Narmo Brings Silicon Valley to MENA

On Thursday, April 19th, 2018 Narmo Capital WLL a multi-family office advisory and financial consultant hosted a unique event “Bringing the Silicon Valley ecosystem to the MENA region” at the Capital Club in the Bahrain Financial Harbour. Narmo Capital Founder & CEO Fahad AlOmran was the official host of the event, with guest speakers from Golden Gate Ventures (Singapore) including Vinnie Lauria (Founding Partner), Paul Bragiel (Co-Partner) Justin Hall (Principal) as well as Narmo Capital’s CIO Werner Braunock. In attendance were 35 distinguished individuals from finance, entrepreneurship, heads of telecoms, senior advisors, high net worth individuals, family offices, bankers and press. The event started with an apero for the attendees to network, this was followed by two very engaging panel discussions. Topics included the history of the Singapore Venture Capital (VC) ecosystem and what lessons can be learned that can be applied to the MENA region and other hot emerging VC markets. An important lesson was government support (either direct or indirect) towards furthering startups, as well as integrating industry, universities and government into a comprehensive VC strategy. Another hot topic was the more mature Silicon Valley ecosystem and how overcrowded the field is versus the underdeveloped/more promising emerging VC markets like the MENA region. Discussed was the rise of the “unicorns” and how some locally launched startups have proven to be a match for international competitors (Careem vs. Uber) or have actually beaten their international competitors (Didi and Grab vs. Uber). During the Q&A afterwards, the topic of startups staying private for longer (versus going public via an IPO) came up and how entrepreneurs value the longer-term focus and lower reporting requirements of the VC ecosystem. The event successfully closed out with a group picture and one-on-one meetings, as well as further networking. Considering the great turnout, depth of the topics, participation/engagement of the audience and uniqueness of the event to the region, making the conference an annual event is the most likely outcome.