Asher Siddiqui
Fund Board & IC Member
Asher Siddiqui is a tech investor with 20+ years of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, corporate development, mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Asher serves as an advisor to several global VC and PE funds including Race Capital (early-stage enterprise deep tech VC fund led by Alfred Chuang - founder & CEO of BEA Systems), Merus Capital (top quartile enterprise deep tech VC fund led by former Google and Microsoft corporate development executives), Sukna Ventures (regional MENA VC fund) and the Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG is a listed asset management firm with investments in MENA, Europe and US, including a significant stake in 500 Startups).
Asher was previously part of the global leadership team (Partner & member of the Investment Committee) at 500 Startups (most active early-stage VC in the world with a portfolio of 2000+ startups and 10+ unicorns), dividing time between San Francisco and the Middle East.
Prior to 500 Startups, Asher was Group Vice President and Global Head of M&A and Venture Capital at Etisalat Group, where he led and closed deals valued at ~$8bn. During his time at Etisalat, he was also a member of the Investment Committee of Mobily Ventures (while seconded as Head of Corporate Development at Mobily). He was also a founding Board Member at iMENA Group and the Chairman of the Investment Committee.
Prior to Etisalat, Asher was part of the initial founding team that led the development of CNBC Africa, a leading pan-African business news channel based in South Africa (2005/06) and previously advised and managed the development of a $26m venture investment vehicle for The Center for Applied Research & Training (CERT) in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the MIT Entrepreneurship Centre (2004/05).
Asher is also working with the Stanford Center for Sustainable Development & Global Competitiveness on conducting research on innovation ecosystems and corporate innovation, a guest lecturer on the Stanford University Idea to Market (I2M) program, and an active mentor & coach to several startups in Silicon Valley, Europe and the Middle East.
He holds a B.A. (Honors) in Business Administration and an M.Sc. in Software Development.
