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Startup Grind MENA is closing International Women's Month with a celebration of women who are shattering ceilings globally.. MENA meets Silicon Valley for a special discussion about the joys and challenges of women entrepreneurship with The Community Fund's Lolita Taub and Calanthia Mei, Dubai-based tech entrepreneur Cristina Najer and a male allocator's perspective from Licorne Holdings' Alexandre Katrangi.
Lolita Taub is interim Head of Sales at Catalyte and the Co-Founder and General Partner at The Community Fund where she invests in community-driven companies. With 15 years working within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she has accomplished +$50 million in sales and made +70 investments as an angel investor and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund. Lolita is also a Co-Founder of the Startup-Investor Matching Tool, a scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and an LP at Operators Collective. Forbes and Inc Magazine have featured her as a woman promoting investment in underestimated founders. She has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the IE Business School. Most importantly, she is a dog mom to the cutest Dachshund mix, Choco.
Alexandre Katrangi
Licorne Investment & Advisory Holding
Alexandra Katrangi is an expert in Geopolitics, Geostrategies, Economics, Marketing, Business Opportunities &Investments analysis & macro analysis in the Middle East & Africa. Current Advisor & Board Member of Prime Saudi Royal Highness for 17 years ¤t Strategic Advisor of a Forbes Fortune Family of UAE/Africa. Founder of Licorne Holdings a USA/GCC Investment firm based in Houston an dthe Kingdom of Bahrain. Founder & Partner of Cryptoxygen – a JV with French 120 years Iconic Thomson Computing in Tallinn dedicated to Blockchain/Fintech. Founder and Partner of the International Advisory firm Velt Advisory based in the USA, California advising large US conglomerates in Defense, Energy and new technologies for their international developments and operations. Former Delegate of French Political party UMP in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He provides independent advice to client base comprising blue chip financial institutions and private investors, large conglomerates or market intelligence companies as well as politicians and diplomats. Core business flows from advising on all aspects of market entry through to the investment process itself as well as basic geopolitics, geostrategies and environmental advice. Fundamental interest in emerging and frontier markets and mainly with the Saudi Arabian market focus on all its market aspects such as oil & gas, oil prices, military and defensesector, industrial sector, rail sector, energy conventional/thermal electricity and IPP sectorand nuclear sector, royal family succession and internal visions.Over the past 23 years, Alexandre has interacted and operated with companies such asVitol, Halliburton, EDF, Denel, Mocoh Switzerland, Socar, Bashneft, Sistema,Norinco, Geodis, Ukroboronprom, Natixis, Blackstone, Thomson and many otherinternational companies and conglomerates.He is a past Associate of the Ambassador Omar Zeidan considered as the doyen ofMiddle East and Arabian Peninsula dealmaker since 30 years.Core Competencies:Macro level due diligence and analysisCountry and specific sector, projects, company and business relations studiesIdentification of opportunities and assessment on the actors and network intelligence.Intelligence & advisory services on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Cristina Najera
.Cristina Najera is an innate entrepreneur passionate about digital transformation and focused on digital marketing online businesses. During college, she was the president of the entrepreneurship club and the international students' coordinator, where she developed an intense curiosity about how to create a global brand. Her creativity and proactivity were the perfect combination to start her business before she finished her bachelor's degree. Once she graduated, she expanded her business to Los Angeles, California, where she opened a physical and onlinestore. Last year, she came to Dubai to take abusiness course and fell in love with thefuturistic city and decided to move. She just launched her new brand "NAJER",with the slogan: "Tech is your bf", where women can find the latest updates on digital transformation and tech products .She strives to transmit how technology canhelp to save time and money. She is excitedabout the next projects coming up. Her global vision allows her to go for her next goal: to impact one billion people worldwide. She is extremely excited about what is coming. The key to her success is to be focused on help or add value to others. She loves technology because it can make everything possible not only where she lives but worldwide.
Calanthia Mei
The Community Fund
Calanthia Mei is an Investment Partner at the Community Fund, where she invests in early-stage, community-driven FinTech and Commerce enablement companies. She also leads partnerships at Fast, a Stripe-backed startup bringing 1-click, passwordless checkout to the entire Internet. Calanthia was previously a FinTech venture capital investor at PayPal Ventures, where she joined as a founding team member. Calanthia is very passionate about empowering the next generation of women founders and funders. She sits on the board of SoGal Foundation, the largest global platform for the education and empowerment of the next generation of diverse funders and founders with presence in 40+ communities around the globe.