E79:The art of deal making with private equity veteran Imad Ghandour

Imad Ghandour shares his extensive experience in the private equity sector, covering essential topics such as buying, improving, and selling companies in MENA. He delves into the philosophy behind his firm, Cedar Bridge, highlighting their unique approach to operational involvement, and focus on positive management. We delve into Cedar Bridge-s latest successful exit -The Grooming Company Holding- and how Imad and his partners were able to successfully invest in the beauty sector, grow the business internationally and grow it-s bottom line. Imad offers tips on management, deal making, achieving operational excellence and managing through crisis.-

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com-a global investment platform.
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78:Vadim Fedotov on leading Groupon, founding Bioniq, health & wellness, mental toughness and the right diet

Vadim shares insights from his journey as a professional athlete, how he learned all about mental toughness and breaking your opponent. We shares his journey beyond sports into management consulting in Germany and then becoming the youngest CEO in Groupon as he led Eastern Europe and was part of Groupon-s NASDAQ IPO. He then goes back to his roots in -health and sports- to launch-Bioniq-in 2018, a personalized supplements company that currently sells is products globally while he lives in Dubai. Vadim talks about the multi-billion dollar supplements industry and why most supplements don-t work. He offers tips on health and wellness, shares insights from Bioniq-s large data pool and wraps up with some tips for healthy eating habits. A very insightful conversation that tackles not only Vadim-s entrepreneurial journey but also, the very important subject of health.-
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E77:Courtney Powell on scaling 500 global, investing in MENA, motherhood and entrepreneurship

I sit down with Courtney Powell, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of 500 Global to discuss her journey from entrepreneur to global venture capital leader. Courtney shares insights on expanding 500 Global into emerging markets like MENA, balancing motherhood with her career, and the evolving landscape of education and female representation in tech. She also shares practical tips for pitching and fundraising, weaving personal stories and professional insights throughout the conversation.

Support for the show comes from Capital.com a global investment platform.
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E76: The incredible journey of MENA’s e-commerce pioneer, Ronaldo Mouchawar

I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Ronaldo Mouchawar, the trailblazing Co-founder and CEO of-Souq.com, which was acquired by Amazon in 2017 for $580 million in cash + $200m in Amazon shares. Ronaldo, a true pioneer of e-commerce in the MENA region, founded Souq in 2005 as a spin-off from Maktoob, another regional success story that was sold to Yahoo for ~$170 million in 2009.

In our conversation, Ronaldo shares captivating industry insights, recounts his personal journey, and reveals his passion for music. Now heading Amazon-s operations in MENA and Turkey, Ronaldo remains fervently optimistic about the future of e-commerce in the region. Don-t miss this fascinating and inspiring episode!

Support for the show comes from-capital.com-a global investment platform. Visit their website to start investing today.-

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E75: The business of building startups from Rocket Internet to Antler with Jonathan Doerr

I sat down with Jonathan Doerr, the Co-founding Partner at Antler MENAP to learn about his experience in building, scaling and exciting companies. Jonathan brings a ton of learning from his time with Rocket Internet, where he was the Co-founder and Managing Director at Jumia Nigeria, Africa-s leading e-commerce site which IPOed on the NYSE in 2019 and the Co-CEO at Daraz, the South Asian e-commerce player which was acquired by Alibaba in 2018.
We discuss challenges of building e-commerce companies in emerging markets and the differences between an IPO and an acquisition. Today, Jonathan is leveraging his experience to enable the next generation of founders via Antler where he plays matchmaker and investor to 100s of founders that join Antler-s programs in Dubai, Riyadh and more to come.

Support for the show comes from Capital.com, a global investment platform.

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E74:From corporate America to corporate lunch. The story of MUNCH:ON

Dana Baki is the co-founder and COO at MUNCH:ON, a UAE born startup that was solving the corporate lunch problem. MUNCH:ON-which started as LUNCH:ON was utilizing kitchen-s off-peak to deliver affordable meals to corporate executives. The business was experiencing high growth until Covid which posed an existential threat. MUNCH:ON-was then born to cater for meals throughout the day. Careem acquired MUNCH:ON-in 2022 and Dana took time off to recalibrate and figure out what she wanted to do and landed in the space exploration industry. This is a fantastic conversation about entrepreneurship, work ethic, motherhood and so much more.-

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com, a global investment platform. Visit their website and start investing today!
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Why is a Chinese fund scouting for the next unicorn in MENA? Ben Harburg, Managing Partner MSA Capital

Ben-Harburg-is the Managing Partner at-MSA Capital, a Chinese VC with $2.5bn of assets under management and-MSA Novo, a newly established emerging markets fund with focus on the GCC. Ben brings a decade of expertise investing in Chinese tech companies to the Middle East - North Africa (MENA) region and is scouting for the next MENA based unicorns. MSA capital is already an investor in regional success stories like Tabby, Homzmart, Rabbit, Baly and KASO to name a few.

A refreshing conversation on Chinese tech and what we can learn from China-s startup ecosystem and why Ben believes that startups in MENA would likely be looking more East than West when it comes to innovation and business models to mimic and perhaps even exit opportunities.

Ben is an entrepreneur and the co-owner of Cadiz football club, he shares tips on entrepreneurship and on having the foresight to spot opportunities before they become common knowledge and why he constantly seeks arbitrage opportunities.-

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com, a global investment platform. Visit their webiste to start trading today!
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E72: An insider’s guide to private equity in MENA with Huda Al-Lawati

Huda Al-Lawati-is a veteran private equity professional across emerging markets having had executive roles at companies like Gateway Partners, Savola and Abraaj. Huda has recently launched-Aliph Capital, a private equity fund that focuses on the mid market segment.-

I sat down with Huda to get an insider-s view on the private equity industry in the MENA region, what are the opportunites, where to fundraise, how to source deals, how to create value to companies they acquire by building the right teams and much more. Also if you-re interested to work in private equity, Huda shares her tips on what she looks for and what it takes to succeed in this competitive industry.

If you-re looking to gain an understanding of how the industry works then this is a great place to start!

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com, a global investment platform. Visit their webiste to start trading today!
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E71:AI for everyone, Hassan Sawaf’s journey to a no-code AI

When-Hassan Sawaf-started working on machine learning in the 90s in Germany, no one thought advancements in AI would bring us to where we are today. Not even Hassan himself! In fact, people thought the AI field was too -theoretical-. In this conversation, Hassan talks to us about AI-s evolution and his vision for-aiXplain, a company he is building out of California that aims to make AI accessible to builders and innovators and provide them with tools to prototype their ideas with low or no-code. Hassan has been in the driving seat of the AI evolution and has led AI efforts in some of the world-s leading companies; eBay, Amazon AWS and Meta, he is a serial entrepreneur, sits on several boards, has a Ph.D. in machine learning algorithms for speech translation applications and has 60+ patents and publications in the field.

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com, a global investment platform. Visit their webiste to start trading today!
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What is a hybrid kitchen and how to build one, with Jihad El Eit

-I have my termination letter framed in my office- that is the first thing that Jihad said to me when I first met him.-Jihad El Eit, is the Founder - Group CEO at-Kaykroo, the region-s creator of home grown brands like Manoushe Street, the Good Bowl, Fern el Balad, the Pasta Cup and many more. Jihad has a fascinating entrepreneurial journey that started after the company he worked at i2 shut down in 2007. Immediately after, Jihad saw an opportunity to become the distributor of Nokia in Pakistan, so he packed his bags and moved from Dubai to Pakistan to pursue it! A few years later, another opportunity arose to open a Lebanse Street Food concept with friends and Manoushe Street was born. After exiting his business in Pakistan, Jihad went all in on food and beverage and expanded Manoushe Street which becase Kaykroo in 2020, a series of hybrid kitchens serving over 40 brands in the UAE - Saudi Arabia. With $50m in investments to date, Kaykroo is scaling fast.-Jihad shares his story, his insights on the food and beverage industry and plenty of advice for entrepreneurs looking to enter the space.

Support for the show comes from-Capital.com, a global investment platform. Visit their webiste to start trading today!
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