Dubbed as 'one of the MENA region's top corporate lawyers with deep ties in technology, media, and communications,' he also wears the hat of cofounder and chairman at Dubai Angels Investors.

Ever wondered why someone with such a corporate flair was once drawn to criminal law? Abdullah spills the beans on that and more. He takes us on a journey through the evolution of deal-making, highlighting the ebb and flow of regulations, market dynamics, and investment strategies.

In our first recorded episode, Nuwa Capital's Stephanie Nour Prince chats with Mustafa Koita, founder of Koita Milk. In 2016, Mustafa turned frustration into inspiration when he launched Koita Milk. He wanted to offer his children, Serena, Danyal, and Sophia, a better option when it came to organic and fresh foods, especially Milk. And so started a journey of research, travel, strategizing a cross-country operation - and of course, building the brand we've all come to know.

In our chat with him, Mustafa takes us through everything Koita, from impetus, to making the choice to bootstrap, and legacy.

I met Laith Zraikat early in my career in 2008. At the time, I was an Associate at Accelerator Technology Holdings - the pre-cursor to Silicon Badia a regional VC. Jeeran was one of the earliest companies I got exposed to as a VC and I had, for a brief period, the privilege of working with one of the leading businesses in the region and learning from both founders on scaling a business.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Laith on the history of Jeeran, its development from an idea into a regional powerhouse and then its ultimate unraveling. Laith and I go over the many lessons learned from the Jeeran journey that serve as a cautionary tale to both founders and VCs.

- Khaled Talhouni

In this episode, Aahan takes us through how his vision evolved throughout Silkhaus’ first year in operations and how understanding the needs of all his stakeholders created new potential for the business, enabled by instilling agility in his team and creating a company culture built for growth.

In this episode, we take a bit of a different angle and dig into how NFTs as a medium for art could offer more legitimacy online for artists. Kristel discusses her path to building her business as an artist, how she shaped her view on NFTs, as well as how the latter have helped evolve the meaning of ownership.

Every Friday afternoon, we set up in our meeting room and discuss market developments, hot topics - give or take a few tangents - to wind down and conclude the week. Totally unscripted, and very, very lightly edited.

Ep. 1 features Khaled Talhouni, Stephanie Nour Prince, Nitin Reen, Arnav Danthi, Ghassan Noursi and special guest Mikail Malik.

Ep. 1 was recorded on May 13.

Realizing this issue is faced by every startup and can be commoditized, many infrastructure-as-a-service / API-first startups emerged, enabling startups to outsource these core functionalities and add them via third-party integrations, making their path to market faster and easier.

However, as startups today have increased their dependence on these third-party services, they face some friction. This has led to a second wave of infrastructure-led startups, like MoneyHash, a Nuwa portfolio company.

For episode 17 of our podcast, we chatted with Nader Abdelrazik, cofounder of MoneyHash. We dug into the MoneyHash culture, the challenges faced by regional startups with payments and how MoneyHash platform will help solve them.

Investment in MENA-based companies has more than doubled in the last 2 years, going from ~$1B in investments in 2020 to ~$2.6B in 2021 according to Magnitt. With the increased availability of capital, early-stage companies are raising faster and larger rounds to double or triple down on growth, bolstering further startup activity. While capital is cheaper, it has also never been more important for founders to pause and reflect on who they want to partner with and who is best positioned to support them.

So for Episode 16 of our podcast, we chatted with Chad Fox, solo GP of Fox Ventures. Both Nuwa Capital and Fox Ventures have backed the stellar teams of baraka and MoneyHash, and Chad’s reputation as a value add investor makes him a force to be reckoned with. We go into Chad’s thinking on fintech, and his emerging market investment thesis.

For episode 15 of our podcast, recorded a few weeks ago, we chatted with Ahmed Alrawi and Moayed Almoayed, co-founders of Calo. Calo lifts the burden of preparing or choosing adequate, quality meals from consumers working on reaching their fitness goals or managing health conditions - and since its inception, the company has seen explosive growth, becoming the leader in health-conscious ready-to-eat meals in under a year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. 

We dug into the Calo culture, the technology, and how Ahmed and Moayed seem to have cracked the code when it comes to meal customization and end-to-end operations.

In Episode 14 of our podcast, we spoke to Florian Seubert, cofounder and venture partner at Maxburg Capital Partners. Florian started his career at JP Morgan before launching Europe’s largest pet supplies e-commerce platform, Zooplus. We dive into what it took to build a successful pet care company at the cusp of the dot-com boom and Zooplus’s subsequent expansion to over 30 European markets.

Our conversation with Florian drew an interesting and unexpected parallel between the European and MENA markets, from digitization (or lack thereof), scaling in fragmented markets, and the potential of industry roll-ups. Florian also shares his insight on the evolution of the tech landscape in Europe, particularly within healthtech and e-pharma, and how Maxburg Capital Partners is laying the foundations for the future of tech on the continent.

We may still be at the cusp of a shift in mindset when it comes to mental health in the region, but there is a tangible, sharp rise in awareness, particularly post-pandemic. The evolution of the space, it seems, hinges more than ever on technology, coupled with substantial developments in research.

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of hosting Fares Ghandour, cofounder of Tuhoon. We have known Fares for years, as one of the earliest investors in MENA, and were keen on listening to his experience of moving to the operator side, and building a company in a sector that is, perhaps, about to see its own penicillin moment.

As Hashem comes from an academic household, with a father he describes as an “economist at heart”, and a mother with an unparalleled level of curiosity and a strong interest in Art, we were curious about which elements Hashem brought into The Lighthouse, which he cofounded with Hani Bassiouni. 

We trace back Hashem’s journey from asset management and finance, his first entrepreneurial experience, and the toolkit the cofounders built on for The Lighthouse. We dive into the dialectic of the aesthetic and the analytical, with Hashem and Hani marrying both their commercial and cultural instincts to build a sustainable commercial enterprise and the wider role technology and entrepreneurship play in a rapidly changing society.

There is a need to elevate the quality of coverage dedicated to entrepreneurship, and the onus is on startups, investors, and the media. That doesn’t necessarily mean more coverage. There is still progress to be made when it comes to transparency and the willingness to share. Crushing goals, expansions, mistakes, and failures are all an integral part of that narrative. Coverage is a two-way street, and a result of building relationships with the media over time, rather than pelting editors with press releases – something we will be looking at more deeply as we continue to speak with editors and founders alike.

For Episode 10 of our podcast, Khaled and I turn the tables on Zubair Naeem Paracha, founder of MENABytes. We were curious about how a platform, built by one person as a side gig, became one of the few noteworthy media outlets for startups. We dig into his perspective of how coverage of the space has evolved and what founders and their teams, investors, and editors need to do to unlock more value.

For Episode 9 of the Nuwa Capital podcast, Khaled and Sarah spoke with Feras Jalbout, founder and CEO of baraka (getbaraka.com), to discuss the timing behind his leap into entrepreneurship and baraka, and what next-gen retail investors and the markets they’ll be investing in may look like.

baraka launched its mobile investment app on August 3, after successfully building a large community through its content hub and daily market newsletter. It boasts a waitlist of over 10,000 users from across the Middle East, a testament to the large unmet demand in the market.

As we take a closer look at the space, some of the main themes underpinning the latter seem to be: 1) increase in consumer awareness, 2) interoperability, standardization, and integrability, 3) decentralization of care provision, 4) personalization in health and wellness.

By and large, the most crucial transformation that has occurred is a complete shift in mindset on how we view healthcare, years in the making, and now being materialized through reforms to regulations in the space and multiple regional initiatives to optimize access to, and quality of healthcare, as well as through the companies we invest in.

In our discussion with Dr. Fayad, he lays out the core principles driving healthcare forward in the region.

There is a tangible change of pace in investments as well, with rounds closing in close succession and companies growing at an unprecedented pace, made possible in part by a strengthened support infrastructure, improved regulations, but most of all, by a new generation of founders with incredible depth of experience and the teams they surround themselves with.

In Episode 7 of The Nuwa Capital podcast, we had the pleasure of hosting Nathalie Spree, Partner at True Search, an executive search platform helping companies hire senior talent across the globe, and part of the Nuwa Network. With companies witnessing accelerated growth on one hand, and sourcing and hiring the right talent becoming increasingly challenging and competitive on the other, we wanted to pause on what it means to build the right team, best practices for hiring, what talent is looking for, and the real cost of poor company culture.

When we launched Nuwa Capital, a key part of our thinking was to invest in companies building the next generation of retail where the online and offline experiences are seamlessly integrated and private label/own brands drive growth and differentiation.

Eyewa, one of our first investments in 2020 as part of their pre-Series B, best exemplifies our thinking. 

Sundeep is a third-time entrepreneur, having previously cofounded two businesses, both of which were acquired by Alibaba, Lazada. Nadin brings years of experience on the capital side through Growthgate Partners, and had also had a number of operational roles prior to that at large corporations.

The cofounders conceived Valeo, a personalized health and wellness platform during the pandemic, and have just launched. Valeo’s mission is to democratize access to health and wellness, by offering services that had historically been reserved to athletes, or the affluent, through an innovative business model.

We’ve recently invested in Valeo’s Seed round. An early-stage investment for us at Nuwa Capital, and one that is deeply rooted in our conviction in backing exceptional founders, especially ones who’ve previously built and scaled innovative businesses.

Valeo is offering 15% discount off on its services - make sure to download the app and use promo code: "FeelYourBest"

Launched in 2020, Homzmart is an online furniture marketplace connecting consumers with manufacturers and sellers. The company found itself in a unique position since launch and throughout the pandemic, and navigated its way through growth of 30x in sales. The company, one of the fastest-growing companies we've seen, is helmed by Mahmoud Ibrahim and Ibrahim Mohamed - a new generation of seasoned founders who have previously played key roles in Daraz and Jumia.

In this episode of our podcast, Sarah Abu Risheh and Homzmart founder Mahmoud Ibrahim discuss the main drivers behind marketplaces, where the furniture industry is heading, and how the founder saw the space change.

In this episode of our podcast, we chat with Michael about the FlexxPay model, where the MENA region stands with regards to the changing nature of employment, and FlexxPay’s evolving value proposition for companies looking to preserve their most valuable asset, their team.

Nuwa Capital’s Sarah Abu Risheh hosted Amjad Ahmad, managing partner at Precinct Partners, and Patrick Rogers, co-founder and CEO of Clara, for a discussion on the specific mechanisms of company valuations, high or low, and how they reflect on a business as well as their impact on future rounds.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put players across the industry to the test and further exposed the multiple inefficiencies currently undermining F&B as we know it, while a new generation of innovators in F&B has emerged as the driving force of the industry’s future.

From sourcing to plating, this session covers how the F&B industry is recasting itself for a post-pandemic economic reboot.

For more insight, make sure to read: https://nuwacapital.io/if-you-arent-in-over-your-head-how-do-you-know-how-tall-you-are/