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cover of episode 176: Beyond the Silk Roads: Middle Eastern Venture Investing - With Noor Sweid, Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures

176: Beyond the Silk Roads: Middle Eastern Venture Investing - With Noor Sweid, Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures

2025/6/5
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Noor Sweid：我很荣幸能与Zenobia相提并论，她对世界各地的女性都是一种鼓舞。家是心之所在，迪拜是我的工作、创业者和家庭的中心。随着成长，你会意识到自己可以同时属于多个地方，不必做出选择。咨询经验教会了我如何构建框架，这在评估市场、公司和创始人时非常有帮助。咨询技能包括如何绘制市场地图、进行研究以及将研究转化为有策略的战术计划。我们对中东和北非地区的定义很广泛，包括撒哈拉以南非洲，因为那里的创业者们也在解决同样的问题。我们主要在中东和北非地区投资，那里有4.5亿人口。中东和北非地区拥有世界上最高的数字普及率和最年轻的人口，充满活力和创业精神。年轻人口的增长推动了该地区的创业浪潮，人们在找不到机会时会主动创造机会。沙特阿拉伯的公司主要服务于沙特市场，该市场增长迅速，尤其是在消费领域。埃及的创业者们服务于拥有1亿人口的埃及市场，那里基础设施不足，因此金融科技和健康科技得以发展。阿联酋为吸引全球人才、进行区域建设和实现全球扩张提供了机会。尽管我们将中东和北非视为一个整体，但每个市场都有其自身的细微差别。

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This chapter introduces Noor Sweid, a prominent venture capitalist in the Middle East, and explores her unique background, including her upbringing in various countries and her experience in management consulting. It also touches upon the valuable skills she gained from her consulting career, which are essential in her current role.
  • Noor Sweid's diverse upbringing across continents.
  • Her experience in management consulting and its impact on her investment strategies.
  • The skill set gained from consulting, including market mapping and strategic planning.

Shownotes Transcript

Today we welcome one of the Middle East’s most successful angel investors and venture capitalists, listed in 'FORBES 100 Most Powerful Business Women 2025'.

Noor Sweid explains her journey, from early career in management consultancy and relocating to Dubai, followed by growing and listing a business on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai in 2008 (Depa)), through to establishing her VC business, Global Ventures), in 2018.

She sets the scene for the investing dynamics of MENA (Middle East North Africa), where the domestic market comprises 450 million people, half of whom are below 30 years old.

Noor explains both the geographic and industry opportunities, why she established Global Ventures, and the priorities in their investment process.

From fintech, agritech, consumer goods and solving the most pressing medical challenges, she details their approach, selection criteria, and the characteristics they look for. 

She explains how they prioritise, how much they become involved in their investee companies, what they look for in “winning entrepreneurs” and why they believe their success rate can be higher than typical industry norms.

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The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders), IFM Investors), World Gold Council) and LSEG).

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