Muse Capital co-founders Assia Grazioli-Venier and Rachel Springate
“There is incidentally no shortage of women entrepreneurs, as Al Masah Capital estimated in 2016 that women-led SMEs in the Gulf are worth $385 billion.” investors. Within two weeks of us investing, we had raised them just under $2 million from leading funds in the US, and supercharged their business development outreach to generate revenue more aggressively. This led to further investments by Disney, for example, who have now taken them into their accelerator program.” This autumn, Grazioli-Venier will attend the 19th Global Women In Leadership Economic Forum in Dubai, where she will be delivering a key-
note address. With respect to the UAE’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Grazioli-Venier notes quite gladly that the number of angels, incubators and accelerators here are all on the rise. “I am thrilled to see that some of the most prominent angel networks are centered on women, such as WOMENA that unites high net worth women to make joint investments, and the Women’s Angel Investment Network (WAIN) that brings together female investors to support women entrepre-
“You invest in 100, hoping for one big win, but you can only do that when the 100 you have invested in are well-managed, great ideas led by truly talented entrepreneurs.” neurs. There is incidentally no shortage of women entrepreneurs, as Al Masah Capital estimated in 2016 that women-led SMEs in the Gulf are worth $385 billion. There is still a deficit of venture capitalists in the region, and those that have been there have not historically made any significant plays. But this is slowly changing.” Dubai, by itself, is turning into a real startup hub, she adds. “Until recently, the UAE has been leagues behind the Valley, or even cities like New York, DC, and London. It has struggled to get there because, while historically the wealth was there, the talent was not. After all, the Zuckerbergs of the region knew they were likelier to succeed if they relocated to an already established hub like San Francisco. But this has been changing significantly over the last 1.5 years. The government is pumping funds into Dubai’s free zones and mini cities– Internet City is a good example. Also, whereas money used to immediately leave Dubai to Europe, for example, investors are now staying put. After Brexit and the potential breakdown of the Eurozone, people are playing it safe and doubling down at home. So, over the last two years, we’ve seen a sudden jump in activity in the UAE, with Dubai finally becoming a major hub. It is now a cool, hip, and savvy environment, encouraging and attracting talent as well as funds. Talent is now not just cropping up, but staying.” In her opinion, the UAE, as
a burgeoning ecosystem that is not yet ripe and matured, needs young, experienced strategic investors, who work alongside institutional investors, with a global vision and a local approach. The reasons are plenty- Careem, Fetchr, Bayzat, Souqalmal, and Laundrybox are just a few examples of UAE-based startups that can go global, she adds. From her personal perspective, she reveals that the Muse Capital team plans to raise capital for one of their funds to invest in a wellbalanced array of innovative startups both in the US and the UAE over the next five years. So, what is their take on the next big disruption? Rachel Springate, co-founder at Muse Capital, says that it will come from artificial intelligence. “First, there was the internet/web, then mobile, but now the future is voice and using AI-enabled voice assistants,” she says. “We will be controlling all aspects of our daily life with our voice, from summoning a car, to navigation to controlling our homes to ordering groceries, and so on. The earliest iterations like Siri and Alexa/Google Home are just the beginning.” Meanwhile, the fund’s associate Zach White thinks that emerging innovations in the financial service industries will be the largest technologically-driven disruptive force across the globe in the next decade. “With the proliferation of data-intensive platformbased services offering a wider range of products, the average retail investor will >>>
august 2017 Entrepreneur
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