Growing from
strength to strength

Franklin Templeton Investments has grown from being recognized as one of the best small companies in America to being considered a premier global investment management organization. Franklin Templeton offers clients a valuable perspective shaped by their seven decades of experience, investment expertise and growing global reach.

First founded as a venture capital firm in 1999, IMM Investment has since become one of the leading multi-asset alternative investment firms in Asia with $5.4 billion of assets under management across three business segments (venture capital, growth equity, and infrastructure).

IMM Investment aims to provide multi-stage investments to innovative entrepreneurs and support them throughout different stages of growth. Our investments range from $1 million of seed capital to over $1 billion growth equity / infrastructure capital.

Metric Capital Partners is an independent private capital group that provides bespoke capital solutions to enable the ambitions of its portfolio companies. Metric Capital Partners is headquartered in London with offices in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Stockholm, and Luxembourg. Metric Capital Partners has raised in excess of €2.6bn of capital over four funds since its inception in 2012.

The Olayan Group is a multinational enterprise with an actively managed portfolio of global investments. The Group’s primary parent company is headquartered in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The Group also has international offices in New York, London, Luxembourg, Vienna, Athens, and Singapore.

The Olayan Financing Company, the Group’s parent for MENA investments and operations, is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Operating with the fundamental principle of being ‘Founders’ Partners, Company Builders and Value Investors’, Shorooq Partners was founded in 2016 and is a leading early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm in the region. The Founding Partners Mahmoud Adi and Shane Shin collectively represent 18+ years of professional investment experience in entrepreneurism, venture capital and private equity in UAE and the United States (New York and Silicon Valley).The group’s mission is to propel the corporate innovation landscape in the region while focusing on technology. Despite its relatively short history, the team boasts of a portfolio of 22 exceptionally successful investments across different sectors.

Established in 1994 as a Kuwaiti shareholding closed company, Wafra’s capital amounts to KD 15 million (USD 45 million). The company manages different types of portfolios and investment funds, with approximately KD 1.66 billion assets under management (AUM).

Wafra’s investment strategy is based on the principle of diversification with regards to sectors and geographical distribution. This includes the use of various investment tools and products which provide an efficient balance between risk boundaries and percentage of returns, for portfolios managed for medium and long-term.

Wafra is set apart by its highly-qualified personnel, experienced in the field of investment generally, and particularly in asset management. The Company is always eager to build strong relationships with its clients, based on mutual trust, honesty and transparency.

A Principal and Chairman of Equilibrium Capital, Mr. Chen leads the firm’s strategy and product development process. His primary duty is to ensure the growth of the firm and team while continuing its culture and shared values. He serves on Equilibrium’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Chen’s passion and commitment to sustainability is a result of his work in venture capital, regional economic development and climate change policy. In 2007, he saw sustainability trends that were re-shaping major commodity sectors, creating an economic value shift and an opportunity for market advantage. He formed Equilibrium to be a global leader in sustainability-driven asset management for institutional investors that delivered both sustainable alpha and intentional positive impact on our community and environment.

Mr. Chen was previously a general partner at OVP Venture Partners (2000-2007). His investments at OVP include @once (acquired by InfoUSA), Ambric, Intelligent Results (acquired by First Data), Net6 (acquired by Citrix), Tzero and UXComm.

He also served on the board of @mobile prior to its acquisition by Software.com, and on the board of HNC Software until it was merged with FICO in 2002 (NASDAQ:HNCS, now NYSE:FIC). Prior to OVP, his experience includes founding GeoTrust (acquired by VeriSign 2006) and The Ascent Group, serving as Vice President Marketing Mentor Graphics, as an associate at McKinsey & Company, and as an early team member at Solectron (1978-1985).

Dr. Dómhnal Slattery is an internationally recognized entrepreneur and investor who has built and scaled a number of successful companies in the aviation sector. During his career, Dr. Slattery helped the world take flight - facilitating the growth and creation of multiple aircraft leasing platforms where he enabled over 200 global airlines to bring air travel to millions of people. Dr. Slattery is now dedicating his time and energy to reaching a net-zero world by working with investors, founders and strategic stakeholders to identify and back companies that can bring solutions to combat the world’s greatest climate-driven challenges. In addition to his advisory role with Pure Harvest, Dr. Slattery also currently serves as Chairman of Vertical Aerospace, a NYSE-listed company (“EVTL”) that is revolutionizing urban air mobility and decarbonizing air travel.

JOSEF SCHMIDHUBER is the Deputy Director in the Trade and Markets Division of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). He started his professional career as a consultant with the World Food Council, worked as an econometrician and economist with the FAO, as a senior economist with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and as head of FAO´s Global Perspectives Studies Unit. He has assumed numerous short-term assignments with other international institutions, including The World Bank and the European Investment Bank. His work has been published in numerous books, peer-reviewed journals, or as documents of international organizations such as the OECD, the IPCC, and the FAO.

His areas of interest include commodity market analysis; innovations and technologies of agriculture 4.0; trade, nutrition and investment; climate change and its impacts on agriculture. He holds an M.Sc. degree in agricultural economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the Technical University of Munich.

The Managing Director of Private Equity at Gulf Capital until recently, Mr. Dallas joined the Firm in 2007 and is co-head of the Private Equity Division. He is responsible for and manages investment sector identification and analysis, individual transaction evaluation and deal execution at Gulf Capital.

His experience includes serving as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Oryx Capital International in Lake Forest, Illinois and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1999 to 2007, being a Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, one of the world’s largest law firms, from 1985 to 1998, managing the Gibson Dunn European and Middle Eastern offices from London from 1985 to 1989, and being active in commercial transactions and investments in the GCC from 1980 to 1998, representing governments, financial institutions and private regional companies in the GCC and abroad and foreign investors with operations in the GCC region.

Mr. Dallas received an AB degree from Stanford University, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California, where he served as a senior editor of the University of Southern California Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif and graduated first in his class.

HH Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan is a progressive, educated and entrepreneurial member of the Royal family of the United Arab Emirates. Sheikha Shamma is passionate about the sustainable development of the UAE and its people, sharing the vision established by her beloved great-grandfather and the UAE’s founding ruler, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Her particular areas of community interest are in education, culture and the empowerment of women and youth, areas in which she hopes to lead, inspire and support various initiatives.

Sancta Capital is an independent alternative investment manager focused on special situations investing in the Middle East and North Africa. The firm employs a disciplined value investing strategy that combines rigorous due diligence with on-the-ground insight to produce superior absolute returns. Our team invests across the corporate capital structure in assets that are misunderstood or overlooked by the broader investment community. This includes publicly listed debt and equity securities, loans and claims of stressed and distressed borrowers, and alternative financing solutions to companies outside the traditional bank market.

In his capacity as investor and KSA local partner for Pure Harvest, Prince Sultan supports the company in its market entry activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is also currently Advisor to the CEO of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. In this role,Prince Sultan sits on a number of SIDF committees, including the executive committee and the management credit committee. His previous experience includes working for Passport Capital LLC, a macro hedge fund in San Fransisco, McKinsey & Company, and Saudi Aramco. Prince Sultan holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Heirloom specializes in differentiated alternative investment solutions for sophisticated investors or their advisors. Helping investors to build on or round out their existing portfolios and optimize the risk-adjusted return of their portfolio, Heirloom offers niche investments that are difficult for most investors or advisors to either access or effectively diligence.

Ted Cleary is a Principal at Archer Private Investments, a New York based holding company for family investments. Mr. Cleary focuses on private market allocations across direct investments, co-investments, fund investments and GP stakes. He led Archer to being the largest equity investor in Pure Harvest’s seed round and has continued driving Archer’s participation in the subsequent equity offerings. 
Mr. Cleary has over 18 years of private market experience through principal credit investing at Barclays, middle market buyouts at SK Capital, real estate at Tungsten Partners, and institutional capital raising at Crito Capital and Asian LP focused TransPacific Group. 
 

Former Chief Operating Officer of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, Bina continues to support the company as an investor and through various board committees.

Bina is an entrepreneur and start-up angel investor with experience in Silicon Valley, New York City, Europe, and the Middle East and serves as an advisor to startup founders and accelerators interested in innovation, entrepreneurship, and high growth companies. She has had several successful exits in small businesses including a Mexican restaurant based out of New York.

She is the Co-Founder of SUMMIT – a boutique accounting and tax advisory firm that works primarily with tech start-ups and high net-worth individuals. She is a widely respected tax expert in matters related to venture capital and corporate transactions in start-ups and the venture capital sector, with an emphasis on working with cross-border founders and entrepreneurs.