Nada Shaheen on Translating Corporate Power Into Startup Growth

Corporate venture capital in Egypt is often framed as a question of capital, when in reality, it is a question of translation.

As Managing Director at GB Ventures, Nada Shaheen occupies a distinct position between two worlds that have not always spoken the same language: the scale, discipline and market access of large corporations, and the speed, experimentation and risk appetite of early-stage startups. At GB Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of GB Corp, Shaheen has helped build a platform designed not only to invest in founders, but to connect them with the operational weight of one of the region’s most established industrial groups.

With over a decade of experience across entrepreneurship, venture capital and innovation, Shaheen’s path into corporate venture was shaped by a first-hand understanding of the startup ecosystem. Having spent her career around founders, and having been a founder herself, she brings an operational lens to investment - one rooted less in abstract market theory, and more in the lived realities of building, selling, partnering and surviving in disjointed emerging markets.

Shaheen’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that corporate venture capital should go beyond the cheque. For her, the model is most powerful when it becomes a bridge: connecting startups to distribution, partnerships, commercial agreements and the strategic machinery of established companies. It is an approach that positions corporates not as distant observers of innovation, but as active participants in shaping it.

In this episode of Meet the Investor, Shaheen opens up about a whole host of topics, including the role of corporate venture capital in emerging markets, the challenge of building trust between startups and corporates, and why the next phase of African innovation may depend as much on strategic partnerships as it does on funding.