Sawari Ventures is one of the pioneering venture capital firms of the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in 2010 and based in Cairo, it invests in knowledge and innovation-based technologies across North Africa, with a mission to empower regional entrepreneurs to build solutions that drive their economies for decades to come.

Thesis and structure

Sawari runs a dual fund structure: the Netherlands-incorporated North Africa Fund I and the Egypt-incorporated Egypt Fund I. The structure deliberately combines international capital from development finance institutions with domestic capital from Egyptian stakeholders — pairing international expertise with local knowledge and roots. To date the firm has invested in 19 early and growth-stage companies in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, across fintech, edtech, healthtech, deeptech, logistics and e-commerce, with a small allocation reserved for seed-stage funding. Through its investments in Flat6Labs — the MENA region's leading startup accelerator, co-founded by the same team — Sawari also feeds the region's early-stage pipeline. Typical tickets range from $250K to $4M, with investments at seed, Series A and Series B stages.

Fund size

In April 2021 Sawari announced a EGP1bn (about $63.8m) Egypt-focused fund. New commitments of $28m came from the Misr Insurance Group, National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, Suez Canal Bank and Ekuity (Kuwait Investment Authority), on top of $41m previously closed from the European Investment Bank, CDC (UK), Proparco and the Dutch Good Growth Fund. The fund is privately held and regulated by Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority. Total assets under management are not publicly disclosed.

Partners

Sawari was founded by Ahmed El Alfi, its Founder and Chairman — an early-stage investor since 1990 who also founded Flat6Labs, Nafham and The GrEEK Campus in Cairo. The firm is run alongside Hany Al-Sonbaty, Managing Partner, and Wael Amin.

Notable portfolio

Sawari's portfolio includes some of the region's breakout names: Swvl (the Egyptian mobility company that went public via SPAC), Instabug and Si-Ware. The firm keeps its portfolio deliberately concentrated, maintaining a high partner-to-company ratio so each company gets genuine attention.

Why it matters for founders

For founders in Egypt, Tunisia or Morocco building knowledge-driven companies — especially in fintech, healthtech, edtech or deeptech — Sawari is the region's most institutionally connected fund: DFI-backed capital, local regulatory fluency, and a direct line into Flat6Labs' accelerator pipeline. If you want patient capital that understands both Cairo boardrooms and European development banks, start here.