Investors and founders are much alike. As a Founding Partner MENA at Golden Gate Ventures I have built and invested across three emerging ecosystems. In every ecosystem, capital has not been scarce. What is scarce is access to experienced networks and investors who have gone through the full cycle, as well as to the network of investors and strategic partners that help grow the founder’s business. My hope is that this article helps founders understand how investors view and

Global AI development is not about who brings the best foundational model to the market. SMEs and enterprises are widely using multiple models within their organisations, depending on the use case. Currently, the narrative has shifted to who can actually operationalize AI — in the enterprise, at scale, in production. That distinction matters enormously, and it's the reason Golden Gate Ventures’ MENA fund has invested in Invisible Technologies, one of the fastest-growing AI co

Why I Came Back to Tashkent — And Why More VCs Should Last week I traveled back to Tashkent Uzbekistan and joined CEVF 2026 and found myself in an audience of 800 investors, founders, and tech leaders. This was the 5th edition of the Central Eurasian Venture Forum (CEVF 2026). I was there as a speaker, but more importantly, I was there to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between Golden Gate Ventures' MENA fund and IT Park Ventures — formalizing a bridge between the Gulf and

I have spent 29 years at the intersection of technology and enterprise value creation. After graduating from The Hague University in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science, I cut my teeth writing assembly code—close enough to the silicon to appreciate the essence, and the constraints, of every clock cycle. In 2000, I co-founded my first technology company. We were at the height of the dot-com bubble. The two-and-a-half decades since have taken me from low-level systems progra

Why I believe the MENA-Global corridor is the most underestimated opportunity in global tech — and how we're building a fund to prove it. Michael Lints is a Founding Partner MENA at Golden Gate Ventures The Thesis: Two-Way Innovation Corridors When we launched Golden Gate Ventures MENA Fund I, we didn't set out to replicate what already existed. The region has no shortage of smart capital. Our intention was to leverage access to the best technology companies in the world, cre

Exploring the venture and startup ecosystem across the GCC has been extensive and rewarding. Over the past 18 months, I have worked in ecosystems across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Bahrain (more on that), and Kuwait. Meeting founders, financial institutions, family offices, and venture funds provided an insightful cross-section of opportunities and challenges. More than ever, I believe in expanding the relationship between the Southeast Asian and MENA tech ecosystem