Mr. Alvaro Abella is a Managing Director in the Private Equity Team. With over twenty years of experience across Europe, the Americas and the MENA region and with a strong focus on tech-related investments, Mr. Abella has worked across transaction execution, post-acquisition management and advisory roles.
Prior to Gulf Capital, he co-founded BECO Holdings, a Dubai-based early-stage investment firm focused on digital businesses in the MENA region, where he led local investments into regional leaders such as Careem, Vezeeta and SellAnyCar. The investment into Careem delivered the largest tech-related exit in the MENA region when Uber, the US-listed competitor, bought the business for $3.1 billion, generating a +10x return for BECO, which returned the whole capital of the fund from that single investment. Additionally, Mr. Abella led several co-investment programs alongside existing investors as well as international growth investors (mainly US). Prior to BECO, Mr. Abella held positions with Diamond Cluster International, Dubai, Value Partners SpA., Italy and Booz Allen & Hamilton, Europe. Mr. Abella received an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a dual degree (German & Spanish) in Business Administration from ICADE in Spain and FH-Reutlingen in Germany.