176: Beyond the Silk Roads: Middle Eastern Venture Investing - With Noor Sweid, Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures

Today we welcome one of the Middle East’s most successful angel investors and venture capitalists, listed in 'FORBES 100 Most Powerful Business Women 2025'.

Noor Sweid explains her journey, from early career in management consultancy and relocating to Dubai, followed by growing and listing a business on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai in 2008 (Depa), through to establishing her VC business, Global Ventures, in 2018.

She sets the scene for the investing dynamics of MENA (Middle East North Africa), where the domestic market comprises 450 million people, half of whom are below 30 years old.

Noor explains both the geographic and industry opportunities, why she established Global Ventures, and the priorities in their investment process.

From fintech, agritech, consumer goods and solving the most pressing medical challenges, she details their approach, selection criteria, and the characteristics they look for. 

She explains how they prioritise, how much they become involved in their investee companies, what they look for in “winning entrepreneurs” and why they believe their success rate can be higher than typical industry norms.

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The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, IFM Investors, World Gold Council and LSEG.

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