Meet-up 07: The Social, Moral and Economic Case For More Women in KSA’s VCPE Sector

Athary AlMubarak

Director of Strategy & Communications at Jada Fund of Funds

Moderated byAthary Almubarak, Director of Strategy at Jada Fund of Funds, the panel included LateefaAlwaalan, Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi and Founder of Yatooq who discussed ways in which female entrepreneurship can be galvanized in the Kingdom to generate in-country value and ramp-up a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, Loulwa Bakr, Senior Partner at Chrome, Advisory Partner at Global Ventures who examined ways to increase the number of female-owned SMEs receiving funding from VCs, and Reem Alsweilem, Managing Director, Blue Palm Capital Partners who offered insights into the process required to get more women involved on the investor, decision-making and lending side of the market.

Loulwa Bakr

Senior Partner at Chrome Advisory, Partner at Global Ventures

Loulwa Bakr, Senior Partner at Chrome, Advisory Partner at Global Venturesdescribed how an enabling set of legislative and regulatory structures have fostered greater female representation in Saudi in recent years. “Women have made huge strides here in KSA recently–there's so much going on to support their entry into [the sector],” she explained.“There's been a revision of the labor law that has come to their favor, whether it is encouraging more companies, publicly traded companies to have women on their boards–this has played a very important role in the advancement of women in VCPE.”

Lateefa Alwaalan

Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi, Founder at Yatooq

Lateefa Alwaalan, Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi and Founder of Yatooqexplainedthat, to achieve greater female gender balance across the VCPE sector, a holistic approach to integrating more women into the sector is required, starting from encouraging female entrepreneurship. Doing this, she said would lead to a more all-round understanding of what the VCPE sector in Saudi is trying to achieve with on-the-ground experience. “Before jumping into a VCPE role, women should build their experience, “work for a startup, learn to scale-up –or even start at the corporatelevel before deciding to build your business,” she said. “Because building a business is “by nature verydifficult regardless of whether you’re a man or woman -I want to see more women in the networks, I want to see more women gaining the experience on the different levels, not purely funding companies, but even at the earlier stages.”

Reem Alsweilem

Managing Director of Blue Palm Capital Partners

Reem Alsweilem, Managing Director, Blue Palm Capital Partners,saidthat while Saudi’s higher education offering around venture capital and private equity is helpful in developing a strong knowledge base, it’s the transition from education to professional VCPE careers that needs attention. “Universities can help women access professional networks and [make them] more visible to recruiters in the venture capital and private equity circles. That's what I think we need more than programs or certificates or diplomas.”

Number of Funds Invested

Committed Capital (SAR Billion)

Virtual

English

In this meetup took a look at how Saudi is encouraging more women to enter the VCPE sector, and how it will lead to a more innovative, entrepreneurial mindset as well as a more diversified and accessible economy.

Panelists

Athary AlMubarak

Director of Strategy & Communications at Jada Fund of Funds

Loulwa Bakr

Senior Partner at Chrome Advisory, Partner at Global Ventures

Lateefa Alwaalan

Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi, Founder at Yatooq

Reem Alsweilem

Managing Director of Blue Palm Capital Partners

Want to watch the full meet-up?

Number of Funds Invested

Committed Capital (SAR Billion)

Meet-up 07: The Social, Moral and Economic Case For More Women in KSA’s VCPE Sector

Virtual

English

​​​​​​​​​​​In this meetup took a look at how Saudi is encouraging more women to enter the VCPE sector, and how it will lead to a more innovative, entrepreneurial mindset as well as a more diversified and accessible economy.​

Panelists

Athary AlMubarak

​​Director of Strategy & Communications at Jada Fund of Funds​​​​

Athary AlMubarak

Athary AlMubarak

Loulwa Bakr

​​​​​Senior Partner at Chrome Advisory, Partner at Global Ventures​

Loulwa Bakr

Loulwa Bakr

Lateefa Alwaalan

​​​Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi, Founder at Yatooq​

Lateefa Alwaalan

Lateefa Alwaalan

Reem Alsweilem

​​Managing Director of Blue Palm Capital Partners​

Reem Alsweilem

Reem Alsweilem

Want to watch the full meet-up?

Reporting a Violation

In this meetup took a look at how Saudi is encouraging more women to enter the VCPE sector, and how it will lead to a more innovative, entrepreneurial mindset as well as a more diversified and accessible economy.

Director of Strategy & Communications at Jada Fund of Funds

Senior Partner at Chrome Advisory, Partner at Global Ventures

Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi, Founder at Yatooq

Managing Director of Blue Palm Capital Partners