Andrea Azzolari

Principal

Andrea Azzolari leads Plug and Play's venture investment team in Saudi Arabia from Riyadh, where he sources early-stage companies, invests in them and connects them with the corporate partners that anchor the platform's programmes in the Kingdom. Plug and Play is a Silicon Valley innovation platform and early-stage investor founded in Sunnyvale, California, which runs accelerator programmes with large corporations across dozens of locations worldwide, organised into industry verticals that include a dedicated health vertical, and whose early investments included PayPal and Dropbox. Azzolari began his career at one of the Big Four professional services firms before moving into venture capital, and his investment experience spans construction technology, enterprise software, financial technology, artificial intelligence, hospitality and e-commerce. He has appeared on panels at Saudi venture events including the Saudi Startup Expo and Venture Investment Horizons, discussing the state of the Kingdom's investment scene, and much of his work involves helping startups cross between international markets and the Gulf.