Iliad Partners is a Venture Capital fund manager based in the UAE that invests in early-stage technology companies in the MENA region. As former entrepreneurs and operators with global and regional experience in business development, investments, and growth strategy execution, we take an active, hands-on approach. We help founders build the disruptive companies of tomorrow in their journey to grow their businesses, expand into new regional markets, and scale across the MENA region and beyond.

 

We invest in B2B technology startups that drive digitization and innovation in MENA's economy and support the digital transformation of large corporates via localized solutions. From a geographic perspective, we primarily focus on Saudi Arabia and the UAE and invest in startups raising Pre-Series A and Series A stage capital with an objective to drive growth and regional expansion in the region and beyond.  From a sectoral perspective, we invest in key verticals including primarily in fintech, proptech, and logistics. 

 

We focus on highly scalable, post-revenue companies with strong founders that have already achieved product-market fit and are now looking to grow their business in their home market and expand cross-border into new markets in the GCC, such as Saudia Arabia and UAE, and beyond, particularly into Europe. We partner with startup founders and actively work with them and their teams side by side on their journey from the Pre-Series A stage to the Series A stage and onwards, to grow their business.

 

We also selectively invest in innovative European startups, with a focus on Greece, that are seeking MENA market entry, based on disruptive technologies they have developed that can fill critical innovation gaps in MENA, particularly the UAE and KSA. Our scope includes startups that can benefit from entering the MENA region and have concrete plans to enter the region or have already done so.

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As a core part of our DNA, we work closely with our active LP base of leading family groups in the GCC, to help support our startups post-investment with revenue generation, business development, strategic partnerships, and new market entry. In parallel, we enable the collaboration between the family groups and our startups, facilitating the digitization of their traditional businesses. 

 

We leverage our operating experience, active, hands-on approach, and regional network to actively support our startups – with business development with key clients and strategic partnerships, market access and regional expansion into new GCC markets, identifying and attracting the right talent, building and developing their Governance and Finance function, and actively supporting fund-raising for large subsequent equity and venture debt financing rounds, while following-on over multiple rounds ourselves.

 

Iliad Partners works with experienced founders and strong teams that are fully committed and well-positioned to execute local solutions that are a strong fit for the region. As former founders and tech entrepreneurs ourselves, we deeply value our relationships with founders and work hard to help them succeed as our partners on their epic journey of entrepreneurship.