Our Partner
At SparkLabs Saudi Arabia, we're on a mission to catalyze Saudi Arabia's transformation into one of the world's most dynamic and innovative startup ecosystems. As a dedicated startup accelerator and early-stage venture capital firm, we're committed to fostering homegrown talent, nurturing domestic startups, and attracting innovation from across the Kingdom's borders.
At SparkLabs Saudi Arabia, we are committed to nurturing and accelerating the growth of early-stage startups.
Our flagship 4 month accelerator program is meticulously designed to provide comprehensive mentoring and support to promising seed and series A companies.
Secure an investment of $150,000 in exchange for up to 7% equity stake in your company.
Tap into our vast network of 150+ mentors spanning diverse industries and geographic regions. Expand your global reach and build valuable connections with seasoned experts.
Receive invaluable feedback and guidance on various aspects of your business, including business plans, expansion strategies, and securing follow-on funding.
Access special perks and cost-saving opportunities provided by our partner companies. Reduce expenses related to cloud services, web hosting, office space, and more.
Join a thriving community of fellow entrepreneurs who share your passion and vision. Form lasting connections and a robust support network of like-minded individuals.
Benefit from complementary office space during the 4-month program in strategic locations such as San Francisco, the U.S., or Seoul, South Korea. This facilitates a conducive environment for innovation and collaboration.
Co-founder & Managing Partner
Ivan Grlic is a serial entrepreneur and problem solver. Ivan started his first business, CMT Group Balkan, in 2005, built and then sold it in 2009. He then became a partner and regional director of Naton HR for several years before starting his second business, Primus Group, in 2014. It is now one of the fastest-growing HR agencies in Eastern Europe. While he still owns it, it is under professional management.
Sun Data World was his third business in only his third decade. The goal of the company is to tap into Ethiopia’s vast renewable resources and build Data Center infrastructure and deploy the latest cloud services that will allow the country to become one of the digital hubs in Africa and the world in the years to come. He is an active seeker of opportunities in emerging and frontier markets, especially in energy and technology.
Co-founder & Partner
Sameer Chishty is Founder and Chief Executive of Streeton Partners, a Hong Kong based investment firm co-investing and raising capital for venture capital and private equity opportunities in Greater China, Pakistan, and Africa. Streeton has successfully raised and deployed USD 1.3 billion in technology and energy ventures from early to late stage with investors from around the world. Sameer is also a Partner at SparkLabs FinTech, and coheads this effort with William Chu.
Sameer also serves as Executive Chairman of AsiaPak Investments, a Hong Kong based private investment firm focused on Pakistan. AsiaPak have invested over USD 3 billion in Pakistan logistics/transport, energy/power, and industrial / manufacturing sectors with Chinese and Korean investors. Sameer was previously Partner at Bain & Company China and McKinsey & Company New York where he advised the world’s most successful financial services companies.
While a senior executive at Merrill Lynch in New York and Standard Chartered in Asia he developed and led new businesses in financial services across consumer and small business.
Co-founder
William Chu is a Partner for SparkLabs FinTech in Hong Kong. He is a Director of Lawman Group International, an apparel company with business in Greater China and the US. In 2014, William joined Zheng He Capital, a Hong Kong based private equity firm with a focus on fintech and healthcare, where he served as Executive Director.
During this time, he spearheaded the firm’s lead investor role in the US$500MM A Round financing of Ping An Good Doctor, a Ping An Insurance subsidiary tasked with building an online health ecosystem in China.
Prior to Zheng He, William was President of Lawman Group where he ran the US and China Operations.
Partner
Bodin Scepanovic specializes in portfolio management and private equity across a range of industries. In 2021 he was appointed as youngest executive of Taj Holding Group in Saudi Arabia to lead its investment arm. He managed a USD 1.4bn portfolio across six verticals - retail, aviation, healthcare, manufacturing, IT and services. Under his leadership the portfolio tripled in size within 3 years.
In 2021 he was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Montenegro Works, a state-owned holding with USD 3.1 billion in assets under management. During his tenure the company initiated strong reforms to improve the quality of business culture within the portfolio.
Earlier in his career, he was an Associate at Dare Associates in Milan, Italy where he worked on business transformation in real estate, water sports and sheet metal manufacturing. During 2014 Bodin worked in the business intelligence unit of UniCredit bank.
Bodin earned a Masters of Science in Finance from Bocconi University in Italy. He also attended Dartmouth College, where he studied economics.
In 2022 Bodin started his first entrepreneurial journey by investing and developing a 5 star boutique hotel on the Montenegrin coast.
Co-founder
Eugene Kim is currently a Partner of SparkLabs Group and manages the day–to-day operations of the SparkLabs Korea accelerator program. Eugene previously served as a Director of Global Business Development at Tencent Korea. He was responsible for the sourcing of Korean game titles to China and Tencent’s global publishing network, headed the global sales of Tencent game titles, and he managed relationships with Tencent’s global publishing partners.
Prior to Tencent, Eugene was Director of Business Development and Marketing at Podotree, an online educational app developer in Korea. Previously, he was with Vertigo Games as the Group Manager of the Overseas Business Group.
Eugene led all overseas sales and service support, and all business development and game engine licensing activities. Eugene was a Manager and Group Head of the Quality Assurance and Localization Group for NHN USA.
Venture Partner
Chris Yeh is the co-author, along with Reid Hoffman, of Blitzscaling, the book that explains how to build worldchanging companies like Amazon, Alibaba, and Airbnb in record time.
A writer, investor, and entrepreneur, Chris has had a ringside seat in the world of startups and scaleups since 1995. His books help founders, venture capitalists, corporate leaders, policymakers, and everyday people better understand how the internet has changed the way we work together to build amazing organizations.
Hundreds of companies, from garage-dwelling startups to Fortune 50 titans have tapped his knowledge and insights to accelerate and transform their businesses.
Venture Partner
Kai Huang was co-founder and CEO of Blue Goji, an interactive fitness company that brings motivation and fun to health and fitness. Prior to Blue Goji, he co-founded video game publisher RedOctane and was President and CEO from 1999 to 2009.
RedOctane was the publisher of Guitar Hero, which went on to become a multi-billion dollar global video game franchise and was acquired by Activision in 2006. Prior to RedOctane, Mr. Huang was co-founder and CEO of Adux Software, which was sold in 1999. Mr. Huang started his career as a consultant with Accenture in the San Francisco office.
Advisor
Amr Awadallah is Co-founder and CEO at Vectara. The company is a semantic search software company that enables customers to understand exactly what their users are asking - no matter how they ask - to provide extraordinarily relevant results. Previously, Amr was Global CTO and Cofounder of Cloudera, which is helped grow until it’s IPO where it was valued at almost $2 billion.
Before co-founding Cloudera in 2008, Amr was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Accel Partners. Prior to joining Accel, he served as Vice President of Product Intelligence Engineering at Yahoo! and ran one of the very first organizations to use Hadoop for data analysis and business intelligence. Amr joined Yahoo! after they acquired his first startup, VivaSmart, in July 2000.
Amr holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Cairo University, Egypt, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Advisor
Tamim Bassam Jabr is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of investment banking experience. He is currently Executive Director for International Investments at Kingdom Holding Company.
Prior to joining KHC, he spent 16 years at Deutsche Bank in Riyadh and London most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia where he led the development of Deutsche Bank’s investment banking and wealth management business in Saudi Arabia. Tamim has also worked as a Corporate Finance Executive at Capital Trust LTD a leading private equity boutique in the UK. Tamim is a board member in Deezer as well as Five Capital.
He has held several board memberships including Deutsche Securities and Deutsche Gulf Finance. Tamim has a BA in communication from Emerson College and MA in multinational commerce from Boston University.
Advisor
Jun Yong Hyun is an Executive Vice President at LG Uplus, a leading broadband and wireless provider in South Korea with 20 million subscribers.
Jun Yong leads many of the company’s innovation initiatives and is currently Head of EV Charging Business. Prior to this recently launched company, he was Head of AI & IoT Business Development. Jun Yong serves as an Operating Advisor, Telecoms, Media and Technology and Member of Management Advisory Panel at Point Hope Pte Ltd.
He holds MBA from Columbia University and earned his BA in Russian Studies from Seoul National University.
Advisor
Hashmi brings to the table some 15 years of experience in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Prior to joining APCO, Hashmi worked for Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) where she led the Innovation Unit and worked on the strategy for Diriyah’s key cultural assets. With a passion for Entrepreneurship, and keen to serve the local community, she joined the Foundation department and led the Entrepreneurship stream focused on social and cultural development for the Diriyah community.
Earlier, she launched two startups that focused on customer feedback and enhancing customers’ experiences. She was the CEO and Managing Director of ‘Customer Arabia’, a platform geared to improve customer experiences. She also started a business image consultancy, Eclat, that trained multiple successful firms. She also worked as Consultant to train several startups in Silicon Valley to launch their products and marketing campaigns.
She returned to Saudi Arabia and was part of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s (KAUST) prestigious entrepreneurial initiative, ‘Venture Accelerator Program’ - placing among the top 6 winners of the program.
Huda Hashmi established an image consultancy at the start of her career to upskill women in the workplace and improve their communication skills and impact. She is a keen advocate of women empowerment, inclusion in the private and not-for-profit sectors, as well as of entrepreneurs and innovators in the region.
She is also chapter chair of WPO Saudi Arabia – the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), a non-profit membership organization for successful women entrepreneurs headquartered in New York City with over 141 chapters around the world. WPO Saudi Arabia is the first WPO chapter in the Middle East. She is also a board member of Johara Global, a social enterprise membership organization based in the UK that connects women from the GCC region and worldwide to provide female leaders with a trusted support network and platform to share knowledge, experiences, and tools to succeed in all aspects of life.
Hashmi also serves as an advisory board member of Saphira Group Advisory Limited based out of the UK, where her role is to proactively assist Saphira with opportunities that are relevant for the KSA market and work to find potential investors and Joint Venture partners in the Middle East.
Huda Hashmi studied Entrepreneurship at Stanford University in the US and is a certified Business Analyst from the University of California, Berkeley.
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