- June 5, 2023
EPISODE #
#54 Zuhair & Rawan on building Zest Equity
About this episode
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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guest profile
Zuhair Shamma & Rawan Baddour
About the co-founders:
Zuhair Shamma
Zuhair has over 10 years of experience in investment banking (M&A) and private equity with c.US$16 billion worth of transaction exposure across multiple sectors, most recently co-running a US$200 million tourism focused fund in the United Arab Emirates. A few names include UBS, Delta Partners, Dubai Holding and Certares.
Previously launched a food delivery business (backed by Rocket Internet) in the United Arab Emirates.
Zuhair is also an active angel investor and IC member at Clara Ventures, a micro-VC that invests in MENA based startups.
Rawan Baddour
Rawan has over 10 years of experience in management, strategy, monitoring and control phases of organizational restructuring and change management, as well as both commercial and investment banking (M&A, advisory & asset management).
Previously led the Dubai based investment banking subsidiary of Capital Bank of Jordan. She managed both the local team and cross-border functions, oversaw compliance / AML, governance, risk management and other control functions – including licensing and regulatory matters.
Rawan is an active investor in public and private markets.