Ahmed El Alfi is a veteran investor & VC with over 25 years of entrepreneurial and TMT-related experience spanning across different regions Named as one of the most creative people in the world by Fast Company, Ahmed El Alfi has been an early stage/growth investor for the past 25 years, translating to extensive experience in funding, nurturing early-stage companies. El Alfi founded Hybrid Capital Partners in 1990, a private investment partnership. Hybrid Capital has funded, helped grow and exited several successful companies: among them are PC Mall, a USD 1bn rapid response supplier of technology services for businesses, governments and consumers; ATML, an owner and operator of over 1,000 ATMs; Banquet, an extreme sports portal, and community site; Internet Brands, a leading the operator of e-commerce and community websites; and The Genetics Institute a genetic diagnostic company. During 2006, he served as CEO of EFG-Hermes Private Equity (“EHPE”). From 2010 to present he founded Sawari Ventures, FLat6Labs, Nafham, and TATP (GrEEK Campus). Sawari Ventures aims to help transform the Egyptian and MENA region economies through the creation of sustainable, high impact businesses. In 2011, Sawari Ventures created and funded Flat6Labs, since then Flat6Labs has grown to become the MENA region's leading startup accelerator. Nafham is the top Arabic online video educational platform covering the Egyptian, Saudi and Syrian public school curriculums, Nafham currently gives free video lessons per day to over 1 million students monthly. In addition to Sawari Ventures' portfolio of investments, his current portfolio includes Triporati, an innovative online travel company; Pacific Toxicology, a leading Toxicology laboratory in the USA, as well as Zignal Labs a big data analysis company. Prior to becoming an early-stage investor in 1990, El Alfi was Senior Vice President of Jefferies & Company, where he worked for 10 years. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Waqf Endowment. He has also served on the Boards of Directors or Advisors of the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Claremont Graduate School of Religion, as well as several for-profits corporate boards

In addition to his role as CEO of the non-bank financial institute, Walid Hassouna is also a non-executive board member of Tanmeyah microenterprises and EFG Hermes Leasing, both subsidiaries of EFG Hermes Finance. Vice Chairman of EFG-EV fintech accelerator, board member of Karm solar and Kazyon hard discount stores.

Prior to joining EFG Hermes in 2016, Walid Hassouna was General Manager and Head of Structured Finance and Investment Banking at Bank Audi, where he closed structured and project finance transactions in excess of USD 15 billion over a seventeen-year banking career that began at Misr International Bank. He also structured and executed several award-winning deals, in project finance and M&A within Egypt and GCC, in addition to several investment banking transactions. He has also been the Head of structured finance and syndication in Banque Misr where he successfully managed to top the league table of the MENA region in syndicated loans.

Walid is a Cairo-University B.B.A holder, where he graduated with highest honors. He also holds an MBA from J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University as well as Islamic Finance Qualification from CISI- UK.

Experienced Chairman with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry. Skilled in Business Planning, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Asset Management, and Management. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a BSC Engineering focused in Architecture from Alexandria University. 

Dr. Ayman Ismail is the Assistant Professor and Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo School of Business.

His research focuses on entrepreneurship venture capital and private equity in emerging markets economic development in the Middle East industrial strategy international technology diffusion and knowledge transfer to developing countries technology policy and innovation energy and food security and political economy of development. Dr. Ismail is a former Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.

He received his PhD in International Economic Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also holds a bachelor degree in engineering and an MBA from the American University in Cairo, and a master in city planning and geographic information systems from MIT.

He is also a co-founder and Managing Partner in Enovio, a management & strategy consulting firm operating in the US and the Middle East. Prior to that, he was a consultant in McKinsey & Company Business Technology Office, based in New York for several years.

Dr. Ismail has advised senior management in leading Fortune 100 companies, fast-growing startups, government agencies, and non-profits on key organization, operations and technology issues. He has also consulted and conducted research for international organizations such as the World Bank and UNCTAD, as well as multiple US government agencies.

Dr. Ismail has a broad multidisciplinary experience in economic development, business strategy, city planning and technology based on professional practice and academic research.

Dr. Ismail is a co-founder and member the Board of Directors of Nahdet El-Mahrousa, a leading NGO incubating social entrepreneurs and social ventures targeting economic and social development issues in Egypt. He is also an Endeavor VentureCorps Mentor, advising entrepreneurs.

Khaled Ismail is the Willard W. Brown Chair at the American University in Cairo (AUC) for the academic year 2014-2015. He is also the head of the African Academic Association on Entrepreneurship. Ismail is the Founder and Chairman of KIangel, an angel investment fund focused on investing in early-stage startups in the Middle East. The fund has invested in 11 companies since 2011 and is still growing. Ismail is a serial entrepreneur who has started 7 companies in Egypt since 1992. His latest company, SySDSoft, which is a technology company focused on the design of wireless communication system modems, was acquired by Intel in March 2011. Ismail became thereafter and until January 2014 the Managing Director of Intel Mobile Communications. Ismail was the Chairman of Endeavor Egypt between 2011 and 2014, board member of Orascom Telecom (2004-2011) and board member of the IT Industry Development Authority (2009-2012). Between 2005 and 2007, Ismail was the Senior Advisor of the Egyptian Minister of CIT, responsible for Technology Development. Between 1997 and 2000, Ismail was the Managing Director of Gemma, a company specialized in Ceramic manufacturing, which he managed to take public in 1998. Ismail was with IBMs TJ Watson Research Center in NY. He is the recipient of the IBM Invention Achievement Award and the IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in 1997 and 1995, respectively. Ismail received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1989. He has been an IEEE Fellow since 1997 and has published over 160 papers in international journals, and is the holder of 22 US patents. He was the recipient of the Eta Kappa Nu Best Young Electrical Engineer in the US award in 1994, and the Shuman Award for the Young Arab Engineer in 1995.

• Head of Digital Transformation - Gemini Holding.
• Worldwide Project Management Consultant – Schlumberger International, Houston, USA.
• Vice-chairman & board member - Al Mawwan technology.
• Vice-chairman & board member - Al Nayzek cosmetics.
• Board member – Alfa Electronics S.A.E.
• Entrepreneurship life mentor, Jury & examiner and Project Management lecturer for post graduates – The American University in Cairo (AUC).

·         Member of the entrepreneurship & innovation committee - The American Chamber of Commerce.

• Partner with GIZ, ICT Cairo, RiseUp, ECES to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt & Africa.

·         Adjunct faculty - Dubai school of government in cooperation with Harvard Kennedy school.

• Project management & Risk management consultant, advisor & instructor within the Middle East, North Africa, Europe & the Far East.
• External examiner, judge & jury at many African & Arabic competitions and initiatives.
• Partner with many start-ups & entrepreneurs all over Africa.
• 20+ years of business management experience at Gemini Enterprises Africa, Orascom Group, Schlumberger, Orange & Lucent Technologies in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Oil & Gas, Telecom, and Development in addition to IT management.

Karima is heading the commercial side of Falak Startups, from the Accelerator’s Business Development, Investor Relations to Marketing and PR. Having an extensive background in Market Research and Business Development, she was able to establish a focused commercial strategy for Falak Startups, revolving around success stories and thought leadership.

Karima is also the great force behind building and maintaining many strategic partnerships with industry leaders in respective sectors; Novartis, CIB, GB Auto and Schneider Electric to name a few.

Prior to Falak, Karima came from business intelligence and strategy background working with big corporates in Egypt and France, such as Orascom Holding and Danone France.

Karima holds a BSc. in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and a Masters in Market Research and Marketing from Science Po, Paris.

An accomplished global business and people leader with +22 years of experience with Unilever where she managed and grew multi-billion-dollar brand and business franchises, in a variety of marketing and business development roles spanning multiple categories (Home Care, Personal Care, Food & Beverage) across the diverse geographies of the Gulf, the Middle East & North Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, and Russia. She was also a member of the Global Personal Care Leadership Team of Unilever. Nihal started her career in the Financial Consulting field with Arthur Andersen Consultants, on the Egyptian Privatization project with responsibilities including public company valuations and IPO preparation. She has recently co-founded Axellerus Consultants, which provides tailor-made solutions, anchored in deep global experience, with a mission to enable sustainable high performance in a connected world. Nihal is also an Advisory Board member at the College of Business Administration, American University in the Emirates and a Senior Consultant with Human Network International (HNI).

An Egyptian National, her schooling included many years in Paris, France before returning to Egypt for a Bachelors’ degree of Business Administration, followed by an MBA both from the American University in Cairo. She has recently completed a Doctorate degree from the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands where she has developed and tested a model explaining the potential Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

She is married with two lovely boys. An active Rotarian, she is passionate about women development, water conservation and education. Her areas of research interest include competitive strategy, growth in VUCA environments, and the impact of the digital transformation on Marketing.