Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA

The coming-of-age stories of emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems outside of the US and Europe, like China, India and Brazil, are well documented. However, whilst having the largest young digital population on the planet, the rise of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has taken place largely unnoticed.

With a Foreword by Reid Hoffman, Coming of Age is the story of the region's entrepreneurial growth in the last 25 years that spans industries as diverse as fintech, healthtech and agritech all of which have emerged out of the desert since the new millennium to produce global-leading transformative ventures, and leapfrogging technologies.

Featuring interviews with 35 founders from the region, Coming of Age charts the MENA region's remarkable entrepreneurial journey to the point where it is set to challenge the global order and fully realize its potential to provide for the youngest population in the world.

Noor is the Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm based in the UAE, investing across the Middle East and Africa (currently deploying from Fund III). Prior to launching Global Ventures in 2018, Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation. Before her tenure at DFF, she successfully scaled two companies. The first was Depa, initially her family business and ultimately the world's largest interior company, which she listed on the LSE and NASDAQ in April 2008 in a billion-dollar IPO. The second company was ZenYoga, the region's first yoga studio, which became the largest yoga and wellness chain, and which she exited to a PE firm in 2014.Noor is frequently featured as an authoritative voice on venture capital in the region by Bloomberg, CNN, and Forbes. She has appeared on the covers of Entrepreneur ME and Womenpreneur ME and has been cited by Forbes as one of the "World's Top 50 Women in Tech" and "The Middle East's Top Venture Capitalists." She has also been recognized by Arabian Business as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Arab Women" and is a judge on Shark Tank Dubai. She is an MIT Sloan 2005 alumni, Aspen Fellow, Kauffman Fellow and YGL. Noor is the author of the book, Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA, and is a strong advocate for founders in the region, helping them scale their businesses into global success stories.