Speaker Profile

Omar Darwazah

Founder and General Partner
Arab Angel Fund

Omar has over 12 years of international experience in corporate finance, corporate communications, management consulting, strategy, investor relations and venture capital. He spent 10 years of his career with OCI N.V. in Cairo and New York focusing on investor relations, strategy and corporate finance where he worked on over $35 billion worth of corporate transactions. Previously, Omar was with Deloitte Tax LLP in Chicago and Deutsche Bank’s Leveraged Finance team in London.

At present, Omar is a Founder and General Partner at Arab Angel Fund, a $25M early stage venture fund focused on Seed and Series A technology investments in North America. Arab Angel Fund is backed by 65 prominent High Net Worth Individuals and family offices from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Since 2013, Omar has led investments in over 65 technology startups globally spanning a variety of different sectors. These startups have been backed by over 200 different global venture firms including tier 1 Silicon Valley VCs as well as notable incubators and accelerators.

Omar also founded and successfully exited his own startup, Premier Foods SAE, which managed two gourmet fast food brands in Egypt. Omar previously advised Hikma Pharmaceuticals’ corporate venture arm Hikma Ventures on its digital healthcare investments. Omar is also an angel investor in various startups including Andela, BlockStack, BitOasis, FiscalNote and Quarrio Corp. Omar also sits on the Board of various companies and associations including Gold Cleats Inc. and the Middle East Investor Relations Association (MEIRA).

Omar holds a BA in Economics and Political Science with Honors from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

ABANA