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LEAP is a melting pot of global innovation with investors from over 48 countries gathering to find the next big thing. With interests in everything from FinTech, HealthTech, AI and E-commerce - you can expect some intense networking during this international event.
Our seasoned investors joined us from all over the world to find the most brilliant participating start-ups. From investors at top firms to seasoned tech entrepreneurs, they are looking out for outstanding candidates, ready to impress and achieve success!
Adam Ladjadj
Founder, Oros MFO
Adam Ladjadj is currently a CIO at a Royal Private Office. He is the Founding partner of Oros Multi Family Office and Oros Asset Management. He is a leader in the Family Office Ecosystem within the UAE and currently the Founder of The Emirates Family Office Association.
Fady Yacoub
Managing Partner, HOF Capital
Fady Yacoub is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at HOF Capital, where he focuses on companies leveraging frontier technologies to reshape massive industries.
GV Ravishanka
Managing Director, Sequoia Capital
At Sequoia, GV Ravishankar advises on both technology as well as non-technology investments. He’s deeply interested in technology’s role in helping to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and improve access in consumer and healthcare markets.
Tugce Ergul
Partner, Hypernova Capital / Angel Labs
Tugce Ergul is a co-founder at Angel Labs, a global "investor accelerator" based in Silicon Valley. Angel Labs' goal is to make an impact on the liquidity side of the entrepreneurial equation, democratize venture capital and create smart capital for entrepreneurs.
Alliott Cole
CEO & Founder, Octopus Ventures
Alliott joined Octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO in 2017. Over this time the team has backed more than 120 entrepreneurs and has grown to become one of Europe’s largest and most active venture investors with over £1.3 billion under management.
Faisal Aftab
Co-Founder & GP, Zayn Capital
Faisal is a Co-Founder of Zayn Capital; He is the Managing Partner of Zayn BitRate Fund, a venture capital fund with a primary focus on seed stage ventures in Pakistan.
Giovanni Jackson
CEO-President, TGE Inc.
Giovanni Jackson is a thirty-plus year entertainment industry veteran with experience in film and television as an executive producer, actor, recording artist and financier.
Jonathan Keidan
Co Founder, Torch Capital
Jonathan has spent his career at the intersection of the media, technology and entertainment industries. He is the Co-Founder of digital media company InsideHook and the Founder of Torch Capital.
Yasin Aboudaoud
Chief Development Officer & Managing Partner, Brinc
Yasin Aboudaoud is a Hong Kong born entrepreneur who has been in the global trading business for over 12 years. While co founding Ecico Group he has been able to implement projects and distribution to major companies from the Middle East, Europe and South America.
Juan Caño
Managing Director (MIRA), Head of Iberia, Macquarie Asset Management
Juan is responsible for developing and managing Macquarie’s business presence in Spain and Portugal. Before joining MIRA in 2010, Juan’s career experience spanned deal origination execution, asset management and fundraising.
Kinga Stanislawska
Managing General Partner, Co-Founder, Experior VC
In 2012 Kinga Stanislawska founded EVF, a $20 million fund which claims to be the first women-founded and run VC in Europe.
Mashal Waqar
Founder & Managing Director, Milestone Ventures
A 2-time TEDx speaker, recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019), and the Young Leader of the Year at the 19th Annual Global WIL Economic Forum (2017). Mashal is a media and tech entrepreneur and disability rights advocate.
Nick Cooney
Managing Partner, Lever VC
Nick has invested in over 60 alternative protein deals around the world, including Beyond Meat, Upside Foods/Memphis Meats, TurtleTree Labs, and other market leaders. He currently serves on the boards of several portfolio companies in the space.
Sardar Ahmed Durrani
Partner, Osiris Group
Sardar Ahmed Durrani is a partner at the Osiris Group LLC, a private equity firm based out of Hong Kong. He is the global sector head for tech, consumer, and digital assets, as well as the country sponsor for Pakistan.
Suveer Arenja
Director - PE & VC Investments
Suveer is Director - VC & PE Investments at FIM Partners, an investment management firm focused on investing in Emerging and Frontier markets, where he is responsible for private equity and venture capital investments in the MENA region.
Vera Futorjanski
CEO & Founder, Veritas Ventures
Vera is an entrepreneur and is currently building a community for female leaders to be among trusted equals, across cultures, careers and geographies.
William Bao Bean
General Partner (SOSV), Managing Director (Orbit Startups), SOSV
William is a General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, and Managing Director of MOX. William joined SOSV from SingTel Innov8 Ventures where he was Managing Director supporting China investments.
Vianney Mathonnet
Director Family Office, Kappafrik Group
Mr. Vianney Mathonnet serves as Director of the Family Office at Kappafrik Group. He also serves as Board Member at Nemesis Technologies. He also serves as General Partner, Africa at Modus Capital.
Fares Bardeesi
Founder & Managing Partner, Sukna Ventures
Fares Bardeesi, ex-corporate banker and the Managing Partner of Sukna Ventures; a Riyadh-based investment company that specializes in investing in tech-driven and high-growth transformational early-stage ventures.
Christos Mastoras
Founder & Managing Partner, Iliad Partners
Christos is the Founder and Managing Partner of Iliad Partners, a Venture Capital fund based in the UAE investing in early-stage tech startups in the MENA region. He is a VC investor and former tech entrepreneur (4x startups, 4x exits), digital executive, and management consultant with 23+ years of experience in the US, Europe, and MENA. Christos has actively been making VC investments in MENA over the last seven years, including in regional success stories such as Trukker. Based in Dubai since 2007, he was previously the Head of Business Development of Yahoo! Maktoob and an engagement manager with Booz & Company. Christos previously held operating roles at four startups he helped build and exit: GlamBox (UAE), Upstream (Greece), govWorks (US) and SloanGear (US). He serves on the Boards of several startups, the Board of the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA), and was a founding Advisory Board member of MAGNiTT. Christos holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in International Relations from Georgetown University.
Brad Otto
Principal, SpringTide
Brad is a principal at SpringTide, where he supports the firm’s investment sourcing, diligence, and evaluation efforts. Previously, he was on the corporate VC team at UnitedHealth Group and an investment banker. Brad earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mohamad Kaswani
Venture Partner, Flashpoint Venture Capital
Mohamad Kaswani is leading Flashpoint’s effort to expand the fund’s network in the Middle East through deepening investor relations and supporting the region’s emerging tech ecosystem through Flashpoint’s investment vehicles with ~$500M AUM.
Julia Sohajda
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Vespucci Partners
Julia Sohajda, co-founder and managing partner of Vespucci Partners, is the only Hungarian to be included in the 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 list, working with incredible ambition every day to make our world more innovative and sustainable.
Mahdi Aladel
CEO, Aramco Ventures
His specialties are in Corporate Transformation, Business Management and Development, Strategy Formulation and Execution, Corporate Planning, Production Engineering, Manufacturing and Planning Optimization of Refined Products and Oil Refining and Processing.
Milad Alucozai
Venture Partner, Entrepreneur First
Milad is head of Bio and Deep Tech at BoxOne Ventures, investing in early-stage companies with breakthrough scientific ideas and discoveries fueled by cutting-edge computational advances and/or engineering principles.
Paul Dugsin
General Partner, Raiven Capital
Paul has raised $1B for tech and R&D initiatives across disciplines and sectors, including smart manufacturing, healthcare and high performance computing.
Reema Khan
CEO, Green Sands Equity
GSE Invests in Technology and Healthcare and was ranked in top 5 investors by Fortune Magazine in 2022. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, GSE’s portfolio boasts companies like SpaceX, Airbnb, Spotify, Lyft, 1QBit, Commure and Synchron. In 2017, Reema was awarded the 21st Century Icon Award in Finance by CNBC. Reema is a trustee of the SETI Institute.
Ryaan Sharif
General Manager, Flat6Labs
In early 2018, Ryaan was appointed as the Managing Director of Flat6Labs Bahrain, the MENA Region's largest regional seed stage financier and accelerator program whereby they have already invested in 29 portfolio companies in Bahrain and over 260 portfolio companies in Flat6labs Group.
Shane Shin
Founding Partner, Shorooq
Forbes 30 Under 30. Kauffman Fellows. Korean in the Middle East. Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners, a leading seed stage VC in the MENAP Region. Passionate value investor and aspire to work closely with the Founders and Entrepreneurs to bring world changing ideas to the Middle East and build companies together in the region.
Teddy Himler
Global Investment Partner, Antler
Teddy Himler is an investment partner at Antler based in NYC. Previously, Teddy was a Vice President at SoftBank in the Bay Area, Jakarta and New York; a Principal at Comcast Ventures; and started his career in Technology Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco.
Viktoriya Tigipko
Founder, TA Ventures
Viktoriya is the Founder and Managing Partner of the fund TA Ventures - globally-minded and network-driven VC firm investing in early-stage tech startups in Europe and North America shaping the industries of tomorrow.
Hasan Haider
Partner, +VC
Hasan is an experienced investor in MENA startups, having invested in more than 200 startups in the region since 2010. Hasan was previously Managing Partner, MENA at 500 Startups and led the firm’s growth in the MENA Region since 2017, turning 500 Startups into the most Seed stage active VC fund in the MENA region.
Abdulaziz AlOmran
Founding Partner & CEO, IMPACT46
Through its avantguard investments in the tech space, IMPACT46 was able to reshape the VC investment scene in the Kingdom. Applying best in class practices and innovative investment ideas the firm currently manages more than SAR 4.9B worth of assets deployed in 33 companies.
Hughes Lachlan
Head of Venture Capital, Aditum Investment Management
As Head of Venture Capital at Aditum Investment Management, an independent DFSA regulated asset manager, Lachlan is responsible for managing Aditum’s venture activities. This included deployment of the current fund focused on FinTech and B2B Software. Lachlan has 10 years of principal investment experience across venture capital and private equity.
Timothy Draper
Silicon Valley Investor, Founder, Draper Associates
Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Funded Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and 15 other unicorns from early/first rounds. He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere, and is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin and decentralization, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall’s auction in 2014, invested in over 50 crypto companies, and led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others. He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, member of the Global Guru 30 Startup Gurus in the world, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum.
Karim Radwan
Chief Investment Officer, Chimera Capital
Karim Radwan is Chief Investment Officer at Chimera Capital Limited. His mandaten includes heading Venture Capital Investments and is currently involved in managing two funds amounting to over USD 10 billion in assets under management, with a global directive.
Marcel Dridje
President Emeritus, Sophia Business Angels
Marcel is currently coaching, mentoring and training Startups, entrepreneurs and Business Angels in the EMEA region.He has led one of the most active BAN in Europe, Sophia Business Angels in Nice, France with individual investments in 17+ Startups based in EMEA.
Mohammed Alzubi
Founder & Managing Partner, Nama Ventures
He's an engineer turned engineering manager, turned entrepreneur turned tech investor. Made numerous investments in both startups and funds along the years, 85 and counting.
Piers Dunhill
Chairman, Dunhill Ventures
Piers Dunhill, Founder of Dunhill Ventures, is an Angel investor with a large portfolio of personal investments in diversified and Alternative classes. Piers has built an extensive and high profile network, ultimately curating a specialist team with the mission to invest in businesses that impact humanity and the environment positively, ensuring a positive sustainable footprint whilst providing high level service for Dunhill Ventures clients.
Robert Kaplan
Director, Americas, SoftBank
Robert brings experience both building and investing in groundbreaking companies. Before joining SoftBank, Robert led investments across commerce enablement and enterprise software as a Principal at B Capital Group. After starting his career at JP Morgan, he helped run business operations at a seed-stage ad-tech startup and later was the Head of Growth at Spring (acq. ShopRunner).
Sandeep Bhadra
Partner, Vertex Ventures
Sandeep was a Principal at Menlo Ventures where he focused on investments in infrastructure and data/machine-learning driven applications. His investments there included Platform9, Signifyd, Unravel Data and Clarifai.
Supreet Manchanda
Founding Partner, Raiven Capital
An operator investor, Supreet brings his experience as a former CEO, CTO & CIO blending information technology, finance and operations expertise spanning new ventures, turnarounds and M&A. Worked globally in developing product sales & innovation strategy at the board level and rolled out in operational and technology roles in startups and large corporations.
Walid Faza
Partner & Chief Operating Officer, MSA Capital
Walid Faza is a Partner & COO at MSA Capital, a global investment firm with $1.8bn under management. With over 12 years of experience in the region's venture capita industry, Walid is an advisor to many startups and has extensive managerial, leadership, and mentorship expertise.
Jad Ellawn
Managing Director & Regional Head, Middle East, Brookfield Asset Management
Jad Ellawn is a Managing Director in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group and Regional Head of the Middle East, where he is responsible for the Firm’s activities in the region.
Ibrahim Alhejaian
Partner, +VC
Prior to joining +VC, Ibrahim was an early angel investor and entrepreneur. Most recently he was a founding executive of Boutique Group, a hospitality and leisure company of PIF, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Prior to BG, Ibrahim was the co-founder of a single and multi-family residential real estate developer, Khayal Developments.
Arthur Chen
Partner, Ameba Capital
Mr. Arthur Chen focuses on Deeptech, Metaverse, AI and SaaS investments at Ameba Capital, one of China’s most highly regarded venture capital firms. He has successfully invested in many unicorns of the future in China, the US, Europe and other regions, and is actively providing support and mentorship to young entrepreneurs.
Ryan Morley
Partner, SpringTide Capital
Ryan Morley is a Partner at SpringTide Capital, a venture firm focused on championing leading health-tech founders. Ryan brings a multi-faceted background to investing with experience as an entrepreneur, health system innovation, and public policy.
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