Omar Darwazah

AAF Management Ltd.

Omar is a Managing Director and General Partner at AAF Management Ltd. (AAF), an early-stage venture capital firm he co-founded in 2016. AAF invests in top tier venture-backed pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A investment opportunities in US-based startups as well as global early-stage emerging managers. The firm currently has over $180M in assets under management. 

AAF invests across Fintech, Consumer, Enterprise Software and Healthcare and its portfolio includes Current, Jasper.ai, Synthego, Flutterwave, Drata, Hello Heart, Quit Genius, Even Financial (acquired by MoneyLion), Portfolium (acquired by Instructure), HeyDoctor (acquired by GoodRx), Prodigy (acquired by Upstart), TruOptik (acquired by Transunion) among others. 

In addition, Omar is a Limited Partner in 30 emerging managers globally and is also an angel investor, through his family office Darwazah Capital LLC, in close to 30 companies including Andela, Blockstack, BitOasis, Dayra, FiscalNote, Freterium, Genies, Halan, Sokowatch, Thndr and Ziina. To-date, he has early-stage exposure to 52 unicorns globally. 

Omar sits on the Board of TechWadi. He is also a mentor to the NYU Steinhardt EdTech Accelerator, a mentor at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center and a judge at the Wharton School’s Venture Lab. 

Previously, Omar spent 10 years of his career with OCI N.V. in Cairo and New York focusing on strategy, corporate finance, and investor relations where he worked on over $35 billion worth of corporate transactions. Prior to that, he was with Deloitte in Chicago and Deutsche Bank’s Leveraged Finance team in London. 

In aggregate, Omar has over 17 years of international experience in corporate finance, corporate communications, management consulting, strategy, investor relations and venture capital.

Education, Personal, and Fellowship

Omar holds a BA in Economics and Political Science with Honors from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Omar was born in Cairo and lived in New York, London, Chicago, Montreal, and Paris. He now resides in Washington DC with his wife Bouchra and twin son and daughter Zayn and Layla. 

Omar enjoys scuba diving and is an avid travel photographer having visited 92 countries around the world. He also has an interest in film production and has been an Executive Producer on several short feature films including Baby Mine (2017) and Lab Rat (2018).

He was named as one of Wharton’s 40 under 40 in 2017 and one of the Top 100 University of Chicago Alumni in Tech in 2021.

As a member of Class 25, Omar is serving his fellowship at AAF Management Ltd. under the mentorship of Ian Sigalow.