Shorooq Partners

Founding partners Mahmoud Adi and Shane Shin co-lead the firm. The investment committee draws on partners with domain-specific authority — Nathan Kwon oversees all credit decisions, Dr. Bilal Baloch leads AI and value creation, and Yousef Albabtain manages Saudi investments from Riyadh. Adi’s background as a Mubadala dealmaker and Shin’s institutional investing history at Lazard and Alpine shape a decision process that aims to blend sovereign-level diligence with venture pace.

Shorooq is a multi-asset alternative investment manager, not a pure-play VC. It runs venture capital, growth equity, private credit, and thematic AI strategies under the same FSRA-regulated platform. The credit arm, Nahda Fund, was the Middle East’s first tech-focused venture debt fund, and the firm’s 2025 AI fund with Presight further extends its remit beyond early-stage equity.

Shorooq manages commingled institutional capital. Its limited-partner base includes multiple sovereign wealth funds and Asian corporates — the firm’s website notes that key SWFs in MENA and Asia treat Shorooq as their preferred alternative investment manager. This differentiates it from the many single-family offices operating in the Gulf venture market.

The firm has not published a formal exclusion list. Its disclosed portfolio and stated strategy concentrate on technology-enabled businesses in fintech, enterprise software, logistics, agritech, and AI. There is no public evidence of Shorooq investing in heavy industry, traditional real estate, or hydrocarbons — alignments consistent with its tech-focused mandate but not stated as explicit prohibitions.

Shorooq maintains investment offices in Riyadh, Cairo, and Seoul in addition to its Abu Dhabi headquarters. The Korean office, led by Kyle Yoon, functions as a cross-border bridge, connecting Korean startups to MENA markets and sourcing investments from Korea’s deep tech ecosystem. The Cairo office provides on-the-ground coverage for Egyptian and North African deal flow, while the Riyadh team focuses on Saudi Arabia’s rapidly maturing venture market.

Announced in April 2025, the Presight-Shorooq Fund I is a $100 million global AI innovation fund co-anchored by Presight, the Abu Dhabi-listed AI and big data analytics company. The fund targets AI-native startups working on infrastructure, agentic AI, and enterprise applications. It represents Shorooq’s first dedicated sector fund and signals the firm’s ambition to channel Gulf institutional capital into AI innovation globally.

There is no publicly disclosed philanthropic foundation or donor-advised structure connected to Shorooq. The firm operates as a for-profit FSRA-regulated fund manager. Any personal philanthropic activities of the principals are not documented in available public sources.