Why Abu Dhabi-based VC fund EQIQ is betting big on Iraq's tech start-ups

The National

3 days ago

When Mohamed Al Hakim walked into his boss's office in London in the summer of 2014 to submit his resignation, the TV was playing live coverage of ISIS fighters conquering major cities in Iraq 's north and west.
His boss's eyes darted between Mr Al Hakim and the screen, struggling to make sense of what he was hearing.
'Are you sure you want to go to Iraq?' Mr Al Hakim recalls his boss's astonished question. Yes. 'Are you sure you're not going to join the fight – on either side?', the boss continued. A firm no.
Three months later, Mr Al Hakim left the stability of a real estate career in London to return to his native Iraq – a country spiralling into chaos at that time – to start his own business from scratch. It was not a hasty move; he had contemplated it for two years.
Eleven years on, that leap of faith has paid off. Today, Mr Al Hakim is the co-founder of the Abu Dhabi-based EQIQ, an Iraq-focused venture capital fund and venture builder, that is playing a major role in the country's burgeoning entrepreneurship scene.
From FinTech and e-commerce to logistics, Iraqi tech-savvy entrepreneurs are reshaping how people shop, pay and do business. They are helping drive Iraq's digital transformation as the country emerges from decades of war and instability.
Specific data on the size of the entrepreneurship sector in Iraq and how much it contributes to the local economy are not available.
However, according to global start-up research platform StartupBlink, Iraq's entrepreneurship scene has improved with the country moving up one spot on its global ranking for 2025 to 118. It currently holds the 11th position in the Middle East. Baghdad is also among the top 1,000 cities in the world in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2025, with annual growth of 64.3 per cent, StartupBlink said.
I returned to Iraq to make a difference in the private sector and build something meaningful
Mohamed Al Hakim,
co-founder of Abu Dhabi-based EQIQ
'Iraq is a promising market and fertile ground that needs many services and projects,' Mr Al Hakim, 36, tells The National at his office in one of Baghdad's newly built high-rise commercial buildings.
In 1998, his family left Iraq to move to Sweden, where his father had settled two years earlier. They joined a tide of migrants who fled Saddam Hussein 's dictatorial regime and harsh UN-imposed economic sanctions that followed his invasion on Kuwait. In 2008, he moved to the UK.
Mr Al Hakim launched his first venture in the tech space at 15, followed by two other ventures, at ages 17 and 19, before graduating from university. With a bachelor's degree in Economics, he started a career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs in 2010 and also worked with GreenOak Real Estate before transitioning to entrepreneurship.
In Iraq, he cofounded several ventures, including Ideal Financial Services, which created a digital wallet for the country's largest money transfer company and Zain Iraq Islamic Bank, focused on financial inclusion through digital banking.
In 2018, he set up and led Careem's operations in Iraq and later also served as the chief executive for its company's operations in Jordan and Iraq, until he left to establish EQIQ.
In January 2023, EQIQ completed its first close, raising $15 million from a consortium of local and regional investors. To date, the fund has deployed $8.5 million in five tech-focused ventures, including social commerce start-up, Fedshi, logistics app Boxy, e-commerce platform Wayl and edtech company Corrsy. The fifth is a digital bank that is not yet operational. EQIQ has committed to lead the funding round and take a 20 per cent stake in it.
Now, EQIQ is doubling its fund size from $15 million to $30 million to deepen its investments in Iraq's digital economy. It aims to close the fund raise by the end of this year.
'The first $15 million was a market test,' Mr Al Hakim says. 'We saw very positive results, so we are expanding the fund's size to explore even greater opportunities in Iraq,' he added, saying that they are in talks with local and foreign investors.
'Today is best time in the 11 years I've spent in Iraq in terms in security and political stability which has positively impacted the entrepreneurship environment,' he said. He aims to increase the financial returns to investors by 10 folds in the next five years.
Iraq is one of the most oil-dependent countries in the world. Oil revenue have accounted for more than 90 per cent of the government's budget.
Successive governments have been struggling with overcoming the high unemployment rate and diversifying economic growth. The country has a rapidly growing population, with the youth accounting for at least half of its nearly 45 million people.
The unprecedented political and security stability in the country over the past few years has encouraged authorities to launch a series of infrastructure projects and introduce reforms to improve the business environment. However, red tape, corruption and lack of modern laws still pose significant obstacles.
'In general, the country has changed over the past two years,' he said.
However, several challenges are still there, including that there is no law for establishing ventures in Iraq and that's the reason for setting EQIQ up in Abu Dhabi's ADGM, he added. Others are the lack of data, mainly on the economy, and a limitation foreign company share in any Iraqi company that must not exceed 49 per cent.
"I returned to Iraq to make a difference in the private sector and build something meaningful," he said. "Today, we have the opportunity to start where others left off. We can adopt latest technologies and updates, and begin at an advanced stage."