Priya is Market Lead for India and MENA in SVB’s international market development team, Global Gateway. She provides market entry advice and insights on cross-border engagement focused on constituents in the innovation ecosystem – founders and investors.

Andy Tsao is a Managing Director and leads SVB’s Global Gateway, which assists innovation companies in the emerging markets with their US and international market expansion. He brings more than 20 years of experience banking dynamic companies in technology industries worldwide. 

Philip Bahoshy is the Founder and CEO of MAGNiTT, an online MENA Startup ecosystem that connects Entrepreneurs with Investors, Mentors and Co-Founders. Raised in the UK with Iraqi origins, Philip obtained an MBA from INSEAD in 2013 and a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. During his time in Dubai, Philip worked at Oliver Wyman in the Financial Services practice for three years, followed by nearly three years at Barclays Wealth working as Chief of Staff to the CEO advising on strategic initiatives. Philip has lived in the UAE for more than seven years and is passionate about developing the MENA startup ecosystem.

Bedy Yang is a Managing Partner at 500 Startups. She oversees 500’s ecosystem development programs including investor education courses (in partnership with top institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley and INSEAD), has helped launch strategic partnerships and accelerator programs across the globe, and leads 500’s corporate startup innovation and consultancy.

Bedy joined 500 Startups in 2011 to pilot international investments before expanding her role to Managing Partner and ecosystems development.

Mindshift Capital is a global venture fund investing in post-seed early-stage companies in the Middle East, US and Europe. Mindshift identifies companies with scalable technology, exceptional leadership and high growth potential. We seek to generate superior returns and diversification for our investors by investing in the top women-led companies globally. We focus on fintech, food/agtech, edtech and healthtech.

Sarah is a Partner at Nuwa Capital, a venture capital fund investing in technology companies across the region. She previously worked at Wamda Capital and has led and managed deals of over 20 companies across different funding stages and geographies. She worked on developing the fund theses alongside the Partners and worked on due diligence, financial modeling and research across the entire portfolio.

Sarah has directly led the Eyewa, Crowdanalyzer, Ziwo, and Nana Direct deals and worked on the Mumzworld, Careem, Modanisa and Twiga deals. During her time at Wamda, Sarah also ran the second cohort of Wamda X, a grant-based fellowship program supporting early stage founders building new companies across various technology sectors.

Sharif El-Badawi is a founding Managing Partner of Plus Venture Capital (+VC), the leading seed stage investment firm in the Middle East and North Africa region, where he invests across sectors from seed to growth within the region and diaspora.

Previously, he co-founded and managed the first US-based venture capital firm with a dedicated fund for the MENA region and was the most active venture capital investor in the region during its investment period from 2017-2020. In his role, he manages the 500 Startups MENA fund, 500 Falcons, which invested in over 180 startups across 15 countries.

Suneel is a Founding Partner of VentureSouq. Previously, he was Senior Legal Counsel to Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), a large sovereign wealth fund based in the UAE, advising on global M&A, investment fund (VC, PE and hedge funds) and capital markets transactions. Prior to this, Suneel practiced in the Corporate group of Allen & Overy's Abu Dhabi office and at Blake, Cassels & Graydon in Toronto in the firm's Corporate Finance & Securities group. Suneel obtained a JD (with a concentration in business law) from the University of British Columbia, an MSc from the London School of Economics and a B.A. (Honours) from McMaster University (summa cum laude).

As Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Hub71, Nader Museitif focuses on building strong alliances with tech enablers across different sectors to enrich Hub71’s global ecosystem for startups. Nader’s experience spans across multiple regions - Europe, Middle East and Africa, leading strategic growth activities for companies including Uber and Aramex.