Investors that attend Techne

Lauren Maillian is the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, strategic marketing, and brand advisory company; was a Founding Partner at Gen Y Capital Partners, an early-stage venture firm focused on investments in mobile and consumer-facing technology-enabled companies, and is the author of the instant bestselling business memoir, The Path Redefined: Getting To the Top On Your Own Terms. Lauren’s passion for innovation-through-entrepreneurship and her unique ability to story-tell brought her talents as an expert onto television as the Master Marketer and co-star of the startup focused docu-series, Quit Your Day Job, on Oxygen (NBCU).

At age 19, Lauren cofounded a boutique winery that quickly became an internationally recognized award-winning wine brand, making her the youngest self-made winery owner in the country. She served as the Chief Operating Officer of the company from inception through the brand’s acquisition in 2011.

As a change agent, connector, influencer, and media spokesperson, Lauren has demonstrated her ability to create messaging that resonates with brands, millennials, and women. Lauren has worked with brands such as J.P. Morgan Chase, DeVry, Cover Girl, Bumble and Bumble, and Secret Deodorant to humanize their brands and better tell their stories to more authentically connect with the consumer. 

Her multi-dimensional expertise has catapulted Lauren into a new type of marketer who has global influence as both a brand strategist and ambassador. 

Lauren’s experience is both vast and distinctive given the roles and responsibilities she’s had ranging from entrepreneur, investor, advisor, talent, client-focused strategist, and brand marketing thought leader.

Lauren’s global market leadership leverages media, culture, strategy and technology to grow brands. Lauren is an innovative marketer, who is passionate about deeply understanding people and products to create an emotional connection through storytelling.

She is driven by the belief that there is always an impactful solution to every problem. She develops marketing initiatives with a concentration on the creation and implementation of dynamic yet strategic plans that are rooted in authenticity to build brand identity, influence and notoriety.

She is a detail-oriented strategist with a deep understanding of business operations, management, and formation across various industries. Having traveled the world to more than 40 countries, Lauren has a global perspective and a fresh forward-looking approach to content creation that is sensitive to the cultural nuances faced in global media and the highly-engaged digital consumer landscape.

Maillian has sustained and deepened her influence internationally through speaking engagements to address topics that include marketing, branding, business development, venture capital, women’s leadership, innovation, and technology. 

She has spoken at prestigious institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, Cornell University; Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Shell, Dell, Ernst, and Young (EY), Prudential, Ogilvy, Weber Shandwick, L’Oréal and Bloomberg; and at industry-leading conferences and events such as Social Media Week, ColorComm and AdWeek.

She has invested in several startups and serves on the advisory board of Digital Undivided, a social enterprise that increases the active participation of minority women in the digital space; CoSign, a technology company that allows you to monetize your social media and shareable content; LIQS, a brand of pre-mixed single-serve cocktail shots; Levo League, a career content community for Gen-Y women; and Pipeline Angels.

Lauren’s work has been featured in national media outlets including Forbes, American Express OPEN Forum, Interactive ONE, Sirius XM Radio, 1010 WIN’s, HuffPost LIVE, AOL Build, Inc. Magazine, Mashable, UPTOWN Magazine, Jet Magazine, CNBC’s Nightly Business Report, MSNBC, FOX 5, CBS New York, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Black Enterprise. In 2011 she was recognized at The White House by the Kauffman Foundation as an Empact100 Award honoree which lists the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30 and in 2013, Essence Magazine named Lauren a “Shot Caller” to watch in business. 

In 2014, the New York Urban League’s Young Professionals awarded Lauren the honor of Philanthropist of the Year for her charitable involvement and dedication to giving back, in 2015 Kia Motors and UPTOWN Magazine awarded Lauren for being Inspirationally Crafted for her leadership and fearless entrepreneurial journey and in 2015, Smart CEO Magazine named Lauren as a Smart CEO Brava Award Winner. 

In 2016, Walker’s Legacy named Lauren to their WL50Power List that honors women making strides in the business and philanthropic community.

Lauren is involved in various philanthropic organizations that affect youth, poverty, education, and the arts. She serves on the Advisory Board of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Multicultural Audience Development Initiative (MADI) Committee, as Vice-Chair of The Apollo Theater Foundation Young Patrons Steering Committee, New York Urban League’s Development Committee, is a founding member of the Young Entrepreneur Council, and a Lifetime Member of the Children’s Aid Society. Lauren has a Bachelor of Science, Magna Cum Laude, in International Trade and Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She currently resides in New York City with her two children, Jayden and Chloe.

Graduated mechanical engineering at AAST Egypt then further aerospace studies along with management courses in City University London.

Worked as a teaching assistant in engineering subjects then later as an engineer in Schlumberger.

Started two companies, one in renewable energy and other in F&B.

Have been investing for 8 years in various sectors like F&B, manufacturing, Automotive Services, Consumer services, real estate, online platform.

My passion goes for impact investing and innovation, through enabling extraordinary education to my community and utilizing all the resources.

Chief Executive Officer at Nahdet Misr Publishing House and Founder of EdVentures, Dalia Ibrahim has more than 25 years of professional experience in publishing, digital solutions, education and entrepreneurship. Graduated with honors in Business Administration (1993) from the American University in Cairo, she solidified her educational experience with a Masters of Public Administration (1999) and an Executive MBA (2014) both from the American University in Cairo. 

She started her career in 1994 as a Publishing Executive at Nahdet Misr Publishing House. It wasn’t long before she realized the importance of introducing new integrated services and solutions that further support education and learning in Egypt and the Arab world. In 1998, she established Nahdet Misr for Digital Solutions, which offers various digital educational solutions. In the same year, she established Nahdet Misr Advertising, which specializes in animation, virtual reality and augmented reality production. The company is considered the first and only company in Egypt and the Middle East to produce dome theatre movies. Dalia Ibrahim has also succeeded in establishing Nahdet Misr Periodicals in 2004, which publishes the Arabic versions of the world’s most acclaimed entertainment magazines such as; Disney and National Geographic across Egypt and the Middle East. In 2009, she contributed in establishing Nahdet Misr Trading and Distribution; which supplies and distributes all kinds of stationery, and educational supplies.

Driven by a sense of commitment to the society, Dalia volunteers to serve as a mentor or a judge to start-up projects of young entrepreneurs, which triggered her to later initiate the establishment of EdVentures in 2017. EdVentures is considered MENA’s first corporate venture capital specializing in education, culture and innovative learning solutions. 

Over the last 20+ years, Mohamed played many roles in the entrepreneurial ecosystem; he built and sold startups, mentored hundreds, judged competitions, angel invested in startups, worked for a venture capital, provided training to angel investors, incubators and accelerators and wrote a bestselling book about entrepreneurship (رائد الأعمال Inside Out).

He works as Managing Partner at his firm خضر وبزنس. Also, he produces written, video and podcast content under the same name. 

Mohamed is an Engineer who had some career shifts to software development, sales, marketing, operations, training and management. In professional education he holds an MBA degree and is finishing the DBA.

Systems Analyst turned Tech Strategy Advisor, Public Speaker and Angel Investor, Harry ‘Tomi Davies (TD) is Collaborator-in-Chief at TechnoVision, co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).  

For nearly two decades after graduating from the University of Miami TD led the implementation of innovative technology-led transformation initiatives in the Oil & Gas, Retail, Information Technology and Telecommunications industries for influential global brands Elf Aquitaine, Marks & Spencer, Ernst & Young and Sapient across Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. 

In 2000 his focus shifted to Africa where he helped create the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), led the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative in Nigeria and delivered a World Bank pilot of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) that uncovered over 20,000 ghost workers in the Nigerian Government payroll system. Leading these kinds of innovative initiatives in Africa using his goal-oriented approach to project delivery which consistently delivered effective results inspired his 2014 book “The African Project Manager”.

TD is Chairman of TextNigeria (Telecoms) and Non-Executive Director at MBO Capital (Private Equity) and Big Cabal Media (Media & Entertainment). He is a member of the Lagos State Science, Research & Innovation Council (LASRIC) and sits on the board of Laptops4Learning (L4L) Nigeria, the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) and the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). 

As a thought leader with increasing knowledge gained from nurturing entrepreneurs in a growing portfolio of tech-enabled early-stage business ventures originating from Africa, TD’s personal mission is “to help drive Africa’s development by supporting young entrepreneurs using innovation and technology to create social impact and economic value.”

TD can be reached at www.tomidavies.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as TomiDee

Peter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years.  He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures.  He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014.  He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.  

In 2011, he founded and ran Martlet: a Corporate VC, investing (currently £10M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company.  He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund.  He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities. 

With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via  The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts.  Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world.

Tamer Azer is the Egypt Partner of Shorooq Partners, a leading early-stage Venture Capital firm in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) region. 

Tamer began his career at the forefront of policy making with one of the world’s most influential business designers. He then went on and co-founded a number of startups and worked closely with several entrepreneurs for many years. He later joined Fahrenheit 212 as a Senior Innovation Consultant.

In 2016, he returned to Egypt to join A15, where he led investments and venture development. In 2019, he went on to join Sawari Ventures as Principal.

Tamer holds a bachelor’s from the University of Toronto and a Masters from the University of Oxford. 

Marcia Dawood is an investor in over 100 early stage private companies. She is a Venture Partner with Mindshift Capital and a part of the investment committee for Next Wave Impact Fund. Previously, she was the COO of Portfolia (one of her portfolio companies) as well as a managing partner at BlueTree Capital Group where she was responsible for investment strategy, diligence research and member education. She was also a member of Golden Seeds in NYC and Dallas. She currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Angel Capital Association (ACA) with a co-chair position on the membership and marketing committee. She will become Chair of the Board in July 2021. Marcia also is a founding member and current chair of the Growing Women’s Capital group building syndication and collaboration among US investment groups focused on women-led companies. She received an MBA from the Global Executive program at UNC’s Kenan Flagler’s School of Business, OneMBA. During her graduate studies, her group acquired the franchise rights to a new sports team. She served on the Board of Directors and managed financial and legal matters for the organization. This gave her experience as an entrepreneur from the start through the exit of a business. Prior to becoming an active investor she was with Kaplan Higher Education for over 16 years.

H.E. Dr. Nabeel Koshak is the CEO and a Board Member of Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC). Nabeel is the Founder and Angel Investor at Athaal (Angel Investors Group). He is the Chairman of GEN (Global Entrepreneurship Network) Saudi. Nabeel is a member of the Investment Committees of KAUST’s Innovation Fund. Formerly, he is the Founding Dean of Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business and Entrepreneurship at King Abdullah Economic City. Nabeel is the Co-Founder and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wadi Makkah Company (Startup Accelerator, and Venture Capital Fund). Nabeel is a mentor at Endeavor Saudi Arabia. He is a Board Member and the Chairman of the Investment Committee at King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Innovation (Mawhiba). Koshak is a Member of the Executive Committee of King Faisal International Prize. Formerly, he was a Board Member of Oqal (Angel Investors Group) Jeddah branch and a mentor at Flat6Labs Jeddah (Startup Accelerator).

Nabeel is the former Co-Founder and Director of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) GIS Technology Innovation Center. He is the former Co-Founder and General Supervisor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute. Nabeel is the former Co-Founder and Chairman of Board of Directors of Transportation and Crowd Management Innovation Center.

As an entrepreneur, Koshak was the Founder and CEO of five tech startups.

Nabeel received an Executive Education in "Venture Capital and Private Equity" from Harvard University in 2019, an Executive Education from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in "Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program" and "Management, Innovation, Technology" in 2017, a PhD in Design Computing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, and a Master of Architecture (Computing in Design and Planning) from the University of Colorado in 1997. 

Rafeh launched Cubit Ventures and Founder Institute Egypt, sits on Falak Startups board, is an advisor to Egypt Ventures and Loyal VC, and led one of the largest consulting firms in Egypt.

He is an experienced triple-digit track record executive, entrepreneur, and management consultant where he advised numerous companies of all sizes on growth, turnaround, and business restructuring strategies.

Born in Belgium, Francesca spent a significant part of her life living and working in emerging markets, from Argentina to Egypt passing by Colombia, Lebanon, Morocco, etc.

After working on public policy and international relations between Europe and the Middle East, Francesca decided to take a leap towards the private sector, and more specifically the entrepreneurial world. Prior to Seedstars, she launched an EdTech venture on the French market and co-founded Changemakers International, a social entrepreneurship education program in Costa Rica.

When joining Seedstars, she started working across 16 countries across the Middle East and North Africa as a VC analyst, screening hundreds of business models and giving training to early-stage startups; she now oversees Seedstars’ activities in MENA. She holds a BA from Science Po, an LL.M. from UNINETTUNO and an MSc from King’s College London.

Omar Almajdouie is the founding partner of Raed Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders building transformative companies in the MENA region. Raed’s AUM exceeds SAR 500m and backed by top investors in the region including PIF’s Jada, SVC, Mubadala, Almajdouie Holding and many more. As an investor and entrepreneur, Omar founded Raed Ventures in 2016 as part of Almajdouie Holding diversification strategy, which has funded more than 32 innovative startups to-date.

He is the former CEO of Almajdouie Manufacturing Co. and he’s currently the Vice Chairman of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, as well as a chairman and board member of several leading tech startups and companies. Omar has more than 20 years of enriched experience in various managerial and executive positions. 

Courtney is the COO of 500 Global. Courtney is tasked with helping 500 scales globally and explore new opportunities across both new and existing markets. She is responsible for driving day-to-day operations across the team to pursue 500’s mission.

Courtney is no stranger to the 500 family. She was co-founder and CEO of PublikDemand, part of Batch 4. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, recently acquired by Fidelity National Title Group.

Amal Dokhan is a seasoned professional with experience in startup investments, corporate innovation, and consulting in the MENA region. Amal is the partner at Sanabil 500 MENA fund where the focus is to invest in early stage comapnies and support them throughout the journey of thier startup life. Previous to joining 500 Startups Ms. Dokhan was the CEO of Global entrepreneurship Network Saudi and the Managing Director of Babson Global for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Previously She was the manger of learning and Design at the Entrepreneurship Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology where she Led TAQADAM accelerator and Corporate Innovation Programs. Prior to that she worked at KAUST seedfund developing marketing and events, while also providing a range of services to startups. 

Ms. Dokhan sits on the board of several organizations and startup comapnies. Amal is also active in angel investing as she initiatied the Angel investors forum in Saudi under te ministry of commerce and Monshaat were many angel investors got hands on experince on the practice, she also invests personaly as she has 13 comapnies in her personal portfolio. Amal attended many executive programs at MIT, UCBerkely, Design school and Insead.