BYLD
Early-stage venture capital firm led by founding partner Youcef Oudjidane. It backs fintech, AI and industrial startups in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States, often before incorporation.
Industry: Early-stage venture capital
About BYLD
BYLD, also known as BYLD Ventures, is an early-stage venture capital firm. Its website lists offices at Index Tower in the Dubai International Financial Centre, in Muscat, Oman, and in Mayfair, London, and describes the firm as investing at the very beginning, often before a company has been incorporated. The site was marked as under construction when read in October 2026.
TechCrunch reported in September 2022 that Youcef Oudjidane was the founding partner. He had worked at Solebury Capital, led strategy and investments at the Dubai Future Foundation from 2017, and been managing partner and head of EMEA at the San Francisco fund Class 5 Global. The website now lists Oudjidane, Nasser Oudjidane and Tuful Al Sarrai as partners, and Kieran Gibbs and Shekinah Adewumi as venture partners.
According to TechCrunch, BYLD launched a 15 million dollar fund in May 2022 focused on early-stage startups in Africa, with a second close of 10 million dollars in August 2022. It planned 15 to 20 portfolio companies, an average ticket of 500,000 dollars and about half of the fund reserved for follow-on investments. Limited partners included more than a dozen athletes, the Dubai government and several institutional investors. TechCrunch said fintech was its core focus, mainly in Egypt and Nigeria.
The website now lists 31 portfolio companies across fintech, AI and industrials, with locations in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. They include Telda, Chari, Baraka, Moove, Anchor, Stitch, SiFi, ClearGrid and Stream. The site says the portfolio has raised about 750 million dollars over the past five years, citing PitchBook. Its press page lists 2026 items including Stitch's 25 million dollar Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a Bloomberg report that Moove reached a 2 billion dollar valuation in a fundraising led by Mubadala.
BYLD took part in Stream's 4 million dollar seed round led by Outliers VC in November 2025, and in the 5.2 million dollar extension reported by Wamda in May 2026.
Leadership
- Youcef Oudjidane, Founding Partner
- Nasser Oudjidane, Partner
- Tuful Al Sarrai, Partner
- Kieran Gibbs, Venture Partner
- Shekinah Adewumi, Venture Partner