Between booms and recessions, entrepreneurs always find a way to forge on, celebrating gains wherever they may be, learning from failures, and striving for growth. Real entrepreneurs know that there are no shortcuts to resilience and sustainability. But is it the same with investors?
“Start slowly and take your time to learn and formulate an investment strategy. It will include several factors… Being surrounded by like-minded investors will be a big plus to accelerate and facilitate the journey. This is my first advice to aspiring angel investors and that is how I established my own Boutique Investment Concept.” — Tarek Roushdy
In a world where financial instability has become the norm, investors like Tarek Roushdy play a vital role in pushing forward economic development. At macro and micro levels, he addresses challenges and looks into solutions from both the entrepreneur’s and the investor’s perspectives, to pinpoint opportunities and create lasting value.
Tarek Roushdy is the Founder & CEO of UI Investments—an Egypt-based boutique investment house, specializing in investment, mentorship, and advisory. With a symbiotic approach rooted in diligence and strategic thinking, this renowned investor has built a diverse portfolio that includes, so far, over 30 investments and 5 exits, in technology, social enterprises, and hybrid SMEs.
At UI Investments, Tarek, alongside his team and circle of investors, identifies impact-driven startups and SMEs and empowers them with investment strategies tailored to each investee’s nature and needs.
Entrepreneur at the core, investing in the future
We sat down with Tarek Roushdy, who took us back to his early beginnings, how his journey in investment started, and how he currently sees the dynamics across the Egyptian startup ecosystem. While breaking down the distinctive aspects of the UI Boutique Investment Concept, the down-to-earth expert also shares his key advice for business founders to take away while navigating the current economic complexities.
From a distinguished engineer to a seasoned investor, how did this transition happen, and what was the motive that took you to invest in the Egyptian ecosystem?
I am an engineer with a long career in the Oil & Gas Sector. After around 20 years in corporate, I took the leap of faith, followed my passion, and started my journey in the SME world in 2005 to establish, grow, and exit two regional oil field service companies in 2017 and 2020 respectively.
Back in 2015, while in Montreal, Canada, I was introduced to the world of Angel Investment by joining the “Anges Quebec” angel group. Five years later, I became fully active in Egypt, as a way to pay back and support its new generation, making the world a better place. Then in 2021, I established UI investments to become the vehicle of my investments in the region.
In August 2024, Egypt witnessed its entrepreneurs secure the highest funding in the region. Yet, many of the most prominent and successful Egyptian startups still seek to migrate and relocate to more advanced economies. How can we create a more welcoming environment for investments in our ecosystem?
The past two years have been challenging in the global, regional, and local economic scenes. However, some positive signals are being seen across various national fronts, such as increased awareness of the need for regulatory and legal reforms, the introduction of sector-specific programs for founders, and growing interest in Egyptian talent – but I believe a more structured and coordinated effort under clear leadership is needed to create proper conditions for business founders to find access to funding and achieve meaningful improvements on the ground.
In our network, we meet entrepreneurs who have been bootstrapping for years. How do you see that? Do you think they should continue to bootstrap despite the economic fluctuations or should they actively start to seek funding? If so, what strategies can they apply to increase their chances of securing investment?
This needs to be carefully examined on a case-by-case basis. For instance, tech startups should avoid reaching the ‘zombie’ status. They can either manage to get their funds within the given window or apply the ‘fail fast’ concept, quickly testing and pivoting -if needed- their ideas and abandoning them if they are not working. For those who can bootstrap according to a clear strategy and plan of experimentation to succeed in their journeys. This would be the ideal, otherwise a smart balance will be needed between raising funds and the challenges on the ground to ensure having their journeys on the right track.
And what are the key skills in your opinion that business founders need to address and develop to be able to sustain their business in Egypt or similar economies?
Managing a business in challenging uncertainties is an advanced skill on its own. Not only do you need the basic business acumen skills, but you have to have the ability to navigate between the macro level and micro level of execution of your strategy, pivoting and adapting as needed. Young, inexperienced founders cannot yet master these skills on their own. This is where the role of mentors and advisors comes in.
At UI Investments, you are on the lookout for startups, SMEs, as well as like-minded investors to join your investment boutique model. How did you develop its concept? And what are the specific criteria and factors you consider when evaluating potential ‘UI Journey Riders’ from startups or SMEs to join and access investment?
After 4 years of an informative learning process, I came to what I call the “Boutique Investment Concept,” which is built on customization at its core. First, you have to design your own investment vision and strategy according to certain factors, such as financial returns, social impact, time & personal involvement. Accordingly, investments are categorized into three modules: Believer, Supporter, and Rider. Depending on the investor’s background, level of commitment, and risk appetite, the module is decided. Of course, the decision correlates to the investee segment: Hybrid SME, Tech Hybrid Camel Startup, Tech Unicorn Startup, and Social Enterprise.
For each investment opportunity, I adopt a structured format that covers the same fundamental matrix of the team, business opportunity, market, stage, domain, etc. to make the final decision. My Boutique Investment Concept is a practical tool that identifies the right module and links it to the right strategy that can be measured during implementation.
It is the beauty of customization and connecting the dots.
To what extent do you consider social impact when evaluating startups and SMEs for potential investment?
When I started the journey, I was satisfied with the embedded impact every startup brings, and supporting the founders was enough for me. As my journey evolved, I learned more about social impact and the need to measure it through defined modules. So, I got more attached to social enterprises and thought our world needs more of them, hence, social impact took more weight to represent up to 50% of my decision-making.
Recently, I joined forces with the “Impact Investing Initiative”. It is a vibrant initiative that brings together passionate stakeholders, investors, and experts in the realms of social entrepreneurship and impact investing, with a shared goal of fortifying Egypt’s impact investment ecosystem. Through it, we offer a customized channel for impact-driven founders to access funding, fostering a culture of “measured impact” in the ecosystem as a way to enforce adding sustainable, social, and environmental value.
I applied my same concept of customization in designing the Angels Garden, a process that smartly matches investors with their targeted investees, in partnership with the Impact Investing Initiative Team. The pilot of Angels Garden took place last September with a distinguished success, where $280K was pledged for three presented startups.
What are the sectors you see the most attractive for investment in Egypt? And why?
In general, my vote will go for the futuristic startups that include all segments of Deep Tech, including biotech, cleantech, AI & machine learning, Robotics, IP-based technologies, etc. We have a pool of talent in Egypt in these areas. Once it gets the proper supporting environment, it will flourish bringing high returns in the longer term, typically in 7 to 10 years. While for the short decent returns, ranging from 3 to 5 years, Hybrid SMEs, the tech-enabled ones within the manufacturing and products-based sector, would be my preferred choice. Finally, Hybrid Tech Camel Startups in EdTech and HealthTech could be best for the medium-term investment of 5 to 7 years.
What’s your take on traditional, non-digital business models? Do you think they are still viable for investment opportunities?
I think it will be extremely difficult for this segment to get investment in their early stages. More and more, the automation evolution is changing the scene completely. Those traditional, non-digital business models need to hop on the train or become history. For now, they can still bootstrap and maybe have access to debit financing along the journey but I am not sure this will continue for long. Financing, including through equity, will be only available for those distinguished ones who can work on the transformation to show real potential for scaling up and rapid growth.
You have invested in AlProtein, one of our alumni from the Manufacturing Advancement and Development in Egypt program; would you tell us the story behind it, and why you made this decision?
It was actually a short story, the team approached me for mentorship and funding, and after a few meetings, I could tell they are a “winning team” – building a global biotech startup that addresses a major food-related problem. They were waiting for the results of certain grants and needed urgent funds to keep the momentum, so, it was a relatively straightforward decision. After two years, I can see it was the right one.
Have you invested in startups located in other regions? If so, how was your experience in this regard?
I still have investments in Canada, in addition to scattered investments in the US, France, and UAE. However, I have kept my focus on the Egyptian ecosystem for different reasons mainly impact, sentimental and of course, financial returns.
Now, after I have reached my own “Boutique Investment Concept” and implemented it in Egypt, I am looking to expand its validation in Africa, the Middle East, and maybe Canada as part of a cross-border experiment.
For Egypt, what are the key opportunities and challenges you foresee across its investment climate?
From the macro perspective, Egypt is still a big lucrative market in spite of the current challenges. It also still has a promising wide pool of talents who excel in a variety of sectors. So, a smart investment strategy in Egypt will pay off with no doubt. There are also several sincere initiatives adopted by the government to grow the ecosystem and vitalize the investment climate. More and more, the differentiation between tech startups and SMEs (traditional & hybrid) is recognized by all stakeholders for each segment to get better quality of the support and attention it needs. I see this as a good move to start with.
Saying this, the challenges are still high on the middle and micro levels, including the legal and regulatory aspects, quality programs, etc. but the most noticeable challenge Egypt has in my mind is actually being able to smartly localize the investment climate to suit its own conditions that balance between the Unicorn and Hybrid paths. Hopes are high that the government will work with the other stakeholders from investors and enablers to support more promising founders to attract more internal and external investments.
What key advice would you give your fellow investors when it comes to investment in Egypt?
My first advice for aspiring angel investors would be to start slowly and give yourself the time to learn and formulate a proper investment strategy. It will include several factors such as budgeted funds, time of deployment, targeted return, level of involvement, personal passion, social angle, and the list goes on. Being surrounded by like-minded investors will be a big plus to accelerate and facilitate the journey. I invite them to look at my own Boutique Investment Concept, which can be a good starting point. We are working on preparing the material that explains the concept including our website; meanwhile, I am available to present more data as needed.
And what would be your critical pointers for young entrepreneurs looking to attract investment?
I actually have many for entrepreneurs but my top two favorites are ‘Do your homework’ and ‘Position yourself well’. By thoroughly researching the market and understanding your unique value proposition, you’ll be well-equipped to attract the right investors and create long-term value.
As Egypt’s entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to evolve to meet global dynamics, the entrepreneur-investor relationship remains crucial at all stages. For both, it’s a key pathway to sustainable, balanced growth. In our commitment to empowering entrepreneurs, we collaborate with Tarek Roushdy, sustainable investors, experts, and mentors to open new avenues for networking and access to support resources, along with facilitating investment opportunities.
If you’d like to know more about our network’s activities in Egypt, or if you would like to partner with us, reach out to us at info@enpact.org and our team will get back to you.
