Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)

Founder of MEVP with over 20 years in venture capital, having launched five VC funds and invested in 60+ tech companies, growing the firm's AUM to $300M. Previously CEO of Dubai International Capital's venture arm (ABAN) and serves on boards of regional tech companies including NASDAQ-listed Anghami.

Ali joined MEVP around five years ago and has over nine years of experience in the entrepreneurship ecosystem across startups, incubators, a development bank and consulting. He previously worked at Bahrain Development Bank in business development and was part of the Rowad startup support program, and earlier was an analyst at Dun & Bradstreet's Bahrain office. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Jad joined MEVP over a decade ago after working as a project manager on the venture capital tech team at Truffle Capital in Paris and as an M&A financial analyst at Lazard focused on EMEA telecom and technology. He previously held roles at GE Healthcare, NavLink, and Societe Generale, and holds a Telecom and Computer Engineering degree from the Lebanese University plus an MBA from ESSEC in France.

Rafik Amrani is an Associate Director at MEVP with a background in banking, private equity, and consulting, and has founded social enterprises across the MENA region. He holds a BBA in Business Information and Decision Systems with a computer science minor from the American University of Beirut.

Soufiane Marhraoui is General Manager for North Africa at Taptap Send and a former employee of Glovo. He has leadership experience in launching and scaling on-demand and fintech companies across Africa and the Middle East, with involvement in growth, profitability, and international expansion initiatives. He is an On Deck Fellow.

Andreas Ehn is a partner at Approach and was Spotify's first employee and CTO, where he directed product and platform architecture and built the engineering organization. He subsequently co-founded Wrapp, a mobile customer acquisition platform for retailers that secured funding from investors including Atomico and Greylock and expanded to 18 countries before its exit. Ehn currently engages in consulting, advisory work, and angel investing.

Ayman Hatif is an Associate at Middle East Venture Partners, where he focuses on venture investments in the MENA region and diaspora-founded startups. He works with founders across stages from initial funding through scaling.

Omar El Hachem is an Investment Associate at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP). His work focuses on early-stage to Series A technology investments, with a primary emphasis on the Gulf region.

Reina El Fadel is a Senior Legal Counsel at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), working in the venture capital and private equity industry. She specializes in corporate law and legal advisory, and holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Business Law from the University of Saint Joseph.

Sacha Khoury is a venture capitalist at Middle East Venture Partners with an engineering background and experience in consulting and business-focused roles. His professional background includes work on organizational transformation, operational structuring, market research, and strategic analysis across multiple industries. He focuses on technology-driven businesses and early-stage ventures.

Joined MEVP in 2022 with over 13 years of experience in startup growth and venture capital, having led multiple investment rounds and supported founders through various stages. Previously worked with early-stage VCs and accelerators in the MENA region, focusing on sourcing and evaluating startups.

James Chamoun is an Investment Associate at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), a MENA-region venture capital firm investing across early and growth stages. He holds an MSc in Finance from IÉSEG and previously worked in consulting and at IM Ventures, where he focused on sector-agnostic investments from Seed to Series A. At age 15, he founded the gaming startup Gliq, which he later exited.

Data Analytics Engineer previously at Arca Continental working on machine learning and business intelligence, with prior e-commerce founding-team experience.

Luis Martínez is a Principal at Capital Factory, where he works on the venture team, and serves as a startup mentor with Geekdom, the Pioneer21 Venture Mentoring Program, MassChallenge, and Techstars. He previously directed the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University, which received the Nasdaq Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence award in 2021 under his leadership, and held faculty positions teaching organic chemistry at Rollins College, Eastern Florida State College, and the University of Texas at El Paso, along with a role as Senior Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute-Florida. He holds two patents in organic synthesis, founded Students+Startups, and co-founded BGV Strategies.

Luis Martinez, Ph.D., is a Principal at Capital Factory, where he works on the venture team, and serves as a startup mentor with Geekdom, the Pioneer21 Venture Mentoring Program, MassChallenge, and Techstars. He previously directed the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University, which received the Nasdaq Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence award in 2021 under his leadership, and taught chemistry at Rollins College, Eastern Florida State College, and the University of Texas at El Paso, in addition to working as a Senior Scientist at the Scripps Research Institute-Florida. He holds two patents in organic synthesis, founded Students+Startups, and co-founded BGV Strategies.