• UAE-based venture capital firm Iliad Partners has announced the launch and first close of its $50 million Iliad Partners Tech Ventures Fund I, backed by Jada Fund of Funds (a PIF company), the Olayan Family, and Masarrah Investment Company.
• The fund will target early-stage B2B tech startups in the MENA region, with a primary focus on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and verticals including fintech, logistics and proptech. 
• The fund debuts with investments in regional startups OTO, Penny, and Qashio.
• Founded in 2016 by Christos Mastoras, Iliad Partners is a VC firm based that invests in early-stage tech startups with a focus on the MENA region.

Press release:

UAE-based venture capital firm Iliad Partners has announced the launch and first close of its $50 million Iliad Partners Tech Ventures Fund I. 

The Iliad Fund will invest in early-stage B2B software startups driving digitisation and innovation in target verticals including fintech, logistics, and proptech at the Pre-Series A and Series A stages in MENA, with a primary focus on Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It will also allocate 10% of the fund to Europe, with a focus on Greece, to support startups expanding into MENA.

The fund is backed by prominent regional and global investors, including the Jada Fund of Funds (a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia), the Olayan Family, Masarrah Investment Company, MLM Investments, the Constantakopoulos Family of Greece, and other major family groups and family offices in the GCC and Europe. 

The Iliad Fund launches with an initial set of investments in OTO (a Saudi shipping gateway and logistics platform for e-commerce stores and retailers), Penny (a Saudi cloud-based SaaS source-to-pay procurement solution for enterprises), and Qashio (a UAE fintech platform with a comprehensive spend management solution for corporates).

Iliad Partners was founded by Christos Mastoras, a former tech entrepreneur with four exits and ex-Yahoo Maktoob executive and Booz & Co. management consultant based in the UAE since 2007, and Omar Al-Madhi, a Saudi investment executive—two MIT Sloan classmates, later joined by Sultan K. Olayan as a partner in the GP. Iliad Partners was an early contributor to the development of the MENA ecosystem and an early investor in MENA success story Trukker.

Based in Abu Dhabi in ADGM, a leading international financial centre, Iliad Partners is a strategic partner of Hub71 with a long presence in the UAE. Combined with its network in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest market, and global reach, the firm is well-positioned to support startups to scale regionally while serving as a gateway between MENA and global markets.

Iliad Partners supports founders via an active, hands-on approach with business development, partnerships with its LP base, Saudi market entry, and regional expansion, while helping develop their governance and finance functions. The Iliad Partners team, which includes Georges Boueiz, Dalal AlMutlaq, and Pier Armando Vender, has a track record of investing, building and exiting companies in MENA as experienced investors, entrepreneurs, and operators.

“The launch of our new fund marks a significant milestone in the journey of Iliad Partners. We have believed in the promising future of the regional startup ecosystem since its inception. The region is currently undergoing unprecedented transformation and growth driven by technology and innovation, establishing it as a global hub of entrepreneurship. We are excited to partner with founders to build together great companies and the next generation of MENA success stories,” said Christos Mastoras, Founder & Managing Partner of Iliad Partners.