The Moghamra Podcast · Ep 5 · 5 Aug 2023
The History & Future of MENA Venture
ماضي ومستقبل الاستثمار الجريء في المنطقة
Khaled Talhouni — Managing Partner, Nuwa Capital · Dubai, UAE
Key takeaways
Careem changed the regional narrative
An early bet on Careem and its landmark exit proved a region-defining outcome was possible — reshaping how global capital views MENA founders.
Realign the founder-capital relationship
Nuwa was built on a more founder-first model, reflecting a market whose entrepreneurs are more experienced and deserve more aligned terms than the first generation got.
The late stage is still the gap
Khaled points to later-stage capital and reliable exit paths as the parts of the MENA venture stack that remain underdeveloped relative to early-stage funding.
The ecosystem compounds
Each successful company seeds the next generation of founders, angels and operators — the regional flywheel that turns isolated wins into a durable startup economy.
About this episode
Few investors have watched the MENA startup ecosystem grow up as closely as Khaled Talhouni. Before founding Nuwa Capital, he was Managing Partner at Wamda Capital, one of the region's pioneering venture firms, and an early backer of Careem — the ride-hailing company whose $3.1B acquisition by Uber became the region's defining startup outcome.
Nuwa Capital is built around a different idea of the founder-capital relationship: a more aligned, founder-first investment platform for a region whose companies have outgrown the early, scrappy phase. Khaled walks through how MENA venture matured from a handful of believers into a real asset class — and where he thinks it still falls short.
The conversation ranges across what the Careem outcome unlocked for the region, why later-stage capital and exits remain the hardest part of the puzzle, and what the next decade of company-building in the Arab world could look like if the ecosystem keeps compounding.
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