With over 36 years of experience as an investor, entrepreneur, and global businessman, Fadi Ghandour is the founder and vice chairman of Aramex, a global logistics and shipping company based in the United Arab Emirates. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Aramex until stepping down in 2012.

Ghandour is also the founder and CEO of Wamda Capital and holds significant investments in other companies in both the public and private sectors. He was appointed as Managing Partner at Mena Venture Investments in 2011 and was a Member of the Board at the American University of Beirut and the Abraaj Group, a financial services company located in Dubai, UAE. Ghandour mainly invests in disruptors in the fields of social change and entrepreneurship.

Location

Fadi Ghandour studied at the George Washington University and graduated with a BA in Political Science in 1981. In 1994, he successfully completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, United States.

His career in entrepreneurship began in 1982 when he founded the Dubai-based logistics firm Aramex. Ghandour started in the investment sector in 2006 with the Abraaj Group, of which he is still a Member of the Board. Ghandour serves on many boards covering various sectors, such as a founding board member of Endeavor Jordan, advisory board of the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, board member of the National Microfinance Bank in Jordan, board member of Business for Social Responsibility, and Vice-Chair of the board of trustees of the Jordan River Foundation.

He began making significant private investments in selected companies around 2010. Based in the United Arab Emirates, Ghandour invests in the UAE and Asia alike. He has a keen interest in developing the Arab community, and as such has cultivated a focus on the market in the region. He is the founder of Maktoob.com, the largest Arab-centered online community in the world.

Ghandour’s firm, Wamda Capital, recently closed its first US$70 million funding round. The fund is said to cover e-commerce and technology companies in their early stages.

Wamda recently led a US$1 million seed funding round for TAP, a Netherlands-based and Palestinian-focused acceleration platform. TAP provides promising Palestinian youth with an online 16-week educational course to prepare the participants for the professional world.

Remarkable Investments

Fadi Ghandour’s most recent investments include software development company Replit and logistics company Shippify. Replit is an American start-up specializing in AI-powered software development. Whereas Replit is a Brazilian-based logistics company focused on user-based experience.

Previously, Fadi Ghandour invested in the seed round of a company called Path in November 2010. Path is a disruptor in the field of social media with a progressive goal of creating a social media platform within an intimate setting with a strong focus on privacy. Path limits contacts to 150 users in total. In December of 2010, Ghandour invested in the Series A round of investments in an online media streaming company called Viki. In keeping with the spirit of entrepreneurship, Fadi Ghandour took a marked interest in disruptors within the logistics sector in March 2014 with an investment in a company called Shippo. By providing international shipping documentation, printing labels, providing package tracking, and access to multiple courier service providers, Shippo streamlines and improves the processes of global shipping.

It was reported in May of 2014 that Ghandour became an angel investor in Eqlim, a risk mitigation company focused on providing information pertinent to assisting companies in avoiding risk. Eqlim’s ultimate goal is to optimize each business.

In June 2014, Ghandour invested in the seed stage round of Tamatem Inc., a mobile game publisher geared for publishing a range of games specifically tailored to the Arabic market.

Latest News

Since the war between Israel and Gaza, Ghandour has been actively and vocally supportive of Gaza and the Palestinians.

Ghandour is in Forbes’ Middle East’s Top Venture Capitalists of 2024 list, and is on The 100: A Definitive Guide to Success on the Entrepreneur website.

Nowadays, Fadi appears on many interviews to share the secrets to his success.