Welcome to WAIN, the first investor network for women in the MENA region – set up to help build an ecosystem of women investors who support women entrepreneurs in the Arab world.
- educate and build self-confidence of women as angel investors in MENA
- support women-led start-up companies and women entrepreneurs in MENA through investing & mentoring
- improve governance by taking a Board seat with a portfolio company
- create an active network of business women in MENA
- democratise access to capital by providing investment opportunities to individuals and facilitating capital-raising for entrepreneurs
Conceived by Heather Henyon, WAIN was incorporated in 2014 and is run by three directors – Heather, Lucy Chow and Rebecca Hill. WAIN has made nine investments in eight companies. In 2019 WAIN investors seeded a new gender lens venture fund called Mindshift Capital set up by Heather and other partners with a more global outreach. Today, WAIN continues to operate but solely to manage its portfolio and, with the exception of follow-on investments in our portfolio companies, we are no longer raising funds.
Our timeline:
2014 eight angels made WAIN’s first investment in Little Thinking Minds, a Jordan based creator and producer of Arabic content for schools.
2016 we closed on three deals including a second investment in Little Thinking Minds – DayOne Response and Dharma Platform.
2017 we held our third investment round, investing in three companies – BulkWhiz, Needslist and NowMoney – bringing our total investment to almost $500,000 and 29 WAIN angel investors.
2018 we closed our fourth round investing $335,000 in three companies – Sarwa and Sisu in 2018/9 – and in…
2019 WAIN investors seeded a new gender lens fund, Mindshift Capital.
For more information please watch this video.
*If you’d like more information on angel investing look no further than Angels without Borders: Trends and Policies Shaping Angel Investment Worldwide. WAIN Founder and CEO, Heather Henyon wrote the chapter on the UAE!
WAIN 