Algebra Ventures

Algebra Ventures is Egypt's largest indigenous venture capital firm, founded in 2016 when it closed its inaugural $54 million fund, by Managing Partners Tarek Assaad and Karim Hussein, alongside General Partners Laila Hassan and Omar Khashaba. Hussein holds a PhD in Information Systems from MIT and previously co-founded Cairo Angels, Egypt's first angel investor network, in 2013, after a career leading product and engineering at WebMD. Assaad is a Stanford GSB graduate who spent time working in the Bay Area before returning to Egypt to build the venture ecosystem. In 2022, Algebra closed its second fund at $100 million, making it the largest indigenous VC fund in North Africa, bringing total assets under management to approximately $154 million across both vehicles. The firm invests at seed through Series B stages, writing checks of $500,000 to $5 million, with an Egypt-first mandate that includes selective opportunistic allocations to East and West Africa, MENA, and Israel. The team maintains an in-house talent acquisition function that assists portfolio companies in recruiting C-level executives, a distinctive form of operational support that reflects the founders' deep conviction that access to management talent is as scarce as capital in Egypt's ecosystem. Beyond its original investments in Swvl, Paymob, Brimore, and Halan, the firm's broader portfolio includes Sylndr, Yodawy, Sarwa, Sakneen, Taager, and Khazna, spanning mobility, payments, used vehicles, digital health, and fintech.