FAST Appoints Asad ur Rehman to Drive Ventures, M&A and Market Expansion

FAST, the Dubai-headquartered AI-native advertising technology group, is expanding its business into ventures, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and new markets, as it moves beyond operating growth businesses to building, acquiring and backing new ventures.

The group has established a group-level Ventures practice and appointed Asad ur Rehman as Partner, Ventures & Growth to lead the expansion.

FAST has built a portfolio of businesses spanning outcomes-based marketing, creators, retail media and commerce. The new Ventures practice will focus on three key areas: accelerating commercial growth across FAST’s priority businesses, incubating and acquiring new ventures, and developing partnerships that can create new revenue streams and open up additional markets.

So&So Partnerships to Lead New-Market Expansion

So&So Partnerships, the FAST group company founded and led by Asad as Chief Executive, will become the first vehicle under the new Ventures practice for expanding into new markets.

So&So develops and operates go-to-market and reseller businesses for global platforms in high-growth markets, beginning with South Asia. The company will work alongside FAST’s existing businesses to identify and develop new commercial opportunities and revenue streams for the group.

The move is part of FAST’s broader strategy to extend its AI-native, outcomes-focused model into additional markets while building new businesses around its existing capabilities and ecosystem.

Asad Brings Global and Entrepreneurial Experience

Asad ur Rehman brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience across global markets.

His career includes multi-market marketing and brand roles at Unilever, leadership positions across WPP and GroupM businesses, and a stint leading HUM Network, Pakistan’s only publicly listed broadcaster. At HUM Network, he focused on growing the company’s digital revenue.

Following his corporate career, Asad moved into entrepreneurship and has since founded and built ventures across technology, media and consumer sectors.

His experience combines leadership across large organisations with experience in launching and scaling new businesses, positioning him to lead FAST’s expansion into ventures, M&A and new markets.

FAST Looks to Build on Its AI-Native Model

Commenting on the appointment, Waseem Afzal, Founder and CEO of FAST, said, “We’ve spent the last few years proving that an outcome-based, AI-native model works in this region. The next phase is building and backing new ventures on top of it, and Asad is exactly the leader to drive that. He combines global operating discipline with a founder’s instinct for markets that are about to move, and I’m glad to have him at the table.”

As FAST expands its portfolio, the Ventures practice is expected to provide a dedicated structure for identifying new opportunities, supporting existing businesses and evaluating potential acquisitions and partnerships.

For FAST, the move represents a shift from building businesses organically to taking a broader role as an operator, incubator, investor and acquirer within the advertising technology ecosystem.

Asad ur Rehman, Partner, Ventures & Growth, FAST, said, “FAST has done something rare in this region. It has built a group of businesses across outcomes, creators, creative, retail media and commerce that all run on one principle: growth you can measure. I am excited to join a team that builds at speed and executes fearlessly. The opportunity now is to take what FAST has proved into new markets and new ventures.”

With the new Ventures practice and Asad’s appointment, FAST is positioning its next phase of growth around a combination of commercial expansion, new venture creation, M&A and market development.