MENAbytes Live: Online Panel – What Covid-19 means for VCs in MENA

As part of MENAbytes Live, we are hosting an online panel to discuss the impact of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) on venture capital in the Middle East & North Africa, on Monday, April 13 at 7 PM (Dubai time). We’ll also talk about what it means for the future of VCs in the region and how are they helping their portfolio companies deal with the crisis. Our panelists include:

Kais Al-Essa, the Founding Partner of Vision Ventures, a Saudi VC that invests in early-stage startups across the Middle East & North Africa. He is also the founder of Sahara Net, the first Saudi Internet Service Provider (ISP) that now sells different IT solutions and services. Vision Ventures had started as a corporate venture capital arm of Saraha Net but later changed its structure to GP/LP VC and is now backed by Jada, the Saudi fund of funds by Public Investment Fund.

Kenza Lahlou, the co-founder and Managing Partner of Outlierz Ventures, an early-stage Africa-focused VC fund, based out of Morocco. The fund invests in Seed and Pre-Series A tech-enabled companies solving fundamental problems in key industries across 4 main markets: Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya. Kenza started Outlierz Ventures after spending four years on the ground helping entrepreneurs and building Morocco’s startup ecosystem via StartupYourLife (SYL), a pioneer ecosystem builder and entrepreneurs’ network she co-founded in 2014.

Khaled Talhouni, the Managing Partner of Nuwa Capital, a Dubai & Riyadh-based newly-established VC that invests in early-stage startups in the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, Turkey & Pakistan. Prior to founding Nuwa Capital, he was a Managing Partner at Wamda Capital, a leading regional VC. He started his career at Dubai International Capital where he supported the development of the MENA region’s first seed capital fund. Since then, he worked in different venture capital and startup roles including heading investments and strategy at twofour54 in Abu Dhabi.

Tarek Fahim, the CEO of Endure Capital, a cross-border VC firm with offices in Egypt and the United States, and an early investor in companies like Careem, Wuzzuf, Aspect Biosystems, Boom Supersonic and Scotty and many others in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Middle East & Africa. He also serves as a board member of Endeavor Egypt, the organization that credits itself as pioneering the concept of high-impact entrepreneurship in growth markets around the world.

The panel will be moderated by Zubair Naeem Paracha, the founder of MENAbytes.

You can register to attend the panel using this link. We will also stream it live on our Facebook page.