Dear Columbia & Stanford Alumni,

We are delighted to invite you to April event: From Silicon Valley to the Sand: Startup & VC Trends

Partnered with the DIFC, the Columbia Alumni Association UAE and the Stanford Alumni Club UAE invite you to an exclusive evening exploring the global venture capital and startup landscape.

This joint alumni gathering will feature a panel discussion with leading investors, including partners from Alumni Ventures, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Pantera Capital, and Emirates NBD, alongside local entrepreneurs and rising startups. The conversation will dive into cross-border investment trends, emerging markets, and the UAE’s growing role as a hub for innovation and capital.

Format: Panel Discussion (Investors Panel, moderated by Entrepreneur) 
Date: Tuesday, April 29th
Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Panel Discussion Starts at 7:15PM)
Venue: Fintech Hive @DIFC Innovation Hub
Dress Code: Business Casual

We look forward to seeing you there!
Cheers,
Columbia & Stanford Alumni Associations UAE

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Speakers:

• Ludwig Pierre Schulze (Columbia Alum), Managing Partner at Alumni Ventures, one of the most active venture capital firms in the U.S., leveraging a unique alumni network model to back early-stage innovation across sectors.

• Rabih Khoury (Columbia Alum), Managing Partner at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), a leading MENA-based VC firm with over $300M in assets under management, focused on high-growth digital businesses in the region.

• Cosmo Jiang (Harvard Alum), General Partner at Pantera Capital, a premier institutional asset manager in blockchain, managing over $4B across venture, liquid tokens, and early-stage Web3 investments.

• Neeraj Makin (Columbia Alum), heads Strategy, Analytics & Venture Capital at Emirates NBD, one of the largest banking groups in the Middle East.

Moderator:

• I.Q. Sayed (Stanford Alum), Co-Founder of JoinUBQT, an AI-driven social platform to help you connect - and reconnect - in real life. Previously led Tech at Careem and Pure Harvest. Ex Facebook and VMware.