Abbas Kazmi

Abbas Kazmi is a multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur and investor who founded his first of several successful companies at 16. Abbas has been behind many exciting businesses, initiatives, and organizations. He has been recognized as a Forbes 30Under30 Standout (selected as one of the fronting faces for their magazine edition, European list, Finance list, Dorm Room Founders list, and Middle Eastern list), as a Maserati 100 (one of the Top 10 People’s Choice among 'game-changing entrepreneurs and innovators'), as one of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards Entrepreneurs' Champions of the Year, and as one of Startups UK’s Young Entrepreneurs of the Year and Business Growth Enablers of the Year. He has also been recognized as a ‘Young Gun’ and one of the top UK entrepreneurs under 35 by Startups UK, named one of the Top 5 inspirational UK entrepreneurs to watch by Tech City News, and invited to MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 community, serving as an ambassador and judge. Recently, he was named Service Industries Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Mobile & Emerging Technologies StartUp Founder of the Year at the StartUp Awards National Series, among numerous other honors.

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Abbas has been appointed a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellow, focusing on youth entrepreneurship and empowerment in MENA, and as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

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Previously at BlackRock, Abbas worked across EMEA and the US, contributing to the launch of BlackRock’s first internal accelerator with an impact/ESG focus, seeding the firm’s first Saudi ETF, and its $152m acquisition of robo-advisor FutureAdvisor, their first FinTech acquisition. He co-founded both the Oxford Accelerator and VC fund Collegiate Capital and serves as an Investment Committee member, advisor, and LP investor in several European funds, including BlackWood Ventures, where he is the lead dealmaker. Abbas focuses predominantly on early-stage investments (pre-seed to Series A). His LP investments include Hambro Perks Leaders Fund, JamJar Fund II, Passion Capital Fund III, Future Planet Capital, and Innvotec. He has angel-invested in notable startups like Monzo (valued over $4.5bn), Curve ($781m), and Yonder ($88m).

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He has been invited multiple times to Latitude’s and LocalGlobe’s investment committee meetings (top-ranked early-stage VCs in EMEA) and was awarded the Phoenix Court Group Works Scholarship. Abbas has co-invested alongside LocalGlobe, Northzone, Tiger Global, Seedcamp, Bill Gates, and Total. His favorite investment is mental health double-unicorn Spring Health, where he single-handedly sourced and managed the first institutional investment external to Yale. Spring Health, now valued at over $2.5bn, has raised approximately $365m from investors including Tiger Global and Northzone, and Abbas's stake is valued at over 200x the initial investment.

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Abbas co-founded the first VC fund bridging Central Asia and MENA, SABAH.Fund. He was recognized by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE’s Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister, as an Arab Youth Pioneer, tasked with addressing youth unemployment and promoting entrepreneurship in the region. Passionate about blockchain, the metaverse, and AI technologies since 2014, he advises the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Metaverse and Web 3.0 in the UK and several Azerbaijani government ministries through the SABAH.HUB Innovation Centre. He headed innovation mandates for COP29 in Baku and is a Helena Group Fellow alongside Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel, as well as one of the youngest fellows of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

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Abbas sits on boards including FINGREEN AI (ESG Data and Monitoring solution) and Prospect 100 (co-creation platform for Gen Z talent). His extensive experience spans roles at financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Internet Capital Group, and many others across finance, consulting, commodities, and PE/VC. Abbas co-founded the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Young Professionals Network, "I on the Future," served on the Young Enterprise London Alumni Board, and was an inaugural member of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle MENA Chapter. He is a signatory to VentureESG and the Venture Climate Alliance, co-founder of diversity-focused Power of N Syndicate and the Influential Group Syndicate, and previously an Entrepreneur in Residence at MassChallenge.

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He co-founded the European Student Startups competition and judged numerous startup competitions including MIT Innovators Under 35 and INSEAD Venture Competition Finals. Abbas frequently speaks at top universities and global conferences such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Forbes 30Under30 Summit, Milken Institute MENA Summit, and World Government Summit.

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Abbas is an Entrepreneurship Expert at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, advising MBA students through the O Network, and Investor-in-Residence at London Business School. He has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, LBS, LSE, UCL, INSEAD, and more.

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An academic scholar from Westminster School and Oxford University, and a VC Fellow at LBS’s Newton Venture Program, Abbas is Chairman of the Oxford Guild, which he built into the largest university society globally, hosting guests like Sam Altman, Kanye West, Woody Harrelson, and Malala. He recently became an Aspen Institute UK Rising Leaders Fellow, co-founded the All In startup diversity pledge, Global Fintech & Blockchain Conference, Europe2SiliconValley Trip, and Spirited Network Covid-19 relief initiative.

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He co-produced four films, including collaborations with Idris Elba, co-founded the Golden Age Network promoting intercultural relations in MENA+, serves on the committee at MENA2050, and is an inaugural Fellow at ROPES, focusing on the Israel-Palestine peace process.

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