Karim Samakie

General Manager, Fintech Sector

Karim Samakie is General Manager for the fintech sector at Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment, with more than fifteen years of experience in fintech, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem building across the Middle East and the Gulf. He has served as an adviser to Fintech Saudi, the initiative dedicated to developing the Kingdom's fintech ecosystem, and advised Monsha'at, the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, on its enterprise support programmes. Before moving to the Kingdom he was investment manager at Oasis500 in Jordan, one of the region's earliest startup accelerators, where he screened, selected and invested in early-stage technology startups. He also writes on entrepreneurship for regional business media.