4th Venture Capital in MENA Report ( 2013 in review) MENA Private Equity Association includes my thought leadership piece on page 19 - Section4 titled : Entrepreneurship versus Business as usual in MENA - the "new reality"

1. 1
4th Venture Capital in the
Middle East & North Africa
Report
2013 Year in Review
is a nonprofit entity committed to
supporting and developing the
private equity and venture capital
industries in the Middle East and
North Africa.
October 2014
Photo by Fré Sonneveld

2. WITH GRATITUDE
The MENA Private Equity Association extends its sincere appreciation to Thomson Reuters
- Zawya for sharing primary data and industry insights that informed this annual report. We
are most grateful to KMPG for developing the report analysis.
KPMG
Brad Whittfield, Associate Director, Private Equity and Sovereign Wealth Funds, KPMG
Charlotte Harris, Associate, KPMG
Vikas Papriwal, UAE Head of Transactions and Restructuring, KPMG
Zuhaib Khan, Assistant Manager, KPMG
Thomson Reuters - Zawya
Ali Arab, Product Manager, Zawya Financial Solutions, Thomson Reuters
Josiane Assaad, Content Manager, Zawya Investment Monitors, Thomson Reuters
Youmna Akiki, Research Associate, Zawya Investment Monitors, Thomson Reuters
Zawya, a Thomson Reuters business, is the preeminent source of Middle East and North
Africa business intelligence. Our membership solutions provide unique content and
tools including detailed profiles on public and private sector companies in the region,
unparalleled reporting on MENA markets, asset classes, and details of regional projects to
provide in-depth analysis for investors and business professionals in order to make more
informed investment decisions and build profitable relationships.
Its free news site, Zawya.com, attracts C-level professionals from the
business and finance world providing breaking news powered by Reuters
as well as content from major regional providers. Zawya.com Arabic offers
a broader selection of news genre for the Arabic speaking community,
reaching graduates up to senior level managers from across the MENA
region. Empowering entrepreneurs and SME community within the UAE,
BusinessPulse.ae, offers the environment to support success through
its news, featured articles and business tools designed specifically to
guide businesses through each stage of development as well as inspire
professionals with success stories from across the region.
Through its services, Zawya empowers nearly 1 million professionals with
the insight and transparency they need to conduct business effectively by
empowering them to build profitable relationships.
KPMG is a global network of professional firms with over 155,000 staff in
member firms across 155 countries. KPMG in the UAE was established in
1974 and has grown to 750 professional staff led by more than 25 partners,
across 8 offices in the country. We work closely with our colleagues in offices
throughout the MENA region and across the world.
The report contributors
We also extend our thanks to the thought leadership participants and the
Association’s VC Task Force.

3. 1. Mena VC investment data ...................................
1.1 Definition of Venture Capital in the
MENA region ........................................................
1.2 Data Criteria .........................................................
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8
10
66
2. Introductory message ..........................................
Philip Boigner, Vice President - Dubai Silicon
Oasis Capital
3. Venture Capital In The MENA Region ..........
3.1 Investments .........................................................
3.2 Transactions .........................................................
3.2.1 Sector Focus .........................................................
3.2.2 Regional Focus ....................................................
3.3 Funds Raised ........................................................
3.3.1 Cumulative Funds Raised ................................
3.4 Exits .........................................................................
4. Entrepreneurship versus business as
usual in MENA- the ‘new reality’
18
Rami Al-Karmi, Founder - Arcoten Holdings
5. Interview with Mustafa Sadek 22
Mustafa Sadek, Founder and Managing Partner
of UrbanBuz
6. 26
The missing link: the role of legal clinics in
supporting MENA’s start-up ecosystem .................
Ayman A. Khaleq, Managing Partner (Dubai),
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Philip Dowsett, Senior Associate, Morgan, Lewis
& Bockius
7. About The MENA Private Equity
Association .......................................................................
32
7.1 Members Directory ...........................................
7.2 Private Equity And Venture Capital Firms
In MENA .................................................................
12
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14
15
15
16
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36
Photo by 120H

4. Definition of Venture Capital (VC) in the MENA region
7
6
1. Mena VC Investment Data
VC is defined as the provision of long-term
equity investment and strategic
support by financial investors to
innovative, scalable companies at the early
growth stage.
Key criteria used to define VC
investments also include:
• Investments are in non-listed
companies (private companies)
• Investment commitment over the life of
the deal can average USD 3 to 5M but
can also reach up to USD 15 million
• A typical plan exit through IPO,
mergers & acquisition, management
buy-out or trade sale
• Above average returns expected
• Seed/angel or investments by non-financial
shareholders do not count as
VC
VC is not confined solely to technology
investments, but technology is often a core
factor that creates the level of scalability
required in a VC deal.
1.2 MENA VC Investment Data
The data covers only structured VC funds
that meet the MENA PE Association VC
criteria. The data does not cover direct
investments, seed, incubation or investment
programs investing in VC. In addition, read-ers
with an interest in the Maghreb can also
refer to the AMIC (Morrocan PE
Association) Reports, which cover Moroc-can
funds in detail, using different criteria.
Data Criteria
The funds included in the data analysis are
those defined in terms of self-reporting by
fund mandate or fund manager as VC funds
or SME growth capital funds. At this stage of
industry development, no attempt was made
to determine whether such self-reported
funds meet the criteria above. This report also
includes growth equity SME investment firms
that invest in a wide variety of SMEs including
those in traditional industries as well as earlier
stage venture deals.
The analysis was prepared based on data
sourced from the Zawya Private Equity Moni-tor.
KPMG member firms have not initiated any
primary research in relation to this draft report
and have not sought to establish or confirm the reliabil-ity
of the data provided by Zawya.
• The information contained herein is of a general
nature and is not intended to address the cir-cumstances
of any particular individual or entity.
Although we endeavor to provide accurate and
timely information, there can be no guarantee that
such information is or will continue to be accurate.
No one should act on such information without
appropriate professional advice after a thorough
examination of the particular situation.
In analysing and determining the parameters of avail-able
data, it has been necessary to apply certain criteria,
the most significant of which are as follows:
• Funds managed within the MENA region but
whose focus is to invest solely outside the region
are excluded.
• Investment size represents the total investment
(both the debt and equity portions). However fund
size only considers equity invested, as we have no
visibility on debt exposure by funds.
• The fund-raising totals are the amounts closed/
committed for fund-raising funds, closed funds,
investing funds, fully vested funds and liquidated
funds.
• Statistics are based on the ‘market’ approach
and funds are categorized based on the intended
destination for investments (as defined in a fund’s
announced mandate) as opposed to where the
firm is located. With regard to multi-region funds,
we have included these to the extent that there is a
focus on the MENA region.
Fund Size: In the case of funds yet to make a first close
or where no close information is available; fund size is
equivalent to the target amount and is noted as such.
For funds achieving at least one official close, fund size
is reported as the capital raised to date, while for funds
that have made a final close, the fund size is the total
capital raised. Rumored funds are excluded.
MENA: For the purpose of this report, MENA refers to
the following countries in the Middle East and North
Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, KSA, Ku-wait,
Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar,
Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen.
Photo by Kelley Bozarth
1.1 Definition of
Venture Capital in
the MENA Region:

5. 9
2. The Changing Tides of the Venture
Capital (VC) Industry in MENA
The state of the MENA VC ecosystem has
evolved quite significantly over the last year.
Notably, a number of managers have started
to raise funds toward the end of 2013 which let us
hope that 2014 will be better year for fundrais-ing.
New funds are targeting a size of $30 million
to $65 million, which shows that venture capital
(VC) investors are confident to find good deal flow
and potential exits for their portfolio companies in
the coming years. Especially, international acquir-ers
and follow on investors of regional companies
are contributing to the excitement and positive
outlook for VC in the region. Cobone, bayt.com
and Dubizzle were probably the most talked about
companies in 2013. The trend looking forward ap-pears
to be later stage investments – which in the
Middle East means Series A and B.
The Lebanese Central Bank has significantly con-tributed
to the buzz by announcing that banks will
make sizeable funds available to start-ups, SMEs
and venture investors in Lebanon. It is great to see
a government actively supporting the start-up and
SME funding scene. On the back of these news
several Lebanese entities are preparing to raise
“Series A” funds, which opens the question on how
much of these funds can be deployed in a relatively
small country.
Even though, the investment landscape has become
much more colorful and exciting, some of the pre-vailing
issues are still present. Most investments
done by institutional players as well as many deals
executed by angels and incubators are still into off-shore
holding companies, most notably BVI. On-shore
corporations and regional free zones for the
most part lack preferred share structure and many
other forms of regulation desired by VC.
IP protection is supported by strong legal regula-tion
in countries such as the UAE, however inves-tors
and entrepreneurs are wary about the experi-ence
and expert judgment of a legal system used
to Shari’ah law proceedings. Not surprisingly, we
have not seen many IP protection filings.
Valuation, much more an art than a science in the
Middle East, and are far off what entrepreneurs
are commanding (and receiving) in Silicon Valley.
Taking in consideration that regional comparable
companies are close to non-existent, the experience
By Dr. Philip Boigner,
Vice President — Technology
Investments, Dubai Silicon Oasis
Capital
The Changing Tides of the Venture Capital (VC) Industry in Mena
... the experience of the
VC investor and limited number of
deals that have been publicized are
the main tools for valuing start-ups
of the VC investor and
limited number of deals
that have been publicized are
and fast growing SMEs”
the main tools for valuing start-ups
and fast growing SMEs.
Club deals are still going strong as investors like
to share risk and have limited funds available to
deploy. It remains to be seen if the deal sharing and
co-investing will be impacted when some of the
fundraising GPs start deploying their new capital.
Overall, 2013 has been a good year for the VC in-dustry.
We have seen more deals being closed and
more money being deployed. To date, in 2014 this
trend has continued so that we can all look into the
future quite optimistically.

6. 11
3.
Venture
Capital
In The MENA
Region Photo by Lacey Raper
10

7. 12
Venture Capital in the
MENA Region
3.1 Investments
As the MENA region continues to feel the
impact of the global financial crisis together
with political instability in some countries,
available data suggests that the VC industry
experienced a decrease in deal activity dur-ing
2013. However, deal activity during the
last three years (2011 to 2013) is substan-tially
higher than 2008 to 2010. The me-dium
to long term outlook for MENA’s VC
industry remains positive as strong macro-fundamentals
continue to drive the region’s
economic recovery.
While the industry in general continues to
invest cautiously, investment activity dur-ing
the last three years is indicative of VC
investment opportunities in the region and
the industry’s growth despite geo-political
challenges. This is a key achievement for the
region’s VC industry which, arguably, re-mains
fairly nascent and in the early phases
of it’s development life cycle.
We note that, given the nature and size of
VC investments, a significant portion are ei-ther
not publically announced or, if they are
announced, the value of the investment is
not. For the purposes of our analysis below,
we have focused on transaction volume as
opposed to value.
60
50
40
30
20
10
11
17 17
32
During the last three years 140 VC
transactions were completed compared to
77 during the three years 2008 to 2010. This
upward trend has not been seen in MENA’s
wider private equity industry which has
28
51
54
34
demonstrated relatively flat performance,
where 260 private equity transactions were
completed during the last three years,
compared to 267 from 2008 to 2010.
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Source: Zawya Private Equity Monitor
Information
Technology
38%
Industrial
Manufacturing
13%
Sector Concentration by volume
(2008 to 2010: 77 VC deals in total)
Other
17%
Telecoms
9%
Financial Services
5%
Food and
Beverage
5%
Services
5%
Media
8%
The IT and software sectors continue to be the most popular amongst VC investors. Of
the total transactions in the region’s VC industry since 2011, 49 percent were in the IT
and software sectors. There have been 103 completed IT and software transactions since
2006, of which 69 occurred during the period 2011 to 2013.
We note “others” primarily represents the agriculture, telecom and retail sectors.
Information
Technology
49%
Sector concentration by volume
(2011 to 2013: 139 VC deals in total)
Other
19%
Industrial
Manufacturing
5%
Food and
Beverage
6%
Media
6%
Consumer Goods
7%
Services
8%
3.2.1
3.2 Number of VC transactions since 2006

8. 15
14
Country Concentration by volume
(2008 to 2010)
Country concentration by volume
(2011 to 2013)
Jordan
Based on available data, Lebanon, Egypt and
Morocco lead the MENA region in terms
of the number of VC investments with 27,
24 and 24 transactions from 2011 to 2013,
respectively. While the total number of VC
deals in Egypt increased from 8 in 2008
to 2010 to 24 in 2011 to 2013, it remains
exposed to political volatility and saw a re-duction
in VC activity from 9 deals in 2012
to 6 in 2013.
UAE continues to demonstrate resilience to
the global financial crisis as the number of
VC deals increased from 12 in 2008 to 2010
to 16 in 2011 to 2013. The increase in VC
activity is primarily attributable to the Infor-mation
Technology, Services and Consumer
goods sectors which accounted for six out of
the UAE’s eight VC deals during 2013.
UAE
10%
8%
Others
12%
Tunisia
14%
Morocco
17%
Egypt
17%
Lebanon
20%
VC annual funds raised
$ millions
No. of VC funds raising
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
6
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
VC funds raised No. of VC funds raising
10
92
4
26
107
121
29
5
7
208
5
2
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
Cumulative funds raised since 2006
Cumulative funds raised since 2006
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
10
102
310 312
337
444
565
594
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Units
3.2.2
3.3
3.3.1

9. 17
Following a strong fund raising year in 2012, there were $29 mil-lion
16
of VC funds raised in MENA during 2013. Although MENA’s
macro-economic fundamentals remain strong, fund raising remains
difficult reflective of a general lack of deal flow in the region, linger-ing
effects of the global financial crisis, and the continuing political
instability in key regional markets.
That said, it is encouraging to note that there has been an increase in
the total value of funds announced in MENA’s wider private equity
industry (although we note that many are yet to close) during 2013
compared to prior year ($2.6 billion in 2013 compared to $1.8 billion
in 2012).
Available data continues to reinforce the market’s shift in focus from
large buyout funds to VC and growth capital funds over the last three
years. While this shift to growth capital is not VC specific it does
impact the VC industry as the growth capital funds in the region
remain a key funding source of finance for the VC industry. Funds
raised by growth capital focused funds increased from $302 million
in 2008 to $922 million in 2013.
3.4 Exits
The impact of the global financial crisis on liquidity, valuations and
investor appetite has resulted in longer than anticipated holding ho-rizons
for VC investments. Based on available date, there have been
no VC exits during 2013.
Much like the PE industry, the VC industry has increased its focus in
recent years to maximising value from existing investments through
strategic and operational performance improvements. One would
expect that, as the regional economies stabilise and liquidity in the
market continues to improve, an increase in the number of exits will
occur in the short to medium term.
Photo by Sebastian Muller

10. 19
18
as usual in MENA — the ‘new reality’
If I could offer you only one tip for the
future, embrace entrepreneurship would
be it. Near future that is, and not in any
way belittling the importance of sunscreen!
Put aside the “Everybody’s free to wear sun-screen”
song humor aside, but some can ar-gue
that turmoil in the Middle East, be it the
situation in Syria, Palestine, Sudan, Egypt,
Iraq (in short most of the middle-eastern
countries), can cause many people to assume
that the risk to invest in the region is too
great. But on the contrary, investments in the
region along with the startups’ entrepreneur-ial
ecosystem are actually growing.
To put it in a simpler and more direct man-ner,
some investors continue to see opportu-nities
in MENA. They managed to find and
invest in the fast growing online business
models that figured out how to operate really
well during the turmoil – that has arguably
become the norm now. That, in addition to a
unique market, with high growth potential,
growing demands, and most importantly a
market that continues to buy, shapes the goal
of securing lucrative market exits for these
investments.
But what is driving all this? Why are we wit-nessing
this massive shift towards entrepre-neurship
versus business as usual?
I think nothing describes it better than the
scene where Gordon Gekko (played by
Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street:
Money Never Sleeps) addressed a crowd
of twenty-something anxiously listening:
“I’m not talking about consoles. I’m talking
about people. You don’t know it yet. But, you
are the ‘NINJA’ generation... You have no
income, no jobs... no assets.”
Fast-forwarding across all the lectures in
macro-economics frameworks and analysis,
we arrive at the conclusion that it seems the
‘NINJA’ generation is getting it, and taking
matters in their hands by taking action
instead of surrendering to the status quo.
Of course, this did not take place in isola-tion.
A number of factors have been nurtur-ing
a new breed of MENA entrepreneurs for
while. But before getting into those factors,
lets agree on the definition of “entrepreneur-ship”
and how it differs from the Small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) or small and
medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that the
banking and international organizations
such as the World Bank, the United Nations
and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
prefer and use elaborately.
In their definition, Small enterprises – are
enterprises where personnel numbers fall
below certain limits – outnumber large com-panies
by a wide margin and also employ
many more people. SMEs are also said to
be responsible for driving innovation and
competition in many economic sectors.
Not to belittle in any form or manner the
value SMEs/SMBs bring to the economical
growth and development equation but what
bothers me is the often mix up between what
this segment really needs to grow versus the
‘banking-based’ tools for small-to-medium
(SME or SMB) development that I believe
should be described as “ponzi job creation”
initiatives.
Now back to entrepreneurship versus SME/
SMB world. Would you be really interested
in investing in a venture that is “small” and
by definition plans to grow and become a
“medium” enterprise? Wouldn’t you rather
back an entrepreneur with a startup seeking
to scale it up into an enterprise!
4.
Entrepreneurship versus business
Rami Al-Karmi,
Founder of Arcoten Holdings
Entrepreneurship versus business as usual in MENA — the ‘new reality’
Although ‘entrepreneurship’ has become
to an extent a cliché term used widely
across the Arab world – most of the
people I know have the word ‘entrepre-neurship’
mentioned in their Linkedin
header or job titles, I have to be frank
before claiming that I know anything
about the topic.
The first time I was introduced to the
term ‘entrepreneurship’ was while reading
an invitation I received from the US De-partment
of State back in 2010 to attend
the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneur-ship
as part of a delegation of 13 Jorda-nians.
The letter back then addressed me
as a “serial entrepreneur” and it was quite
enjoyable to figure out what the meaning
was of the title they decided to bestow
upon me, and how what I have been
involved in since I was 19 years old–my
mom has year after year described it as
‘naive and crazy’ - can be described as an
act of ‘entrepreneurship’.
Entrepreneurship to me can never be a
job description or a title. Entrepreneur-ship
is a state of mind, an attitude of
perseverance towards identifying and
acting on solving problems while others
are simply satisfied by arguing, blaming or
getting depressed. I would like to believe
that within time, entrepreneurs develop
a special set of lens that help them see
clearly through all what others see as chal-lenges
and obstacles, followed by the use
of their special skills to recruit and get ac-cess
or control over resources that are not
originally within their disposal to create
value that is delivered within a repeatable
and scalable business model.
Although there has been two loosely
connected entrepreneurship ecosystem
landscapes going on for some time in the
region: one suffering from severe scarcity
in resources and the other, on the con-trary,
pouring tons of resources on it, both
hoping to land a ‘silicon valley-adapted’
job-creation model that works. I would
say that most of the efforts to boost and
activate an entrepreneurial ecosystem in
MENA including the government funded,
private sector led or non for profit, incu-bators,
accelerators, business plan compe-titions,
etc... – although not aligned, and
in most of the cases caused more harm
than value or were misleading to startup
founders – are starting to pay off.
Reading a study by Endeavor that tracked
the effect of a high impact enterprise in
boosting the entrepreneurial ecosystem
was a true eye opener to me. Zooming
the lens of the study to the MENA region
would show you how the effect of Fadi
Ghandour – founder of Aramex – in-vesting
in startups like his investment
in Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury’s
Maktoob (acquired by Yahoo in 2009)
would ripple across a large number of
startups and founders for years to come.
Same thing applies to tracking how
HIKMA Pharmaceutical Group has
been instrumental in supporting a large
number of startup founders is just mind
blowing. HIKMA was founded by Dr
Samih Darwazeh (Said’s father), now pub-licly
listed on London Stock Exchange,
together they grew the group from zero
revenues in 1978 to 1,365 Million Dollars
of group revenue in 2013, and more than
7,000 employees is just a fraction of the
true success indicators behind the story of
HIKMA.
For a while, most of the viable activity
taking place in the MENA entrepreneur-ial
space has been what can be classified
under ICT Business to Business (B2B), or
Entrepreneurship
is a state of mind,
an attitude of
perseverance towards
identifying and acting
on solving problems
while others are
simply satisfied by
arguing, blaming or
getting depressed”
“unsexy business models” as referred to by
Dave McClure, founder of 500 start-ups
that grew in a few years to be one of the
top global seed accelerator programs in
silicon valley [Disclosure: Author is a
mentor and LP at 500 startups]. Unlike
other active investors, 500 startups does
invest in unsexy business models. And
worthy of note is that 500 has invested
in 11 MENA based startups till date, and
partnered with ZAIN (the leading MENA
mobile operator) to create ZINC, as a
partnership platform acting as a bridge
between silicon valley and Amman as
a hub for the Arabic region’s entrepre-neurial
activity. 500 startups’ investment
thesis has the ‘Arabic language and Arabic
speaking Internet audience’ specifically
mentioned as a target area of focus.

11. What the new breed of MENA entrepre-neurs
20
are getting to understand is that
the best way to create a billion dollar
consumer Internet company is to build a
digital transaction business where buyers
and sellers connect and a better environ-ment
for the transaction to take place is
facilitated.
If we look at the publicly traded US Inter-net
companies worth more than USD 1
billion, nearly 70% of them are companies
built around a digital transaction business
model, while all but one – Amazon – of
those firms do not deal with physical
goods. Almost all of these companies
started around facilitating digital ‘infor-mation-
led’ commerce. They have built
category-defining platforms that manage
to attract large communities of either
businesses or consumers, in addition to
providing them with value against a pain
they used to suffer from.
As for Arabia, we now have a region with
one of the highest Internet and smart-phone
penetration rates in the world, with
Arabic declared as the fastest-growing
language online and Saudi Arabia being
the record-holder of the highest replay
rate of YouTube videos on mobile in the
world for at least a couple of years now.
Arabic consumers equipped with the
mobile-first mindset is expecting a lot:
They will plan a trip, buy a ticket, a gift, a
ride, a meal, make a reservation or a hotel
booking, organize a night out and, in the
UAE at least, they are expecting to do all
of their government transactions 24/7
through their phones by 2015. The best
of these digital transaction companies are
the ones that can seamlessly integrate con-sumers’
interests, social network presence
and context to deliver a super-relevant
mobile experience, directing most of their
spending habits with comfort and addic-tive
ease.
But before you start dreaming in the
clouds of billion-dollar valuations. Lets
go back to the basics of a start-up, as
Steve Blank (Senior entrepreneurship
lecturer, Best selling author, and creator
of Customer Development model) states:
“A start-up is a temporary organization,
designed to discover a repeatable and
scalable model. Start-ups are not small
versions of large companies”.
Rather they are different in every possible
way – from goals, to measurements, from
employees to culture. Very few skills,
process, people or strategies that work in a
startup are successful in a large established
company and vice versa because a startup
is a different organizational entity than a
large established company.
“There is no such thing as an entrepre-neur
with ‘vision’. It is all ‘hallucination’
until the founders get out of the building
and validate their business model by being
engaged with customers.” continues Steve
Blank.
I believe a massive shift has started in how
we do business in MENA, we are very
close to a tipping point that cannot be
jeopardized by the constant turmoil and
for those insisting on wearing the dark
gloomy goggles, I leave you with the latest
book by Sir Richard Branson founder of
Virgin Group – which comprises more
than 400 companies – interestingly titled
“Screw Business as usual”.
About:
Rami Al-Karmi is an LP & Mentor at 500
startups, a proud geek, investor, and
widely recognized advisor and expert in
corporate venturing, strategy, corporate
entrepreneurship, building lean startup
ecosystems, business model innovation,
and digital distribution growth through
viral marketing and big data. In 2013, he
founded Arcoten Holdings as his advising/
investing vehicle where he partners with
corporates, accelerators, and incubators to
build lean startup ecosystems, and helps
companies through providing expertise in growth, hands-on
mentorship, access to capital, and helps companies iterate
product and grow fast. With a footprint that till date includes
more than 100 mentored, advised, or invested individual
companies. This footprint also expands to bring the lean startup
mindset to MENA ecosystem players FastForward accelerator in
Ramallah/Palestine, VentureLab Accelerator in King Abdullah
University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia,
Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), and ZINC (ZAIN
Innovation Campus) in Jordan as an umbrella for the partnership
between 500 startups and ZAIN’s Corporate Entrepreneurship
Responsibility (CER) division he helped cofound.
From time to time, he also likes to build and adopt companies
with friends and partners inside Arcoten.
If I could offer you
only one tip for
the future, embrace
‘entrepreneurship’
would be it. Near future
that is, and not in any way
belittling the importance
of sunscreen!”
“

12. 5.
Q&A with
Mustafa Sadek,
Founder and Managing
Partner of UrbanBuz
Q: “It is hard for a startup to get fund-ing
in this region”. A statement that is on
most entrepreneurs lips nowadays.. Do
you relate to this statement?
I personally relate to it to a large extent;
however, I believe this is a somehow
misleading or at least an in-accurate
statement. To say that it is hard to get
funding here means that it is easy to get
it somewhere else, which is not true. It is
hard to get funded anywhere in the world
especially if we are talking about first-time
entrepreneurs. After being in this market
for more than 4 years and as a first-time
entrepreneur myself, I came to realize
that the real challenge is not about getting
funded but about seeking funding from
the right investors who fully understand
the nature of a startup so they can help the
aspiring entrepreneurs in ways beyond
funding.
Q: When comparing the VC ecosystem
in the MENA region to that of Silicon
Valley, how far behind are we?
Everyone likes to compare our VC eco-system
to that of Silicon Valley in the US,
as it stands today, which is fine but the
key question is whether we are compar-ing
two equally mature ecosystems. Some
argue that it took more than 50 years for
Silicon Valley to get to where it is today,
yet we tend to overlook the fact that, the
VC space in MENA is at its very nascent
stages. Whether we, the entrepreneurs, like
it or not, the whole venture capital move-ment
along with Silicon Valley was created
by investment bankers who were looking
for new ways to generate wealth. So it was
logical for them to look for smart people
with some track record who were trying
to setup their companies and technology
back then was “l’ordre du jour” so it was
the natural candidate for such a new ven-ture
(pun intended), and that was the birth
of Silicon Valley.
Fast forward to today and specifically in
our region and you will see a similar pat-tern
where investment bankers and people
with wealth are trying to find ways to
create more wealth outside the traditional
channels which up until recently, was
mainly focused on real estate and tradi-tional
brick-and-mortar businesses.
One would look at this as a good sign,
even though a bit late, but an encourag-ing
one. The problem, however, is that the
people who are trying to kick-start the
startup and entrepreneurship market, are
coming at it with a simplistic approach,
with no real cooperation, underestimating
how complex the journey can be and how
different the investment approach should
be, especially in technology Startups. What
is making things even worse sometimes
is the continuous unfair comparison be-tween
entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in
the US or in Europe, which does not make
sense at all.
Q: What role does Education play in
creating a successful ecosystem?
Very few VCs in the region are think-ing
and acting outside the pure realm of
funding.. I truly believe that for entrepre-neurship
to thrive you need to encour-age
innovation and creativity and yet,
entrepreneurs will never thrive in this
region unless the mindset changes and all
obstacles that may curtail entrepreneurs’
full potential are lifted. Needless to say
our education system is outdated and if
we are really counting on the education
system to be overhauled then we need to
be extremely patient as it is a long process.
This is where the private sector needs to
step in and create alternative programs to
prepare and train the new generations and
train to think like an entrepreneurs, to cre-ate
their own jobs, to take risks, to accept
failure, and most importantly to think big
and bold.
Views of an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs
do not only need
incubation houses
or accelerators...
but to provide them
with an environment
where they can freely
collaborate and
exchange ideas with
each other”
Photo by Nicola Perantoni

13. 25
24
About:
Mustafa has over 18 years’ experience in the technology field, with
a focus on building online consumer platforms from the ground
up. Previously he managed teams at Intel (USA) where he built an
Enterprise User Portal; and Nike (USA) with responsibility for their
B2B e-commerce platform, which generated revenues of over
$4bn in2009.
Mustafa’s technology development background helps
him lead UrbanBuz’s progress from the front, and
leverage his expertise in the constant evolution of an
agile and dynamic customer loyalty platform.
Q: Where do we stand in terms of knowl-edge
sharing and mentoring here in the
region and are incubators and accelerators
providing this environment?
Entrepreneurs do not only need incubation
houses or accelerators at this stage because
the idea of incubation is not to give an entre-preneur
a desk and a phone but to provide
them with an environment where they can
freely collaborate and exchange ideas with
each other. This is something that incuba-tors
in the region are overlooking because
there is a mindset here of competing not
collaborating, of secrecy instead of sharing
and most importantly, there is a huge stigma
about failure to the extent that some ideas do
not see the light for the mere fear that they
will fail.
Q: What do Entrepreneurs need the most,
apart from funding?
The whole notion of creating a VC market
to throw money at startups is in my opin-ion,
a misguided one. I don’t think early
stage entrepreneurs need a lot of money at
the start but what they need the most is for
obstacles to be removed from their path, and
there are many. In other words, they need
help in navigating the legal infrastructure
which is changing all the time; they need
the right introductions to business owners
or the relevant enablers who can help grow
the startup. Passive investing, which is heard
of quite frequently, even though attractive
to me as an entrepreneur, is at this stage not
helpful at all.
Q: Are regional VCs ready to adopt the
concept of “failure”?
Everyone knows that the majority of startups
end up failing but for some reason, investors
in this region still expect the majority, if not
all, of their startups to succeed. This goes
back to the risk-averse mindset that is es-tablished
here. That needs to change. I have
heard many VCs saying that they would only
fund startups based on a model that mimics
a similar company in the US or Europe.
With all due respect, that is not entrepre-neurship,
this is simply playing it safe and it
goes against everything that entrepreneur-ship
and venture capital should be about.
Q: What message do you have for VCs in
the region?
The gun shot hands-off investment approach
that works in the more developed eco-sys-tems
like the US, does not work here. Here,
VCs need to be more involved with creating
value for their portfolio companies, they
need to be more hands on; and therefore
more focused in their investment approach.
You will always have entrepreneurs coming
up with great ideas and ambitious plans but
unless you build a system for them to thrive
then they will not come forward and you
will end up funding businesses disguised as
startups and not true startups.
Q: What are some of things you are doing
with UrbanBuz to overcome some of those
challenges?
From the first day, I wanted to create
something that can compete globally and so
copying an idea from the US was not going
to allow us to do that. We not only wanted to
change how the market of customer loyalty
is defined, but we wanted to be the leader in
what we call the new customer loyalty field.
One of the challenges we faced is the lack of
information in this region about the market
Views of an Entrepreneur
in general and customer loyalty and engage-ment
in specific. So we set out to understand
the market by talking to the businesses
directly and collect our own data. That’s how
UrbanBuz was born, it was a painful process
but it allowed us to have a better under-standing
of the market right from the source
and then to create something to address the
specific needs of that market, which proved
to be rewarding to us.
We did this for a while before we decided to
approach investors which made the conver-sation
with them easier, as we had by then
a fully functional relevant product with
paying clients. That’s why we were offered
more money than what we were asking for at
the time and we decided not to take money
from some.
Also the experience of the founding team
played a big factor in getting us to where we
are today, which is something you do not see
in a lot of the startups here. Even with that
we had no illusions about what it would take
to start something like UrbanBuz here and
we knew that we needed a lot of help. So we
adopted the lean startup approach where we
built a company that is agile enough so we
can react to what we hear from the market
and quickly adapt to it and so far we have
been fairly successful at that. We made some
assumptions and the market proved them
wrong but we were able to quickly adjust and
come up with an even better solution.
The funny and sad thing is I always get asked
if we copied our idea from somewhere else
and when I answer no I see this surprise
look on the face of the people. Unfortunately
there are a lot of startups here doing just that
but we have decided from day one to create
something that not only would be able to
compete globally but that would change how
businesses think of customer loyalty and
customer engagement and this is what we
will continue to do.

14. 27
26
The success of the regional private
equity industry has been followed
by a rapid rise in the number of
regionally-focused venture capital funds
who built strong links with start-up
incubators and academic centers across
the region. However, one can also detect
a missing link in what can otherwise be
considered to be a bright start. While
start-ups are currently better positioned
than at any time in the past to access angel
investments and can rely on regional and
international venture capital funds and
platforms to raise multiple investment
rounds, the opportunity to fully benefit
from such ecosystem is hampered by their
limited access to quality and specialized
legal and other services. What ensues is a
situation in which start-ups have access to
funds but - in parallel - are unable to navi-gate
the web of legal, transaction, struc-tural,
operational, regulatory and compli-ance
issues. This, ultimately, hinders their
ability to freely operate a business, create
maximum value for fund raising and
financing series, or build up to a successful
exit route.
Most entrepreneurs, we and our clients en-counter,
appreciate and value the importance
of receiving quality legal service. However,
in view of the generally significant financial
outlay and lack of continued security of
income required in launching a start-up,
these entrepreneurs are unable to afford,
or reasonably justify over other issues and
expenses, such legal services particularly
when addressing issues relating not just to
setting up their business, but also the man-ner
in which it will be funded, operated and
managed. A labyrinth of legal issues relat-ing
to corporate forms, licensing, foreign
ownership, employment, incentive schemes,
intellectual property, and governance are
few of the issues that need to be addressed.
In many of the regional communities where
such entrepreneurs are based, there is a very
limited number of lawyers and law firms
who have genuine experience in such legal
issues and even where they do, such experi-
6.
The missing link:
The role of legal clinics in supporting
MENA’s start-up ecosystem
Ayman A. Khaleq,
Managing Partner (Dubai),
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Philip Dowsett,
Senior Associate,
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
The missing link: The role of legal clinics in supporting MENA’s start-up ecosystem
ence does not span the board spectrum
of legal issues arising under early stage
venture investing. This has triggered the
need for international law firms to step
in and to be creative in applying alterna-tive
fee arrangements that would make
their services more readily accessible by
entrepreneurs and start-ups. However, in
some instances pro bono-based solutions
are needed particularly in the early days
of a start-up’s cycle and in markets where
even steeply discounted fees are out of the
reach of the majority of entrepreneurs.
This article aims at providing examples of
successful legal initiatives that focus on pro
bono support for start-ups, and examples
of the type of issues that such legal services
should aim to tackle in the Middle East
and North Africa (MENA) region. While a
number of regional cities, such as Amman,
Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah and Riyadh are net
contributors to the regional start-up indus-try,
the UAE (and Dubai specifically) has
the type of characteristics, including legal
systems and access to capital, that would
and should make it a prime location from
which such specialized legal support can
be extended, on a pro bono basis, to such
start-ups.
Tried and tested initiatives
In developing a structure for a legal clinic,
there is no need to reinvent the wheel. A
number of initiatives have been success-fully
implemented in a number of cities
(particularly those that make it a point to
attract entrepreneurs and the individuals
behind the creative industries), and can
provide a base from which a more local-ized
model can be implemented across
the MENA region. One such example of
is the “Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law
Project” (NELP) in the United States,
which our law firm, Morgan, Lewis &
Bockius, participates in. NELP’s mission
is to provide low to mid-income micro-entrepreneurs
with the legal services
necessary to get their business started off
on as sound a footing as possible, through
conducting an intake with potential
clients before referring them to firms like
ours for pro bono representation. Such
intake process provides an important
screening function. For example, during
this process, NELP reviews the potential
client’s household income to make sure
it qualifies for pro bono services and
also considers its business plan to assess
what stage the new business is at and the
seriousness of the client about the project.
Factors such as whether the business
intends to contribute to an economically
depressed community are also considered.
Pro bono attorneys then assist these entre-preneurs
on a range of matters such as
incorporation and tax issues, commercial
lease negotiations, and permit applica-tions.
(By way of example, a recent case
we undertook involved drafting a fiscal
sponsorship agreement for a start-up that
connects senior citizens with under-privileged
elementary school children for
tutoring assistance). In addition, volunteer
attorneys have the opportunity to partici-pate
in limited advice small business legal
clinics where they advise New York City
based small business owners on a range
of issues without engaging in an ongoing
representation.
There are other efforts to expand the
availability of pro bono legal services for
small business. For example, recently
more than 150 New York City attorneys
from over 30 firms, including Morgan
Lewis, participated in a one day Small
Business Legal Academy, organized by the
Association of Pro Bono Counsel (www.
apbco.org), where over 200 fledgling small
business owners were able to attend work-shops
on topics such as Not-for-Profit
Formation, Employment Law and Person-nel
Management, and also meet individu-ally
with lawyers to discuss specific legal
issues.
The importance of localizing
legal services
At 50,000 feet, entrepreneurs in the
Middle East face the same obstacles and
challenges as those in even the most
mature and accommodating start-up en-vironments
in the world. That said, there
are additional issues and challenges which
are inevitably encountered by all start-ups
in the MENA region, but equally on the
flip-side, many advantages, including, not
least the often tax free environment. Set
out below are certain key considerations
and issues that we see encountered by
start-ups and entrepreneurs during the
early life of the enterprise and in accepting
venture capital or private equity invest-
Most entrepreneurs... appreciate and value
the importance of receiving quality legal service”

15. The missing link: The role of legal clinics in supporting MENA’s start-up ecosystem
29
28
ment. As a law firm regularly advising on
venture capital and private equity at various
financing stages, in the absence of legal
advice and addressing certain issues at an
early stage, significant time and expense can
often be expended in rectifying these issues
or getting the start-up “investment” ready.
By also addressing these issues at an early
stage, entrepreneurs can succeed in value
creation from the outset and making invest-ment
more attractive and improve the pre-money
valuations of their companies. The
list of issues discussed below is in no way
intended to be exhaustive but is intended
to be indicative of certain key aspects that
should be given consideration Ownership
and Sponsorship.
The MENA region, with the exception of
certain countries, differs from the Western
world in respect of incorporation of com-panies
and is significantly more onerous
and restrictive. More relevant for GCC
companies, unlike, for example, the United
Kingdom where you can purchase a shelf
company immediately for around US$50,
there is no similar concept in many MENA
countries and incorporation is a much
longer, drawn out and costly process. Ad-ditionally,
certain countries (including the
UAE) for onshore incorporations requires
a local sponsor who holds a minimum
percentage of the share capital of any UAE
limited liability company. This, however,
generally does not beneficially entitle that
person to that percentage of profits and
quite often the local sponsor will, through
separate agreement, assign any voting
rights and economic rights attributed to
its shares in consideration for an annual
fee. Although sponsorship is generally an
appreciated and accepted practice across
MENA, there are many complexities and
pitfalls with these arrangements and it is
important to ensure the arrangement is
reasonable and addresses certain pertinent
issues and gives the entrepreneurs the nec-essary
protections (for example, to change
out the sponsor at the relevant time). An
alternative to local ownership is to incorpo-rate
in a freezone where 100% foreign own-ership
is permitted which, where possible,
is often the preferred route of establishment
for entrepreneurs and Dubai has excelled in
creating a very accommodating landscape
in respect of its freezones. However, with
the wide range of freezones available it is
important to ensure the correct free zone is
chosen or such can lead to future hindered
operations.
Structuring
At the beginning of a start-up’s life one
of the more significant expenses is the
establishment costs and accordingly, and
understandably, most start-ups are often
structured with ownership directly into the
onshore operating entity. Although this
is often sufficient for initial operating and
ownership purposes, due to often simple
and unsophisticated corporate and com-mercial
laws in the MENA jurisdictions, as
well as limitations on share transfers, MENA
jurisdictions are often non-investor friendly
jurisdictions, and also fail to adequately
protect founders where outside investors are
introduced. Accordingly, quite often VC and
PE firms as a condition to investment will
require corporate restructuring to provide
an offshore ownership regime (for example,
in the Cayman Islands or British Virgin
Islands) which will wholly-own the local
operating entity (subject to local owner-ship
requirements) and all shareholders
will reside at the offshore level. This allows
much more certainty on the applicability of
agreed investment provisions, for example,
there can be different shares classes (often
not possible in MENA jurisdictions), drag
rights, tag rights and other transfers all of
which can be enforced (which is not the
case often in MENA countries) and allows
for more flexible governance. Although it is
often understandable why start-ups are not
initially structured offshore, with cost the
primary concern, such restructurings can
Although
sponsorship
is generally an
appreciated and
accepted practice
across MENA,
there are many
complexities and
pitfalls with these
arrangements and
it is important
to ensure the
arrangement is
reasonable and
addresses certain
pertinent issues
and gives the
entrepreneurs
the necessary
protections”
become complicated if not prepared for in
advance or positioned correctly.
Licensing
Again, in contrast to Western countries,
most MENA countries require companies
to obtain and annually renew a specific
licence setting out its permitted activities.
There are certain activities which may
be possible in some areas of a country
and not others (for example, in the UAE
with a free zone licence, activities are
meant to be restricted to operation in that
freezone). Accordingly, it is important to
ensure that the correct licence is obtained
and advice received on the permissibility
of country wide operations.
Corporate Governance
As outlined above, MENA jurisdictions of-ten
do not provide sophisticated corporate
governance regimes and as, commonly,
civil law jurisdictions, can lack certainty
in the determination or applicability of
certain laws, regulations or guiding prin-ciples.
Also, given that quite often amend-ing
constitutional documents of MENA
entities is an involved process, structuring
governance correctly from the outset can
avoid continued operational issues.
Accepting Investment
Finding and securing investment from
a VC or PE investor is a key and monu-mental
moment in the life of a start-up.
It demonstrates the achievements of that
entity to date as well as its potential, and
that first stage of VC/PE investment can
be the most importance financing stage of
a start-up. That said, there are many issues
to be aware of in accepting such invest-ment
and in the absence of specialised le-gal
advice, entrepreneurs can often expose
themselves unwittingly to significant risks.
Investor Rights
In accepting VC or PE funding, an
investor will expect certain rights, which
is beyond the scope of this article, but
one such a right will generally include
board and veto rights over certain deci-sions,
such as raising debt, opening new
branches, incurring CAPEX over a certain
threshold, and commencing litigation. At
this stage it is imperative for the founders
and operators of a business to ensure that,
although veto rights are inevitable and
market, such are not too extensive and
far-reaching so as to unduly hinder the
day-to-date operations of the company,
which is not in the interests of either party
but can often be the result of an over-zeal-ous
investor and ill-advised founder
Another key set of rights an investor
will commonly require are rights re-garding
the transferability of shares. For
example, an investor will want to lock
the founders up for a certain period,
will likely require pre-emption rights
over any transfers of shares, drag rights
(i.e. the ability of the investor to compel
the transfer of shares, which a founder
needs to be very conscious of as it can
entitle a person to sell the entire com-pany),
down-round protection (i.e. if
shares are issued in the future at a price
lower than the investor paid, it gets
“made-good” (although the levels of
redress vary and can be complicated))
and potentially a “liquidation prefer-ence”
(i.e. a preferred or first participat-ing
return on their investment).
Intellectual Property
Start-ups can often involve intellectual
property ownership or licensing, and
in such cases this can be where the real
value of the company lies. Accordingly, it
is imperative to ensure such intellectual
property is adequately protected, but often
due to the specialized nature of intellec-tual
property this is often overlooked. Due
to its intrinsic value to those intellectual
property focused companies ensuring the
intellectual property is protected is key for
both value creation and value preserva-tion
for start-ups.
Financing
Start-ups may seek to obtain debt financing,
bid-bond facilities or overdrafts and in such
cases the arrangements will often be on the
banks standard terms. However, quite often
start-ups will avail loans from friends and
family and in order to avoid confusion or
uncertainty papering all loans, as well as
other related party transactions, however
simply, can help create strong corporate
governance and in itself created a more
“investable” company (this applies to ideally
documenting all arrangements).
Governing Law
and Dispute Resolution
A common misconception is that operat-ing
in a country requires using the law of
that country for any agreements entered
into. Although this may be the case and
local entities may require using that law,
there is often no obligation to do so and
quite often parties prefer more sophisti-cated
laws to govern more complicated
transactions, with English law being the
preferred choice. However, each and
any governing law comes with its own
nuances and ideally material transac-tions
are reviewed by a qualified lawyer to
ensure there are no issues under the law
of choice.

16. Employee Incentives
Where start-ups are cash strapped or seeking
to preserve cash-flow, often incentives other
than high salaries are offered to employees,
advisors and consultants, which also encourage
performance, commonly in the form of “sweat
equity”. However, such is often more a promise
of equity than an actual allotment often
because MENA countries are not accommo-dating
for issuing multiple minority sharehold-ings,
but also often because the start-up does
not have a sophisticated governance regime
to accommodate such. Incentive schemes can
be complicated, and it is important to ensure
that such is documented between the relevant
parties to avoid any claim for an unintended
equity allotment further down the road. Also,
as soon as a formal share incentive scheme can
be implemented such is advisable, as one of the
paramount matters of interest to an investor
is who has claims over shares and what their
ownership percentage looks like following their
investment and on a fully diluted basis.
The UAE as a hub
for pro bono legal clinics
The case for the UAE as a legal hub for the
provision of legal services to start-ups on a
pro bono basis is strong and encouraging.
Aside from the favourable tax free status
of the UAE, the governments of Dubai
and Abu Dhabi are actively participating
in providing their support by establishing
companies that function as accelerators such
as Silicon Oasis Founders and Twofour54 to
fund and guide entrepreneurs and start-ups
at their initial stages. For example, further to
providing financial support, Twofour54, an
Abu Dhabi Government initiative and enter-prise,
recently spearheaded the introduction
of a new visa category that is expected to be
implemented soon for entrepreneurs to start
a business in the UAE aiming to provide a
cost-efficient and viable alternative to the
current expensive residency visa.
The foreign ownership issue has always been
an obstacle when it comes to opening a com-pany
in the UAE as the laws of the country
would oblige a foreigner owner to let go of
51% of his share capital to a UAE partner.
Dubai took major steps to deal with such
obstacles in order to attract foreign entrepre-neurs
and startups to the country establish-ing
more than 13 tech free zones where an
owner would retain 100% of his company’s
The missing link: The role of legal clinics in supporting MENA’s start-up ecosystem
share capital. Free zones deal with visa matters as well
as they now provide entry permits to those entrepre-neurs
and startups who want to register their com-panies
within. Dubai free zones are built in a manner
that will accommodate thousands of entrepreneurs
and startups providing office space for their compa-nies
to operate. All of which shows real intention by
Dubai to attract startups and reduce challenges that
may affect their growth and operation.
But more importantly, the human capital that can be
found in the UAE (and in Dubai specifically) is the
key reason why the country is well-placed to bridge
the “legal support” gap. A number of profession-als
are investing, not just through the institutions
they represent and the funds they manage, but also
personally, and formal and informal angel inves-tors
clubs are taking shape. Such clubs can provide
an excellent platform through which legal support
can be provided. More importantly, there are more
international law firms in the UAE than in any
other regional jurisdiction and many of those law
firms offer the type of legal services that regional
entrepreneurs need but in most cases cannot afford.
Those law firms also work within a much broader
legal community that includes in-house lawyers who
advise the public or private sector, and together can
form the type of initiative that can provide a tangible
boost to the region’s start-up industry particularly
in the technology field. While formulating such
initiatives may prove time consuming, individual
lawyers or law firms can always adopt local pro bono
programs within such space. Finally, adopting the
proposed pro bono approach can also be viewed as a
way for many international law firms to give back to
jurisdictions where they operate on a tax free basis.
More importantly though, it is our view that if this
region is to address the type of social and economi-cal
issues that arise as a result of the massive popula-tion
growth, much more needs to be done by the
private sector, while governments would merely pro-vide
an enabling environment. Such activities by the
private sector, and the professional set-ups behind
it, ought to utilize pro bono initiatives hand-in-hand
with “for profit” activities. We also believe that the
MENA Private Equity Association is an extremely
useful conduit that can establish a link between the
regional PE and VC industries and its support echo-system
including consultants, lawyers and accoun-tants
on the one hand, and entrepreneurs who can
benefit from the existence of such legal clinics on the
other. We plan to continue to work with association
on making this vision a reality.
“ More importantly, there are more international law firms in the UAE
than in any other regional jurisdiction and many of those law firms offer the
type of legal services that regional entrepreneurs need but in most cases cannot
afford...
”
Photo by Sonja Langford

17. 7.
About The MENA Private
Equity Association
The MENA Private Equity Association is the sole representative body to promote
the MENA private equity and venture capital industry across the globe, to key
stakeholders.
Its primary goal is to facilitate the knowledge sharing in order to encourage
overall economic growth and build trust with investors, regulators and the public
regionally and internationally.
Our mandate:
• Enhance transparency through industry statistics and information sharing to
build trust in the industry.
• Offer a platform for collective knowledge sharing from top practitioners to
develop best practice guidelines in various industries.
• Leverage on expertise of leading lawyers and consultants to keep an open
dialogue with regional regulators.
• Bring together members and experts from different industries to participate
in our member-only flagship, roundtable events to help our members identify
investment opportunities and build new contacts.
We help the PE/VC community through these specific initiatives:
• Issue the Annual Private Equity & Venture Capital reports on yearly basis.
• Reach out to family offices and Investors in the GCC region and raise
awareness about the members of the association and the important role they
play in growing companies.
• Gather GP’s, industry professionals as well as operators in Education,
Healthcare, Retail, Oil & Gas, IT, Consumer Goods, F&B, Financial Services and
others, to help them identify investment opportunities.
• Issue white papers summarizing the roundtable discussions.
• Tie-up with other Associations in Europe, North America and Asia to offer co-memberships,
discounted rates to attend global events, customized training
programs and exposure to global research.
www.menapea.com
Photo by Adam Przewoski

18. Members Directory
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7.1 MEMBERS’ DIRECTORY
The Abraaj Group
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Gate Village 8, 3rd Floor
PO Box 504905
Dubai, UAE
Global Offices: Istanbul, Mexico City,
Mumbai, Nairobi, Singapore, London
info@abraaj.com
www.abraaj.com
Al Masah Capital
Dubai, UAE
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Kuwait
Singapore
+971 4 453 1500
nrupadityasinghdeo@almasahcapital.com
www.almasahcapital.com
Amwal Al Khaleej
Riyadh (HQ), KSA, +966 11 216 4666,
Riyadh@amwalalkhaleej.com
Dubai, UAE, +971 4 327 5875,
dubai@amwalalkhaleej.com
Cairo, Egypt, +202 2736 3742,
cairo@amwalalkhaleej.com
www.amwalalkhaleej.com
Capital Trust Group
The Euromena Funds
Beirut, Lebanon
UK
USA
+961 1 368968
wassim@capitaltrustltd.com
www.capitaltrustltd.com
Cedar Bridge Partners
Dubai, UAE
info@cedar-bridge.com
www.cedar-bridge.com
Colliers International
P O Box 71591
+971 4 453 7400
Dubai, UAE
www.colliers.com
Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
Headquarters Building
PO Box 6009
Dubai, UAE
+971 4 501 5374
dhorska@dso.ae
www.dso.ae
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EFG Hermes Private Equity
Egypt
Tel: +20 (0)2 3535 6499
Fax: +20 (0)2 3537 0942
Building No. B129, Phase 3, Smart Village
Km 28 Cairo Alexandria Desert Road
6 October 12577, Egypt
UAE
Tel: +971 (0)4 363 4000
Fax: +971 (0)4 362 1170
Level 6, The Gate, West Wing, DIFC
Dubai, UAE
pegroup@efg-hermes.com
www.efg-hermes.com
Eversheds
Global Offices: Abu Dhabi, Amman, Baghdad
Doha, Dubai, Erbil, Riyadh (in association with Dhabaan&
Partners)
+962 6566 0511
nadimkayyali@eversheds.com
www.eversheds.com
Growthgate Capital Corporation B.S.C.
Manama - Bahrain (Registered office)
Building 247, Office 653
Road 1704, Diplomatic Area 317
+ 973 17 518734
+ 973 17 518787
Kingdom of Bahrain
Dubai - UAE (Branch office)
Level 11, Emirates Towers
Sheikh Zayed Road,
PO Box 36330, Dubai - UAE
+ 971 4 3302220
+ 971 4 3301133
Beirut - Lebanon (Representative office)
Beirut Central District
157 Marfaa Saad Zaghloul Street
+ 961 1 974412
+ 961 1 974413
corporate@growthgate.com
Gulf Capital
Al Sila Tower, 25th Floor
Sowwah Square
Al Maryah Island
PO Box 27522
Abu Dhabi, UAE
+971 2 671 6060
info@gulfcapital.com
www.gulfcapital.com
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC, 20433, USA
+1 202 473 3800
www.ifc.org
King & Wood Mallesons
Suite 303, Level 3
Park Place
Sheikh Zayed Road
PO Box 24482
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
T: +9714 328 9900
F: +9714 328 9911
E: dubai@me.kwm.com
Malaz Capital
Suite 510, Al Akaria III, Olaya Street
Riyadh, KSA
+966 1 4601644
info@malazcapital.com
www.malazcapital.com
Masdar Capital
Masdar City
Presidential Flight
Khalifa City A
Abu Dhabi, UAE
P.O. Box 54115
+971 2 653 3333
info@masdar.ae
www.masdar.ae
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Emirates Towers Offices
Dubai, UAE
PO Box 504903
+971.4.319.7934
www.morganlewis.com
PineBridge Investments Middle East B.S.C (c)
GBCORP Tower, 13th floor
Bahrain Financial Harbour District
PO Box 58
Manama, Bahrain
+97317111888
www.pinebridge.com
Qatar First Bank
Suhaim Bin Hamad Street
PO Box 28028
Doha, Qatar
+974 4 483333
information@qfib.com.qa
www.qfib.com.qa
ReAya Holding
Suite 3007, 3rd floor
Kheriji Plaza, Madinah Road
PO Box 127232, Jeddah 21352
Jeddah, KSA
+966 2 6676777
+966 2 6656333
info@reayaholding.com
www.reayaholding.com
TVM Capital MENA Limited
DIFC Gate Village, Building 4
PO Box 113355
Dubai, UAE
Global Offices: Germany, USA
schuehsler@tvm-capital.com
www.tvm-capital.ae
Waha Capital
Etihad Towers, Tower 3, Level 42 & 43
PO Box 28922
Abu Dhabi, UAE
+971 2 667 7343
waha@wahacapital.ae
www.wahacapital.ae

19. 7.2 Venture Capital Firms in MENA
Accelerator Management Company
Accelerator Technology Holdings
Alternative Capital Partners
Amen Invest
Arab Business Angel Network
Arbah Capital
Ascent Group
Berytech S.A.R.L.
Catalyst Investment Management Company
CDG Capital
CERT Capital
Creative Edge Technology
Daman Investments PSC
EFG-Hermes Private Equity
Estithmaar Ventures (GP) Limited
Fidelium Finance
Genero Capital
GFH Capital Limited
GroFin Advisory
IdeaVelopers
Ikdam Gestion
Innovation 360
Fenox Venture Capital
Intel Capital
Interactive Ventures Holdings
Iris Capital
IT Ventures/Nile Capital
Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development
Lebanon Invest Asset management SAL
Malaz Group
Maxula Gestion
Middle East Broadcasting Corporation LLC
Middle East Venture Partners
Minah Partners
MITC Capital
Mobily Ventures
National Technology Enterprises Company
New Enterprise East Investments
Nile Capital
Qatar Capital Partners
Riyad Capital
Sadara Ventures
Saffar Capital Limited
Saudi Company for Technological Development and
Investment
Sawari Ventures
Sherpa Finance Club
Sinbad Ventures
The National Investor Private Joint Stock Company
TIMAR Ventures General Partner Limited
Tuninvest Finance Group
Tunisie Valeurs
United Gulf Financial Services North Africa
Upline Investment
Venture Capital Bank B.S.C.
Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications Company S.A.E.
Wamda
Disclaimer:
The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular
individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such
information is or will continue to be accurate. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice
after a thorough examination of the particular situation.

20. The MENA Private Equity Association is the sole
representative body to promote the MENA private
equity and venture capital industry across the
globe, to key stakeholders.
Its primary goal is to facilitate the knowledge
sharing in order to encourage overall economic
growth and build trust with investors, regulators
and the public regionally and internationally.
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Photo by By Martin Dörsch