OUR HISTORY

Our story from seed to tree

The seed

In 2011, Aly El Shalakany and Hossam Allam founded the Cairo Angels, which was Egypt and Africa’s first angel investment network. The idea was simple - to bring together a group of mission driven investors to invest and support founders to build technology businesses right here in our region in order to have a positive impact on our societies

The sprout

It was tough going at first and there were plenty of naysayers. There were too few of us trying to do too much.

But, like we encourage our founders to do, we kept going and slowly, but surely, things started to come together. One investment followed another, inspiring a few more entrepreneurs to take a risk and bring something new into the world.

The seedling

Once you have a few wins under your belt, belief can be quite infectious. As the number of our investments grew, so did the number of founders building exciting new startups, which brought more and more investors to our community. Before we knew it, the perception of startups and investing in startups was changing all around us and a virtuous cycle began to take hold.

The sapling

As we started making returns for our investors, we started to think to ourselves - what more can we be doing? How can we have more impact? Programs. Check. Partnerships. Check. Events. Check. Launch of our first fund. Check.

The tree

Today, we look back at the last decade and think to ourselves - that was fun, where did the time go? But ten years is nothing in the life of a tree; we’re just getting started. We have places to go and people to see. We are the Acasia tree.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

First believers

We love to be the first folks outside of friends and family (and fools!) to back exceptional founders to build enduring companies.

Founder-focused

The founders are at the heart of everything we do. We want to be partners for life in this exciting journey, through thick and thin, come what may. We’re in it for the long haul.

Collaboration

It takes a village to raise a child. We’re happy to pay it forward, because we’re all in this together. That’s what ecosystem building is all about.

Impact-driven

Financial returns are important, but in the end, it’s all about whether we can have a positive impact on our societies and our world. That’s what drives us. That’s why we get out of bed in the morning.

For Us By Us

We believe that, given the possibility, we have the talent to build enduring technology firms right here in our part of the world.

Sustaining

Growth

We commit to long-term, hands-on support in all aspects of a startup to facilitate personal and business development.

Est. 2011