Omar Rifai is the Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer for GrubTech, a fast growing F&B SaaS and Fintech startup based in UAE powering clients across 17 markets. Omar was a seed investor and board member at Ikcon, a leading cloud kitchen business sold to Reef Technologies in 2021. At Grubtech, Omar focuses the organization on strategic growth, capital efficiency and unit economics in addition to leading the company’s fundraising efforts. He guides the organization with a focus on customer centricity and quantifiable value creation.Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Omar spent 16 years in private equity and special situations investing in Dubai and New York. As a Managing Director with Gulf Capital, he oversaw over $400 million in AUM of growth capital investments across Emerging Markets. He also spent more than a decade at Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) where he played an integral role in building their MENA business, including investing over $600 million in growth capital in portfolio companies such as souq.com, which was sold to Amazon. He has served as a director on numerous boards of companies across MENA and Turkey including Ikcon (sold to Reef Technologies), souq.com (sold to Amazon), Ison Technologies, Turknet, Waternet and Fine Hygienic Holdings.