Zuhair Shamma and Rawan Baddour are the co-founders of Zest Equity, a platform that enables startup founders, employees and investors to sell shares they’ve earned in a secondary transaction, providing much needed liquidity and incentives. But not everyone is bought in, some investors are proponents of such liquidity events, while others remain skeptical as it may incentivize bad actors. A great discussion around syndications, secondary transactions, ESOP and the maturity of the startup ecosystem in the region. 

Why is this conversation important? Given that it takes around 7-10 years for startups within MENA to have an opportunity to exit i.e. sell the startup to another global or regional strategic player, employees and founders typically holding shares are unable to liquidate these shares to fund their day-to-day. Having an active secondaries market will provide (1) much needed transparency to the valuations of these startups, (2) a means for employees to benefit from their shares in a shorter timeframe and (3) work as an incentive to attract and retain high caliber talent.

To learn more about Zest visit: https://zestequity.com/

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