OD

Omar Darwazah

Managing Director & General Partner at AAF Management Ltd. | Kauffman Fellow | Wharton 40 Under 40

New York, New York

Skills

Corporate Finance
Business Strategy
Private Equity
Start-ups
Venture Capital
Financial Analysis
Financial Modeling
Management
Investments
Valuation
Strategic Planning
Entrepreneurship
Investor Relations
Leadership
Strategy
Analysis
Public Relations
Business Development
Finance
Capital Markets

Education

Work Experience

  • Managing Director & General Partner

    2017

    AAF Management Ltd. (AAF) is a leading early-stage venture capital firm focused on pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A stage technology companies in North America as well as global emerging managers. Since late 2016, we’ve invested in over 120 venture-backed portfolio companies across fintech, healthcare, consumer, enterprise software and deep tech and backed 37 emerging managers. The firm currently has $234M in assets under management. We are backed by over 120 Limited Partners (LPs) across two funds, a fund-of-funds and two SPVs. Our investors include leading multi-family offices, single family offices, royal families, c- level executives, ministers, ambassadors, fund-of-funds, foundations, hedge fund managers and other strategic investors across the US, Europe, and MENA region. We actively manage Limited Partnership (LP) allocations into early stage emerging managers globally exposing us to over 1,000 venture-backed companies. We’ve backed emerging managers who were previous venture investors at prestigious firms such as Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, NEA, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins among others. Notable companies in our extended portfolio include: Robinhood, Didi, Savage X by Fenty, StockX, Figure, Reddit, Current, Synthego, Jasper, Drata, Epic Games, FiscalNote among many others. Notable exits in our extended portfolio include: CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), TruOptik acq. by Transunion (NYSE: TRU), Even Financial acq. by MoneyLion (NASDAQ: ML), Prodigy acq. by Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST), Portfolium acq. by Instructure (NYSE: INST), now a Thoma Bravo Company, HeyDoctor acq. by GoodRx (NYSE: GDRX), Medumo acq. by Philips Healthcare (NYSE: PHG) among others.

  • Founder

    2017

  • Kauffman Fellow | Class 25

    2020

    The Kauffman Fellowship is a top innovation and leadership organization for senior venture capital leaders, who are thoughtfully vetted and selected to complete a holistic, rigorous two-year program. The extraordinarily active global network is a lifelong resource for 882 Fellows, who represent 765 VC firms and institutional LPs, more than $355B AUM, and at least $8.5T in exits. The Kauffman Fellows community reflects society and values diversity of person and experience; Fellows support innovation in 58 countries and are 9x more diverse than the VC industry at large.

  • Managing Partner

    2017

    Darwazah Capital is the private investing arm of Omar Darwazah. The investment firm's assets span equities, real estate, venture capital LP positions, early and growth stage technology company investments.

2016

  • Investor

    2016

    Andela extends engineering teams with world-class software developers. We recruit the most talented developers on the African continent, shape them into technical leaders, and place them as full-time distributed team members with companies that range from Microsoft and IBM to dozens of high-growth startups. Backed by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV (Google Ventures) and Spark Capital, Andela is building the next generation of global technology leaders.

2020

  • Investor

    2020

    Pioneering commission free investment in Egypt. Thndr, is designed to make investing easy and accessible to everyone.

  • Investor

    2016

    FiscalNote is on a mission to build the world’s most powerful platform for analyzing government risk and opportunity. For organizations facing government impact, FiscalNote is the platform for professionals to plan and execute their organization’s government risk strategy. Organizations rely on FiscalNote because of its accurate and relevant information, cutting-edge analytics, and ease of use. FiscalNote has over $18 million in funding, including $7 million from Chinese social networking platform Renren, and has grown to some 100 employees.

  • Investor

    2022

    FlashBox is a reliable and affordable Same-Day Delivery solution for businesses. No matter your business’s size or industry, FlashBox will ensure the safe and quick delivery of your parcels across the GTA. Our proprietary software developed in-house creates a user-friendly delivery experience. Manage all your deliveries from one intuitive dashboard. You can track your parcels in real-time, customize the experience for your customers, and see proof of delivery for every drop. Our mission is to build the world’s most reliable, affordable and environmentally-friendly last-mile delivery solution for businesses

  • Investor

    2021

    Unlocking financial services for unbanked gig-workers and micro-businesses, starting with Egypt.

2022

  • Investor

    2022

    Cartona is Egypt's fastest-growing B2B E-commerce marketplace. Bringing the marketplace online, Cartona connects buyers and sellers across the supply chain. These ties grant merchants efficient and profitable growth, so we can all grow equally.

2021

  • Investor

    2021

    Oraan is Pakistan's first women-led, women-first fintech, creating alternative financial solutions to empower the underserved. Oraan was founded on a deep understanding of how Pakistanis, especially women, interact with money. We are using a human-centric philosophy to craft solutions that are socially and and religiously accepted in order to ease access to financial services.