Noor Sweid

Noor Sweid is the founder and managing partner of Global Ventures, a UAE-based venture capital firm focused on Series A investments with a presence in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. Previously, Sweid served as chief investment officer at the Dubai Future Foundation and was a founding partner at Leap Ventures. She led the initial public offering for Depa, becoming the first woman to operate, scale, and take a company public in the MENA region, with a listing valued at $1.1 billion. During her tenure, Sweid expanded Depa's operations from six to 22 countries, including four cross-border acquisitions.

Sweid also founded ZenYoga, the largest chain of yoga and pilates studios in the Middle East, which was later acquired by Cedarbridge. Under her leadership, Global Ventures manages $300 million in assets under management and is recognized as a top decile fund. The firm has completed 60 investments and five exits across 10 markets, focusing on sectors such as fintech, digital health, edtech, and agritech. Portfolio companies have generated more than 11,000 jobs, advanced financial inclusion for over 64 million people, and expanded healthcare access to more than 6.8 million patients.

In addition to her operational and investment roles, Sweid serves as an independent board director of Clue, a leading femtech company in Europe. She is the founding chairwoman of the Middle East Venture Capital Association and a director of the Global Private Capital Association, TechWadi, and the Karman Fellowship. Sweid is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders. She has been recognized by Forbes as one of the "World's Top 50 Women in Tech" and by Arabian Business as one of the "Most Influential Arabs." Sweid holds bachelor's degrees in finance and economics from Boston College and an MBA from MIT Sloan.