Omar Darwazah

Omar has over 17 years of international experience in corporate finance, corporate communications, management consulting, strategy, investor relations and venture capital. Upon co-founding AAF 6 years ago, Omar invested in close to 140 technology companies in the US, Europe, and MENA region across a multitude of different sectors alongside 70 blue-chip venture capital firms which manage over $1B including Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, GGV, ICONIQ, 8VC, Insight Ventures, IVP, Greycroft among others. 

His fund performance is consistently ranked in the top decile and top quartile in terms of TVPI and DPI respectively, benchmarked on Cambridge Associates’ data on over 1500 US VC Funds. AAF has grown its assets under management to over $180M during his tenure.

In addition, Omar is a Limited Partner in 30 emerging managers and is also an angel investor, through his family office Darwazah Capital LLC, in close to 30 companies including Andela, Blockstack, BitOasis, Dayra, FiscalNote, Genies, Halan, Sokowatch, Thndr and Ziina. To-date, he has early-stage exposure to 47 unicorns globally. Omar sits on the Board of Techwadi, is a mentor to the NYU Steinhardt EdTech Accelerator, a mentor at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center and a judge at the Wharton School’s Venture Lab. 

Previously, Omar spent 10 years of his career with OCI N.V. in Cairo and New York focusing on investor relations, strategy, and corporate finance where he worked on over $35B worth of corporate transactions. Prior to that, Omar was with Deloitte Tax LLP in Chicago and Deutsche Bank’s Leveraged Finance team in London.

Omar holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science with Honors from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was named as one of Wharton’s 40 under 40 in 2017, one of the Top 100 University of Chicago Alumni in Tech in 2021 and is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 25).