Abdallah Yafi

Abdallah Yafi is a Lebanese-born entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded BY Venture Partners in 2015 alongside his identical twin brother Ghaith Yafi and partner Rami El Jisr. Now based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Abdallah brings more than 13 years of experience spanning entrepreneurship, technology, strategy, and management consulting across the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

Abdallah's academic credentials are impressive and diverse. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, followed by a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal. He later completed his MBA at INSEAD, one of the world's leading business schools, which equipped him with the strategic and financial acumen necessary for venture capital investing.

Before establishing himself in venture capital, Abdallah was an entrepreneur himself. In May 2011, he and his twin brother Ghaith co-founded ScoopCity.com, Lebanon's leading daily deals e-commerce platform that offered curated deals from premium restaurants, spas, beaches, concert venues, and retail brands targeting affluent Lebanese consumers. The startup experienced rapid growth of 30% month-over-month and won the "Standard of Excellence for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development" award from the International Web Marketing Association in October 2011. It was recognized as one of the top five worthy MENA startups for growth potential. Abdallah successfully exited this venture along with other companies he founded in Canada and the UK, including an online marketplace and a SaaS business.

In 2014, prior to establishing BY Venture Partners, Abdallah and Ghaith founded Y Venture Partners, an early-stage angel fund based in Beirut focused on investing in innovation and technology startups at the pre-seed to early-growth stage with ticket sizes ranging from $50K to $300K. This angel fund served as the precursor to the larger institutional venture capital firm that followed.

Today, as General Partner at BY Venture Partners, Abdallah leads investment decisions for one of the MENA region's most prominent venture capital firms. The firm operates with a "default global" mindset, distributing investments equally across MENA, the United States, and Europe. Under his leadership, BY Venture Partners was named Venture Capital Firm of the Year at the Virtuzone Awards in 2023. Abdallah's personal investment philosophy balances structure with flexibility, emphasizing "healthy work habits that give you stability, but don't make you too comfortable to forget inspiring change."

BY Venture Partners operates under the guiding principle of "People worth supporting. Problems worth solving." The firm positions itself as backers of hungry, resilient founder teams building world-changing businesses that address significant global problems. As a "default global" investor with roots in MENA, BY Venture Partners bridges the region's tech ecosystem with more mature markets in North America and Europe.

Core Investment Focus:

Stage and Geography:

Investment Approach: The firm brings a founder-first mentality, with more than 60% of deal flow coming from referrals by past or current founders—a testament to their value-add approach. BY Venture Partners provides hands-on operational support from day one through exit, offering capital alongside strategic guidance. The firm runs BY Accelerate, a founder program providing foundational frameworks, resources, and expert guidance to portfolio companies. In 2025 alone, the firm facilitated over 1,000 investor introductions for portfolio companies.

Value-Add to Portfolio:

Sector Preferences: While sector-agnostic with a focus on problem-solving, BY Venture Partners has demonstrated particular strength in fintech, e-commerce, logistics, identity verification, AI, and B2B SaaS. The firm seeks founders building businesses with the potential to impact millions of users globally.

• Marketplaces and Platforms: Companies building two-sided or multi-sided marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers
• AI-Enabled Business Models: Startups leveraging artificial intelligence to create competitive advantages and solve complex problems
• Category-Creating Startups: Companies defining new market categories or becoming clear market leaders in their segments
• Investment Stage: Pre-seed to early-stage companies (Seed Round primarily)
• Geographic Distribution: Investments spread equally across three regions: MENA (33 companies), North America (19 companies), and Europe (19 companies), plus selective investments in Asia (3 companies)
• Check Size: Typically $100K to $5.0M with a sweet spot of $1.5M
• In-house legal counsel, operations lead, and analyst team
• Founder NPS score of 87, indicating high satisfaction among backed entrepreneurs
• Strategic partnerships and networking through offices in UAE, London, and Boston
• Expert guidance from partners including AI Partner Rana El Kaliouby and experienced operators