Dubai, UAE – February 2025 – VISARUN.AI, a Dubai-based visa automation platform, has closed a $700,000 pre-seed funding round from Swiss and UAE angel investors. The investment will accelerate the company’s expansion across key markets in the Middle East and Asia, where demand for streamlined visa processing continues to surge.
Founded in 2024 by Vladimir Indjikian and Alena Iakina, Visarun addresses a significant operational challenge for global enterprises and travel agencies: the time-intensive, error-prone nature of visa application management. According to the company, HR managers at large organizations spend over 600 hours annually coordinating visa applications, tracking documentation, and managing delays.
Solving a Persistent Business Challenge
“We kept hearing the same story from HR directors and COOs,” said Vladimir Indjikian, President and Co-Founder. “Teams were managing hundreds of visa applications through spreadsheets, email threads, and manual follow-ups. When rejections happened, they often came as a complete surprise, disrupting carefully planned business travel.”
The platform aims to bring predictability and transparency to a traditionally opaque process. VISARUN.AI’s system combines several AI-driven features designed to reduce both processing time and uncertainty.
How the Platform Works
At the core of Visarun.ai is the Smart Visa Route system, which analyzes multiple factors—destination country, travel dates, applicant citizenship, and historical approval data—to recommend the optimal application pathway for each case.
The platform’s Visa Approval Calculator offers something new to the market: predictive probability scoring. Before submitting an application, users receive an assessment of their approval likelihood based on their profile and destination requirements. This feature allows companies to make more informed decisions about business travel and resource allocation.
Document verification happens automatically through computer vision and machine learning, catching common errors before submission. The system also includes a 24/7 AI assistant that answers visa-related questions, provides guidance on requirements, and even simulates consulate interviews to help prepare applicants.
Early Traction and Market Opportunity
The company reports it’s currently processing up to 10,000 visa applications monthly and has achieved a 70% reduction in manual administrative work for its enterprise clients. Early customers include large corporations and travel agencies managing high volumes of international travel.
“The results we’re seeing are encouraging,” said Alena Iakina, CCO and Co-Founder. “Companies that were spending weeks coordinating visa applications are now handling the same volume with significantly less overhead. The real value comes from the visibility—knowing exactly where every application stands and having data to inform decisions.”
Strategic Expansion Plans
The timing appears favorable for VISARUN.AI’s growth plans. The MENA region faces persistent visa processing delays, with current processing times ranging from 4 to 12 weeks depending on destination and visa type. Embassy and consulate staffing shortages have created significant backlogs across the region.
The company is targeting expansion in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, and China—markets with substantial populations requiring business and tourist visas for EU and US destinations. The Arab States region has one of the world’s highest concentrations of migrant workers, at 41.4% of the workforce according to international labor data.
Integration and Enterprise Features
The platform integrates with common enterprise tools including Notion, Coda, JIRA, and various CRM systems, allowing teams to manage visa workflows within their existing tech stack. The dashboard provides real-time tracking of visa statuses, budget allocation, and timeline forecasting across departments.
“We designed the system to fit into how companies already work,” Indjikian explained. “HR, legal, operations, and finance teams all need different views of the same visa data. Our platform gives everyone the visibility they need without adding another disconnected tool.”
What’s Next
The new funding will support product development, team expansion, and go-to-market initiatives across target regions. On the roadmap is an enhanced AI Interview Simulation feature, designed to give applicants realistic practice sessions with real-time feedback before their actual consulate appointments.
The company sees opportunity not just in digitizing existing processes, but in fundamentally changing how organizations approach visa management—from reactive problem-solving to proactive planning based on data and predictions.
About VISARUN.AI
VISARUN.AI is a Dubai-based visa-as-a-service platform that provides end-to-end automation for corporate visa processing. The company serves global enterprises and travel agencies with AI-powered tools for application management, document verification, approval prediction, and process optimization.