
On/Off The Record Noor Sweid
A Conversation With Noor Sweid
May 15, 2025 7:30 PM
May 2025
@
TBC
Price: AED
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ABOUT THIS EVENT
Join us for an intimate On/Off the Record session with Noor Sweid, Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures and one of the region’s most influential voices in venture capital. From scaling billion-dollar companies to backing the next generation of startups across MENA and Africa, Noor brings a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, investment, and ecosystem building.

Noor is the Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm based in the UAE, investing across the Middle East and Africa (currently deploying from Fund III). Prior to launching Global Ventures in 2018, Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation. Before her tenure at DFF, she successfully scaled two companies. The first was Depa, initially her family business and ultimately the world's largest interior company, which she listed on the LSE and NASDAQ in April 2008 in a billion-dollar IPO. The second company was ZenYoga, the region’s first yoga studio, which became the largest yoga and wellness chain, and which she exited to a PE firm in 2014. Noor is frequently featured as an authoritative voice on venture capital in the region by Bloomberg, CNN, and Forbes. She has appeared on the covers of Entrepreneur ME and Womenpreneur ME and has been cited by Forbes as one of the "World's Top 50 Women in Tech" and “The Middle East’s Top Venture Capitalists.” She has also been recognized by Arabian Business as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Arab Women" and is a judge on Shark Tank Dubai. She is an MIT Sloan 2005 alumni, Aspen Fellow, Kauffman Fellow and YGL. Noor is the author of the book, ‘Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA’, and is a strong advocate for founders in the region, helping them scale their businesses into global success stories.

Based in Dubai, Zubair Timol brings a sophisticated and global perspective cultivated through an international career spanning multiple markets inclusive of Singapore, Amsterdam, and Cape Town. His diverse background encompasses tech, law, communications, and the realm of luxury. Notably, Zubair played a key role in scaling his current company from startup to unicorn status, culminating in a successful IPO. He has also achieved groundbreaking and award-winning success in taking the sport of chess to a global audience, and has received further accolades for his award-winning work championing Women In Tech on a global scale. His expertise lies in developing strategic, culturally attuned data / AI solutions for organizations ranging from emerging ventures to Fortune 500 companies, fostering high-performance teams and driving impactful change.