Who We Are

Team

We are small and we punch way above our weight. We are a diverse group of people that are curious, passionate, and driven to make stuff happen. Each of us has our own strengths and together we collectively compound that value to help our founders. We are a close-knit team that has a deep understanding of what we do well and what we don’t do well. We don’t claim to do everything right, but we do know how to help founders at the earliest stages. We trust each other and value each other’s opinions, bringing diversity of thought into all our decision-making. This doesn’t slow us down. In fact, it strengthens us by bringing a range of perspectives and experiences to solving problems, making investment decisions, and supporting our founders.

Stage

We like being early. In fact, the earlier the better. Being the first institutional check in a company is where true, long-lasting partnerships are formed and where we can play a major role in increasing the likelihood of the startup’s success. Most deadly mistakes happen at the earliest stages, so we’d like to be there early enough to help you avoid them. That being said, we invest as early as idea (Pre-Seed), through to post-product launch (Seed). Anything later than that isn’t for us, mainly because by then, the company will have too many stakeholders to manage, and FOMO is at its highest point.

Portfolio

We are focused. We don’t intend to invest in more than 25 portfolio companies per fund. We want to build depth with each of our founding teams, and do our best to add value as they go from Pre-Seed to Series A and beyond. We can write checks as small as $250k to as big as $3m initially, and we reserve more for follow-on, even when you need a little more time to figure things out. We take our responsibility seriously, especially when we are with you from the start, and we don’t wait for someone to lead. We lead.

Geography

We care deeply about our region. We know there are many that like to see it fall and take joy in our struggle, historically filled with war and conflict, with very few people believing in its future. Today, times are changing faster than ever, and more incredible founders are building more ambitious companies across MENA. For us, this means founders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia predominantly, because that’s where we’ve been operating for decades, where the ecosystems are developing the fastest, where our network is strongest and where we truly care about making an impact for the future generations to come. We’ve also recently increased our scope to include the Arab diaspora, who are building companies from anywhere outside the region.

What We Look For

We don’t follow rules, but we do have a preference to what we find interesting. Don’t worry, it’s quite simple:

People first

We know every founder is different, and we look for those with special attributes, unique to themselves and often overlooked by others, but with the potential to be leveraged to create an outlier. It’s hard to assess that but it’s where we’ve honed our skills. We spend most of our time determining this through many, open and candid conversations together, taking a look at each founder’s personal journey from childhood through to the present moment, identifying key decisions and life experiences that have shaped them and their skills into who they are today. We do have some signals we look out for but are conscious that outliers are unique in every sense of the word.

Meaningful problems

Impact is not measured by the cleverness of solutions, but by the value of the problems solved. Our actions, including the choice of companies we invest in are guided by the depth and meaningfulness of the problems, not by the flashiness of solutions.

Markets with room to win

We like fragmented markets with low NPS scores. We like big markets that are growing fast. Big for us is anywhere from $500m+ but don’t hold us to that number, especially when AI is radically changing the dynamics, unlocking new revenue opportunities and markets that never existed before. We also consider timing, to make sure that the fundamentals of the market and their stakeholders are ready to embrace the solution.

A bias to the future

While we aren’t thesis-driven, we have a preference towards the following business models: (1) AI-native applications that are highly complex, leveraging proprietary data or local integrations, and where workflow automations drive the value proposition, (2) agentic commerce infrastructure and marketplaces that have the potential for significant structural network effects, and (3) tech-enabled businesses in traditional industries with significant margins, where technology can play a massive role in improving efficiencies or driving growth, and where distribution is critical.

All that being said, we are open. We know what we don’t know, and what we do know is that outlier founders often see the world differently in ways that may not fit any of these themes.

How We Partner

In the heart of all of this is a basis of trust, where we have your back from the start, we are at your service and we will be as authentic and real with you as possible. At this early stage of your journey, every decision you make can have a compounding impact on your business and its success. We don’t take that lightly. We will work our hardest to leverage our network, experience, resources and energy to help you make the best decisions at those critical moments, in the fastest and most objective way possible. That can mean being tough and having hard conversations, being there at the waking hour to discuss something really urgent, or hustling to open a door that is very difficult to open.

We don't see ourselves as a VC

In fact, we struggle to associate with the term as it often comes with big egos, false promises, power dynamics and insecurities. We want to be there before you consider taking venture capital and to guide you through that process right from the start. We’ve seen a lot over the years, we understand the nature of investing early, the chaos and unpredictability that ensues, and we will be with you throughout. We’re not saying we’re the only ones, but we are saying that our standards are high when it comes to the craft and certain fundamentals of behavior. We respect our founders and we respect the founder’s journey. This means we trust our founders, we empower them, and provide them with a safe environment to experiment and grow, while challenging them candidly when it matters. No ego or power dynamics.

We are an extension of you

We believe that the right partner operates as a collective unit rather than an individual partnership. The best way to describe what we do is to act as an extension of you. We see ourselves as a second brain when you need perspective, and extra horsepower when it counts, at any time of day or night. We know the sense of urgency that comes with building a company and try to calibrate ourselves to align with that at the highest level. Our best engagements are fluid, WhatsApp messages whenever you have something top of mind, catch ups over dinner or phone calls if we need to take a deeper dive.

We are pre-FOMO

We build conviction on people. This comes from years of experience meeting thousands of founders, and seeing what success looks like enough times. We’ve built this into our DNA, which involves forming a deep understanding of people and building trust in an authentic and honest way. Traction is nice, but not necessary. In fact, we are most comfortable coming in at the inception of an idea, pre-FOMO, where we can help shape your proposition and challenge your thinking from the start.

We are quick

We don’t like wasting time. We are fast and we know speed is important for a founder’s journey. Our size gives us the ability to collaborate on decisions and take them quickly. We say no fast, and we say yes fast, as long as we’ve all had a chance to meet the founder(s). Each partner holds their own conviction, but we ensure that diversity of thought is brought to our process. If we had to set a time to term sheet, we would want to have one ready within 2 weeks from our initial meeting.

We are useful

It all starts with building real and authentic relationships with our founders; one that allows for open, safe, and candid discussions. We like to maintain an active, regular rhythm of communication with our founders where we are always aligned with them and the happenings at the company, and where we often are the first port of call for when they hit a roadblock. We know that founders encounter a handful of key moments every year where they may need extra resources, insights and perspective to make effective decisions. We are good at identifying the few things that truly matter and being laser focused on making them happen.

We band together to sprint with our founders when a key moment arises, bringing a level of depth around the following areas:

We focus on what matters, we know what we’re good at and we never take it for granted; instead, we build on it and challenge ourselves to constantly improve. We take feedback seriously and always strive to be better and more valuable partners to our founders.

What We Stand For

The best investors are the ones that are most self-aware. They can empathize with founders, create the right dynamics, and help the founders grow into the best version of themselves. To understand yourself, you need to understand your values and that is what is at the heart of who we are and how we operate. We are a values-driven organization and have carefully crafted a set of 5 principles that encompass our brand. We stand by them and follow them wholeheartedly. Here they are: