Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala is among the most deep-pocketed investors backing European tech, with $302bn in assets under management.
It has some of Europe’s biggest and most closely-watched tech companies in its portfolio, including Klarna and, as of this summer, Revolut — buying a stake as part of the fintech’s $500m employee share sale in August.
This week it’s reinvested in speedy grocery startup Flink, which raised $150m, regaining a foothold in the European quick commerce sector after another portfolio company Getir — of which it’s a majority shareholder — exited the continent last year.
But Mubadala’s billions haven’t left it immune to the tech winter. As Bloomberg reports, since the start of 2024, at least four companies in Mubadala’s European portfolio have undergone structural change, refinancing or leadership changes — including a boardroom battle at German insurtech Wefox and Getir’s retreat from all but one of its markets.
Yet, despite being such a significant investor in some of Europe’s best-known companies, Mubadala — and its team — aren’t so well-known.
Here’s what we know.
Mubadala Capital Ventures
Mubadala Ventures (the sovereign wealth fund’s VC arm) closed a €450m fund to invest in European tech companies in 2020. Alongside sovereign wealth, the Europe fund has almost a dozen external LPs; the only publicly known one is SoftBank.
Mubadala’s Europe fund makes direct investments into startups. It’s made 19 bets on the continent to date, including Flink, Wefox, Spanish food delivery company Glovo, British second-hand car marketplace Cazoo, German micromobility startup Tier, British drug development company Exscientia, French biotech Owkin and Swedish digital vet Firstvet.
Wefox and Flink aren’t the only portfolio companies to have hit stormy waters recently. Cazoo — which Mubadala invested in across multiple funding rounds (and waxed lyrical about) — entered administration this year, while Tier merged with competitor Dott after struggling to raise further funding. Mubadala led a €60m investment into the new joint entity in January.
The European team sits in London. They are:
Ibrahim Ajami
Ajami is head of ventures at Mubadala. He looks after the fund’s direct investments globally, as well as its fund-of-funds programme. Ajami’s worked at Mubadala since 2006 and, after a long stint in Abu Dhabi, is now based in the UK.
Frederic Lardieg
Lardieg is a partner, joining Mubadala Ventures in 2019. Before that, he worked at Octopus Ventures and Vodafone Ventures. According to LinkedIn, Lardeig led Mubadala’s investments into Glovo, Cazoo, Matera, Ramp and HiveMQ.
Jonno Eliot
Eliot joined Mubadala Ventures as a partner in 2022. He was previously managing director at Virgin Management, Richard Branson’s family office, where he invested in companies including Wise, Square and Slack.
Max Holnaicher
Holnaicher joined Mubadala as a partner in 2019, after working at a bootstrapped healthtech company that was sold to a PE firm. Before that, he worked for Torch Partners, a tech-focused investment bank.
Preten Patel
Patel joined Mubadala as a technology investor in 2021 after working on M&A at Barclays. According to LinkedIn, he’s worked on the fund’s investments into Klarna, TreasurySpring and Storyblok.
Mubadala Investment Company
Mubadala’s growth team, which sits within Mubadala Investment Company, has invested in Revolut, Klarna and Getir.
Hani Barhoush
Barhoush is Mubadala Capital’s CEO and managing director, and also CEO of Mubadala’s ‘disruptive investments’ platform — which means he oversees the ventures and growth teams, amongst other things. Before joining Mubadala 20 years ago, he was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in New York. He sits on Getir’s board.
Faris Al Mazrui
Al Mazrui is head of growth investments at Mubadala Investment Company. He’s worked at the organisation for 14 years, and is based in Abu Dhabi. He was previously a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Anna Gostevcic
Gostevcic has recently joined Mubadala’s growth team in London. She was previously a growth equity investor at Inovia Capital, a Canadian VC.
Nathalie Bejjani
Bejjani is a growth investor, based in London. She was previously an investor at Abu Dhabi-based VC BY Venture Partners.
Bernard Hazard
Hazard is a growth investor, based in London. He was previously an investor at VC firm Energy Impact Partners.
Silvia Biscaldi
Biscaldi, another growth investor based in London, was previously a managing director at Goldman Sachs.
