Innovation and Venture capital
Aldar Properties
Total years of experience :14 years, 7 Months
Investments:
• Led the deployment of USD 80M over the course of 18 months into VC firms in Europe, North America and APAC
• Design and fully implemented a venture development process, policies, governance and alignment of stakeholders to support the transition of Aldar from a holding company to a venture capital fund
• Facilitate the screening of international fund managers by developing a robust assessment process that is followed at a group level
• Prepare investment memos and present findings to the group Investment Committee for approval
• Collaborate with external legal counsel to review all legal documents to ensure legal due diligence is conducted & achieved
• Develop an “informed perspective” of assigned sectors, including managing and building brand and relationships with: VC firms, startup accelerators, founders and other members of the VC eco-system
• Managed and closed 3 co-investments opportunities
Innovation:
• Provide critical insight into leading project feasibility assessments, business plan development, and organization set up for start-ups to determine & provide investment capital for companies, build businesses & promote revenue generation
• Develop and implement pilot strategies by creating a strong business development plan to enable informed decisions to:
o Determine bottlenecks and how to demonstrate effective optimization
o Upskill and promote an innovation agenda across the organization
o Identify potential partnerships to create opportunities and execute innovative ideas
o Adjust the cost-center to effectively become a revenue generator
• Initiate pilots with various stakeholders to screen, score and connect start-ups to Business Units to launch and execute
• Implement KPIs at the start of the pilot, monitor & revisit at the end to determine whether the goals & targets set were achieved
• Oversee the signing of MOU and partnerships with different eco-system partners to increase scope and reach
Achievements:
→ Successfully piloted 24 local and international start-ups across various business units within the group
→ Achieved an overall portfolio MOIC of 1.8x
→ Utilized extensive knowledge to conduct internal surveys to assess how innovation has infiltrated employees, increasing the score from 40% to 60% & successfully upskilled employees by providing training and certification courses to benefit both
→ Successfully established the department using processes from within the company policies & procedures to align with stakeholders, finance and legal departments which resulted in gaining approval from the Executive Director and GCFO
• Led the process of screening, evaluating and selecting startups for the Early Childhood Education Authority in Abu Dhabi. Achieved program objective by disrupting and positively impacting Abu Dhabi’s education sector, where we attracted fast growing international startups with Artificial Intelligence technology and innovative solutions to set up in UAE.
• Built a program for the Abu Dhabi Youth Challenge to attract university students to participate in a boot camp on innovation within technology, and provided them with enabling business tools for innovation.
• Set detailed KPIs at the start of each program delivered. Advised and monitored each startup on a weekly basis to ensure they are on track to achieve their KPIs.
• Assisted startups by connecting them with a variety of stakeholders in the ecosystem:
o Introductions to government entities (ADEK, DOH, DCD) for pilots.
o Connected startups with sector agnostic Venture Capitalists to raise funding.
o Crafted partnerships within private sector with startups to localize their product.
• Provided mentorship to nine startups across various sectors on behalf of Grameenphone (Bangladesh Telco company). The program duration was five months.
• Responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, and recommending startups for investment. Presented merits and key risks to the Investment Committee.
Simply Inc is an On Demand logistics servicing the B2B and B2C sector
• Successfully raised two rounds of investment
• Analyzed product metrics and utilized data-driven approach to assess product health and
improvement opportunities
• Collaborated with company stakeholders to assemble and drive a strategic product
roadmap. Prioritized product features, enhancements, bugs and made trade-off decisions
• Conducted A/B testing, user stories and feedback collection thru calls, surveys and reviews
to maximize product efficiency, features, design and UX
• Managed entire life cycle, starting with strategic planning and translated all roadmaps into
manageable product backlog
• Utilized customer data and in-depth market research to initiate development of new
products/services and optimal customer experience
• Launched strategic partnerships that boosted our growth with more than 30 high-value
partners including Goodwill, The Canadian Diabetes Association, and Foodora
• In February 2019, Simply Inc. was sold to a strategic investor as a fully operational online
delivery platform and logistics business
Worked on several deals, including buy-side M&A, debt and equity financings; prepared valuation analyses, merger, LBO models and client presentations
• Brainstormed with upper management on the strategic direction and investments to be deployed in North America
• Supported business development and negotiations by developing energy project proposals
• Developed forecasting tools for Ontario power markets using quantitative analysis and
financial engineering
MBA from Schulich Business School with a concentration on Strategy