Abdullah Mutawi

Practice Areas

Recognised as one of the MENA region’s leading corporate lawyers with extensive roots in technology, media and communications, Abdullah has over 27 years’ experience in corporate law practising in London and the Middle East specialising in M&A, corporate finance, venture capital and special situations.

Abdullah is a corporate specialist with particularly deep experience of cross-border M&A, venture capital and commercial advisory work. His deal list extends to more than 100 venture capital financing transactions as well as several multi-billion-dollar strategic M&A transactions including sell-side and buy-side mandates in addition to many private equity and principal investing acquisitions and disposals.

Abdullah’s clients include public and private companies, sovereign wealth funds, banks, private equity funds, venture capital firms and family offices and the transactions he has led have involved assets across 33 developed and emerging markets across the globe. In recent years, Abdullah has gained an unrivalled experience in regional and international venture capital financing transactions and is one of the most experienced venture capital lawyers in the region.

In addition to his transactional experience, Abdullah has represented clients in a number of high-profile turnaround, restructuring and bankruptcy matters and other ‘special situations’ or financial distress mandates.

Expertise:

Venture capital

Corporate/M&A & capital markets

M&A

Career

Since 2022 - Partner and Head of Corporate MENA, Taylor Wessing

2019 – 2022 -Partner, Head of Corporate, Al Tamimi & Company, Dubai

2014 - 2019- Partner, Baker Botts LLP, Dubai

2011 – 2014-Partner, Head of UAE, Trowers & Hamlins, Dubai

2005 – 2011- Partner, Head of International TMT, Trowers & Hamlins, Bahrain

2000 – 2005- Senior Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright, London & Bahrain

1996 - 1998-Associate, Hill Dickinson, London

Professional Memberships

2021 – present: Board member, Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA)

2021 – present: Best Practices Committee, Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA)

2022 - present: Co-chair, Legal Advisory Committee, Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA)

2019 – present: Mentor, Endeavor Middle East

2018 – present: All-star Mentor, Techstars

2016 – present: Co-founder & Chairman

Publications

MENA Venture Law Guide - Annual Publication since 2021 to present

Selling your business: a guide for founders and management teams in MENA - 2024

Global Venture Capital Guide 2021 (co-author of UAE chapter)

Arabian Business 2017: Cybersecurity in the Middle East, the legal perspective

M&A in the Middle East: A Practical Regional Guide 2013 (author of UAE chapter)

Clients

Grant Thornton UAE

AHR Group

Enviroserve

Shorooq Partners

Sylndr Pte

CQR

Stake Holdings Limited

Bessemer Venture Partners

Actual Deeptech Fund I LP

BECO Capital

Standard Land

Actual VC

Hashgraph Ventures Manager Ltd

Key Capital Ltd

Jasoor Ventures Limited

Nuwa Capital

Oraseya Capital

Al Faisaliah

Zain (Mobile Telecommunications)

Work Highlights

- Advised Global Ventures on its Series A priced equity investment into KSA-based e-commerce platform Zid.

- Advised Merak Capital on its Series A priced equity investment into Jisr, a Saudi HR platform.

-Advised Pyypl, a UAE-headquartered blockchain-based fintech platform enabling essential financial services directly from mobile phone for unbanked customers across the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia on its Series A priced equity venture financing.

-Advised Stake, a MENA based real estate crowdsourced investment platform on its series A priced equity round led by MEVP with participation from Republic Ventures.

-Advised the corporate venture investment arm of Zain Telecom on its Series A priced equity financing of Swiss e-commerce player Zoodmall.

-Advised Global Ventures on its Series A priced equity investment in Enhanced Fitness, delivering a diverse, high quality, on-demand personal training offering to customers

-Advised the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZA) and existing institutional investors on a series B priced equity round and corporate restructure into UAE-based insuretech platform, Yallacompare

-Advised Global Ventures on its Series A priced equity investment in Algo Driven, a UAE-based company providing advanced technology solutions to the automotive industry and its participants - providing fast, accurate and real-time data with multiple applications ranging from vehicle evaluation to fleet management.

-Advised Raed Ventures on its Series A investment into Lean technologies, a Saudi open banking platform.

-Advised, alongside US co-counsel Morrison & Foerster, Softbank Vision Fund II, on its role as lead investor in the $415m Series C financing of UAE-based cloud kitchen platform Kitopi, alongside co-investors including Chimera, DisruptAD, B. Riley, Dogus Group, Next Play Capital and Nordstar.

- Advised the founders and major shareholders in the acquisition of Egypt-based events management SaaS company Eventtus by US-based enterprise events platform Bevy. The founders of Eventtus taking C-suite roles at Bevy in the US and an exit for Eventtus’ VC backers.

-Advising General Atlantic on its USD 120 million priced equity investment in UAE proptech platform, PropertyFinder.

-Advised Uber, the global-leading, US-based ride hailing and technology company, as local competition counsel on its $3.1bn merger of Uber and Careem.

-Advised APCO Worldwide, an independent global public affairs and strategic communications consultancy with headquarters in the US and operation in the UAE, on the acquisition of Dubai-based NGC International Advisory, a multinational agency based in Dubai specialised in public policy and government affairs.

-Advised Lorax Capital Partners, on its acquisition of a significant minority stake in Dsquares, an end-to-end loyalty and rewards solutions provider serving over 45 local and international clients and with a reach of more than 100 million customers.

-Advised Lone Star Funds with the acquisition of SPX Flow, Inc. by way of merger with a wholly owned subsidiary affiliate entity for an aggregate consideration of $3.8bn.

-Representing Priora Management Holdings on its acquisition of Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa, the leading Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) of mobile telephony services in the MENA region with operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

Languages Spoken

English and Arabic

Awards