Christos Mastoras

Christos has 23+ years of experience in the US, Europe, and MENA as a venture capital investor, a senior executive with leading technology corporates, a startup entrepreneur and tech founder with 4 exits, and a management consultant. He has been based in the UAE for the past 15 years, and has previously lived in Boston, New York, Washington, DC and Athens, Greece.
He is the Founder & Managing Partner of Iliad Partners, a venture capital firm based in ADGM. The firm invests in early-stage B2B technology startups in MENA that aim to digitize key sectors of the regional economy such as Fintech, Logistics, Proptech and Edutech, with a focus in UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as European startups seeking to enter the MENA market. The VC fund of Iliad Partners is anchored by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) / Jada Fund of Funds of Saudi Arabia, the Olayan family, and prominent GCC and European family group, family offices, and HNWIs.
Christos founded Iliad Partners in 2016 and has been actively making VC investments in MENA over the last 8 years, including being an early investor at the regional success story Trukker. As one of the pioneers in the VC space in the region, Christos was a Founding Board Member of the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA) and a Founding Advisory Board Member of MAGNiTT, the first and only market data provider for the VC and tech startup space in the MENA region.
Based in Dubai since 2007, Christos was previously the Head of Business Development of Yahoo! Maktoob in Dubai, where he led strategic partnerships for media, tech, and e-commerce, post the acquisition of Maktoob by Yahoo, in the largest tech exit in MENA at the time. At Yahoo he closed over 20 strategic partnerships that helped position Yahoo! Maktoob as the largest internet portal and online content provider in the MENA region at the time with over 55 million unique users.
Before that, as an Engagement Manager with the Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) practice of Booz & Company (leading management consultancy, now Strategy&) in Dubai, he advised Board and C-Level clients, including telecom groups, investment groups and SWFs in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia on corporate strategy, corporate development, M&A, strategic investments, strategic partnerships, portfolio management, commercial growth strategies, and digital ventures.
Christos previously helped build and exit four startups as a founder and in operating roles and business development positions: GlamBox (Dubai, UAE; exited in 2017), SloanGear (Boston, US; exited in 2007), Upstream (Athens, Greece; exited in 2005), and govWorks (New York, US; acquired by First Data Corporation, a KKR portfolio company, in 2001).
He co-founded GlamBox in 2012 in Dubai and served as a Board Member until 2017. As a member of the co-founding team, he raised over $4m in VC investments from investors including STC Venture and MBC Ventures, supported the expansion of the company into the Saudi market, and led the sale of the company to a consortium of Saudi investors in 2017.
He started his career at Accenture in New York advising Fortune 500 telecommunications clients in the US on strategic, operational, regulatory and technology initiatives.
Christos holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in International Relations from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.