in this space would face the same funding constraints as its clients.
Mission and Approach
The sector NOVAI serves is large. Foundation giving reached nearly $110 billion globally in 2024, and the NGO and charitable market is valued at $368 billion in 2026. Yet more than 70 percent of grant applications are rejected due to formatting, eligibility gaps, or compliance issues, not weak ideas. The founding team’s argument is that most organizations are losing funding they could realistically access, because they lack the infrastructure to compete.
NOVAI’s response is to cover the full funding lifecycle in one platform rather than solve for any single step. The product combines AI-driven grant discovery, proposal writing, expert access, and team collaboration tools, with the goal of replacing a process that currently depends on staff hours, manual research, and institutional knowledge that most small and mid-sized NGOs simply do not have.
Product and Offering
The platform moves through three stages. Grant discovery uses AI to scan global funding databases and score eligibility before an organization invests time in applying. The proposal writing module generates structured applications in English, French, and Arabic, built around funder-specific templates for EU institutions, UN agencies, foundations, and bilateral donors. A co-creation tool helps teams develop project ideas before they reach the writing stage.
On top of that sits an Expert Marketplace, where organizations can book sessions with vetted grant consultants and fundraising specialists directly through the platform. A collaborative workspace supports real-time co-editing across teams. The AI Academy, a separate revenue line, offers online courses covering AI literacy, fundraising, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks for non-profit staff. A predictive analytics module, designed to forecast which funding opportunities an organization is most likely to win, is currently in development.
A free Funding Readiness Assessment is available without registration and includes a follow-up call with a NOVAI specialist.
Business Model
Subscriptions are the primary revenue source. The Basic plan is $40 per month and covers database access, grant alerts, and a set number of AI proposal writing sessions. The Standard plan at $60 per month expands those limits. A custom tier serves large organizations and networks. All plans include a 10-day free trial with no credit card required.
Additional revenue comes from AI Academy course sales, consulting, and a commission on Expert Marketplace sessions. The company is also developing corporate partnerships to channel CSR funding from large companies toward NGOs through the platform, partly as a buffer against shifts in institutional donor funding.
Funding and Support
NOVAI is bootstrapped with approximately $200,000 in initial capital from co-founder Rawad Moghraby. No external rounds have been announced. The company is part of the French Tech ecosystem.
Traction and Growth
Before running any paid marketing, 300 organizations from 66 countries registered on the platform during the initial free trial period, generating over 350 proposals. Thirty have converted to paying subscribers. The gap between registrations and conversions is the company’s main commercial challenge. NGOs are cost-conscious and used to doing the work manually, which makes the case for a monthly subscription harder to close than in most B2B contexts.
The team appeared at Web Summit Qatar in February 2026, ChangeNOW Paris in March, and GITEX Africa in Marrakech in April, and is presenting at VivaTech Paris in June 2026.
Misconception
NOVAI is frequently described as a grant database or a writing tool. The founders frame it differently. The platform is built to function as operational infrastructure for the entire funding cycle, and the individual features, discovery, writing, experts, collaboration, are components of that system rather than standalone utilities.
Outlook
The next twelve months are focused on converting the existing user base into paying subscribers and reaching 1,000 registered organizations. The predictive analytics module is in development. The company is also working toward institutional partnerships with NGO networks and federations that could offer NOVAI as a member benefit, which would allow it to grow the subscriber base without relying entirely on direct acquisition.
