• Neat Burger

  Participated · Series B · May 2023

  Neat Burger develops ethical, sustainable plant-based restaurant food centered on a patty made from mung beans, quinoa and chickpeas. The company emphasizes health and sustainability and sells its product through company restaurants and a growing B2B vertical. It has formed partnerships with hospitality groups and businesses to help them achieve net zero ambitions. Neat Burger has expanded internationally, opening a New York City location and launching its first franchise in Dubai in October 2022, with further restaurant openings planned in Italy and the Middle East. The company plans to use new funding to support a US expansion with rollouts planned in major cities. Neat Burger was co-founded by Tommaso Chiabra and Zack Bishti.

• MNT-Halan

  Led · Equity · Feb 2023

  Founded in 2018 by Mounir Nakhla, MNT-Halan is a fintech and non-bank financial services platform that provides digital lending, payments, e-wallets, investments, and e-commerce services. The company operates across Egypt, Türkiye, Pakistan, and the UAE. MNT-Halan has disbursed more than $15.5 billion in loans and served over 8 million customers globally. It has achieved unicorn status with a reported valuation of $1.4 billion following the recent strategic investment. The proceeds from the current investment are intended to support expansion in Egypt and to fund regional growth. The company continues to grow its footprint through additional funding rounds, with the current round still ongoing after this first closing.

• Huspy

  Participated · Series A · Jun 2022

  Huspy provides end-to-end digital tools that connect buyers, freelance agents, and banks to streamline property search, CRM, transaction support, and mortgage pre-approvals. It operates a network-based model (rather than owning inventory) where freelance agents access leads from marketplaces like Property Finder and Idealista while Huspy supplies CRM, transaction support, and integrated mortgage products through banking partnerships. The company says it captured 30% of the UAE mortgage market (25% in Dubai), has helped over 25,000 people buy homes, and facilitates over $7 billion in transactions. Revenue comes from commissions and success fees from agents and banks, and Huspy reports revenue growth of more than 10x since 2022 and claims over 20x year-on-year growth in Spain. It already operates in six Spanish cities and says it is one of the top three real estate companies in Valencia by transaction volume. Huspy plans continued expansion across Europe and the Middle East, including a launch in Saudi Arabia and a goal to operate in over 10 cities by the end of 2025. Huspy is a proptech company building a one-stop ‘super app’ that connects property search, purchase, financing and ancillary services (furnishing, maintenance, property management). Headquartered in Dubai with offices in Madrid and Abu Dhabi, Huspy places real estate agents at the center of transactions and has launched a ‘super app for agents’ in Madrid. It also operates in the Spanish mortgage market through two brands: Bayteca for residents and Mortgage Direct for non-residents. Huspy opened its first European “Agent Hub” in Madrid and has plans to expand to additional Spanish cities as part of a broader European rollout. Since its creation three and a half years ago, the company has facilitated more than €5.5 billion in housing transactions and helped over 13,500 people purchase properties. The firm aims to double its activity in Europe and become the largest home‑buying company in Europe and the Middle East. Huspy offers a suite of digital solutions for buyers, property agents, and mortgage brokers, including a home finance product that scrapes banks weekly to provide mortgage quotes and loan locks in minutes. It also operates a property marketplace that lists verified properties (integrated via agency CRMs), lets users book visits, and completes transactions on customers' behalf. The company claims to process $2 billion in annualized GMV, is growing revenue 25% month-on-month, closes transactions three times faster than other platforms, and reports a conversion rate north of 90%. Huspy monetizes by charging banks 1% per mortgage transaction and charging real estate agencies 2–3% for closed transactions. Founded in 2020 by Jad Antoun and Khalid Ashmawy and operating across Dubai and Madrid, Huspy acquired Dubai-based Home Matters in January to ramp up growth. The company says it is the market leader in the UAE and plans to double down on growth in the UAE and Spain, expand into other parts of Europe, and invest in technology and product development.

• InstaDeep

  Participated · Series B · Jan 2022

  InstaDeep develops reinforcement-learning and advanced machine learning platforms to solve complex optimization problems for enterprises, from container routing to train scheduling and drug design. The company is headquartered in London with offices in Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Dubai and Cape Town and was founded in 2014. InstaDeep has over 170 employees, more than 130 of whom work in AI research, engineering, ML and DevOps, with roughly half the team based in African offices. Its product work includes a moonshot railway-scheduling project with Deutsche Bahn and an early warning system that detected high-risk SARS-CoV-2 variants ahead of WHO designations. InstaDeep has collaborated closely with BioNTech, Google (including DeepMind and Google Research) and others on applied AI projects. With the new funding the company plans to accelerate product launches across biotech, logistics, transportation and electronics, advance its computing infrastructure, expand into the U.S. and hire more talent. InstaDeep builds an AI-based enterprise decision-making platform that leverages deep reinforcement learning, machine learning, and predictive analytics to optimize decisions and improve ROI across manufacturing, logistics, mobility, and energy. The company says its platform can tackle challenging optimisation and automation problems in dynamic, complex environments and is already providing measurable value to clients. InstaDeep was founded in Tunisia in 2014 and is now London-based; it was one of the first African-founded AI firms to publish original research at NeurIPS in 2018. The startup has seen steady growth and has developed the platform through its own cutting-edge research. With its latest funding and a strategic partnership with AfricInvest, InstaDeep aims to expand advanced AI opportunities and talent development in Africa and beyond. Management highlights plans to democratise machine learning in Africa and leverage AfricInvest’s operational expertise to accelerate R&D and talent programs.

• Ori Biotech

  Participated · Series B · Jan 2022

  Ori Biotech provides a proprietary, full‑stack manufacturing system designed to close, automate, digitize and standardize CGT manufacturing. The platform is intended to enable therapy developers, contract manufacturers and academic researchers to move from pre‑clinical process discovery through clinical trials to commercial scale. The company plans to use its latest financing to expand key personnel across all functions and to support its transition through pre‑commercialization to platform launch. Ori is launching the Lightspeed Early Access Program (LEAP) to give select partners pre‑launch access in 2022. Founded in 2015, the company is led by CEO Jason C. Foster and has executive hires from established industry players. Financially, Ori secured over USD 100m in its Series B to fund these commercialization and expansion efforts. Ori Biotech is a London, UK and New Jersey-based cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing company. The company has developed a proprietary, flexible manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardizes manufacturing to support CGT developers. Its platform aims to enable developers to move products from pre-clinical process development to commercial-scale manufacturing. Ori intends to use new funding to bring its manufacturing platform to market. The company highlights a seasoned board and executive team with extensive pharmaceutical, cell therapy and venture-building experience. Leadership and advisors named in the article include CEO Jason C. Foster, Co-Founder and CSO Dr. Farlan Veraitch, CBO Jason Jones, Tom Heathman, and expert advisors Bruce Levine, Annalisa Jenkins and Anthony Davies. Ori Biotech Ltd is a London- and Philadelphia-based cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing company. The company has developed a proprietary, flexible manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardizes CGT manufacturing. Its platform is intended to help therapeutics developers move products from pre-clinical process development to commercial-scale manufacturing. Ori plans to use the raised funds to bring the manufacturing platform to market. The company was founded in 2015 by Dr. Farlan Veraitch and Prof. Chris Mason and is led by newly appointed CEO Jason C. Foster. It closed a $9.4M (£7M) seed funding round in 2020.

No current team members are available.