22. VC Leaders from Africa and the Middle East

Dec 14, 2023

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Welcome to Silverbacks Valley, a podcast changing the narrative around Africa through the bridging of the worlds of #venturecapital, #tech, #sports, #media and #lifestyle.

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Disclaimer : This episode is for informational and entertainment purposes only, no content of the conversation should be considered as investment advice.

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Today, Ibrahim Sagna welcomes in the valley four VC leaders operating in Africa and the Middle East : Dina el-Shenoufy of Flat6Labs , Dr Mohamed El Sayed Okasha of DisrupTech Ventures , Sara Enan of VentureSouq and Mariam Kamel of LoftyInc Capital. The conversation took place at the Egypt VC Summit and we are grateful for their support.

5 BIG IDEAS DISCUSSED AT THE EGYPT VC SUMMIT

1."Do more with less"

Dr Okasha is known to many as the Founder of Fawry, which became Egypt's first unicorn and became the first African fintech to IPO on Africa soil through the Egypt Stock Exchange. Now he is bringing his management experience to the companies that he invests in through Disruptech Ventures, an Egyptian-based fintech-focused VC. In our conversation, he pleads founders to learn to do more with less in the current times and beyond.

2."Do not neglect the rest of Africa"

Silverbacks invested in one of LoftyInc's fund and participated in co-investments as well. They are one of our favorite GPs. What we've enjoyed with their thesis is their relentless search for widening moths beyond the obvious jurisdiction such as the "Big Four". In our conversation, Mariam explains how LoftyInc's thesis started out from its inception as the founding partner, Idris Bello, had invested as an angel outside of his home country : Nigeria. Three funds later, LoftyInc has closed an oversubscribed USD 14 million fund which is currently being deployed in over 40 companies.

3."On the scalability and defensibility of African and Middle Eastern founders."

Flat6Labs is arguably the oldest MENA region focused early stage VC. The firm was founded 12 years ago, has invested over USD 16 million in startups across many countries and contributed to 2,500 direct jobs and 80,000 indirect jobs through its first two funds in Egypt and Tunisia. They are now established in various countries in the GCC. In our conversation, Dina urged founders not to shy away from the structural context that is intrinsic to the African and Middle Eastern markets.

4."We have to capitalise more on the similarities between Africa and the Middle East"

VentureSouq is a GCC-based VC for global early-stage technology businesses. With their global focus, the investment firm is able to draw comparisons between how fintechs operated globally versus how they operate in the GCC, North Africa and SSA regions. Sara Enan spoke on those differences and explained that from a VC standpoint these markets were quite similar.

5."When things look bad from afar, they are actually far from bad."

Ibrahim Sagna's own takeaway from the conversation is that tough times will continue to test our ecosystems but this most often leads to outstanding outcomes. We all need to exert resilience, remain discerning and focus on first principles. This, too, shall pass.