Algebra Ventures

Algebra Ventures is Egypt's largest early-stage tech venture capital firm, founded in 2016 in Cairo by Tarek Assaad, Karim Hussein, and Ziad Mokhtar. The founding team brought a track record that already included backing Fawry, the first venture-backed company to IPO in Egypt and become a unicorn, through their earlier work at Ideavelopers. They launched Algebra's Fund I at the Pyramids of Giza with $54M, invested it across 21 companies, and followed up with a $100M Fund II in 2022, bringing total AUM to approximately $154M. Fund II's LP base includes the IFC, EBRD, BII (British International Investment), FMO, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, and several regional family offices.

The crown jewel of the portfolio is MNT-Halan, Egypt's first fintech unicorn, which raised a $400M round in 2023 (comprising $260M in equity and $140M in securitized bonds). Algebra was an early investor and the company now serves millions of unbanked and underbanked Egyptians with lending, payments, and e-commerce. Beyond MNT-Halan, the portfolio spans 35+ companies that have collectively attracted more than $825M in investment, and Algebra has recorded multiple exits including Eventtus (acquired by Bevy), POSRocket (acquired by Foodics), FilKhedma (acquired by SweepSouth), and Orcas (acquired by Baims).

Fund II marks a deliberate shift from Egypt-only to Africa-focused. Algebra has made investments in Morocco (YoLa Fresh, DeepEcho), Nigeria (BFREE, their first Nigerian deal), and portfolio company enza operates across Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa. They organized the Atlas-Nile Forum in Marrakech to build cross-border VC collaboration, and they describe the "Egypt-Nigeria corridor" as a strategic priority. The firm has been recognized as SuperReturn's North African Fund Manager of the Year and was named to Forbes Middle East's MENA MIDAS list of Top Venture Capitalists for 2024.

Founding Partner (now CEO of oliv.finance): Ziad Mokhtar — LinkedIn | @ziad