Issa Aghabi

Access Bridge Ventures Founder & Managing Director

Issa's career has focused on finance and investments since 2004 with a focus on Venture Capital.

He started his career in investment banking and transitioned into the MENA Venture Capital space in 2006 as a founding member of Accelerator Technologies, one of the first venture funds in the Arab world. He has since occupied numerous roles that include M&A consultant at Yahoo!, Head of Investment at N2V - MENA's first Venture Builder and Head of Investments and Venture Capital at twofour54.

Prior to establishing Access Bridge Ventures, Issa headed IFC’s Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Europe’s venture investments both from a Direct and Indirect (accelerators and fund of fund) perspective.

Ahead of launching Access Bridge Ventures, his track record includes, having invested in 65+ direct and indirect investment (Funds) deals (from $100K to $25M per transaction), managed over $150m in MENA Venture funds, launched the UAE’s first Accelerator, exited 6+ MENA based deals (e.g. Jawaker, Intaj, Mumzworld, Souq, Vezeeta, etc.), supported with 2 IPOs and much more.

Issa now the founder and managing partner of Access Bridge Ventures,  an early stage MEPAP focused Venture Fund with over 21 investments to date and growing 

Issa holds an MBA with a focus on Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance from Cass Business School (City University of London) and a bachelor degree in Commerce from Concordia University.