Zaitoun Ventures

Zaitoun Ventures is a values-driven Israeli investment firm and startup factory founded in 2014 in Tel Aviv by Israeli-Arab Harvard MBA Forsan Hussein and Israeli-Jewish serial entrepreneur Ami Dror. The firm's distinctive thesis is that companies co-built and co-led by Jewish and Arab founders, Zaitoun is Arabic and Hebrew for olive, are commercially advantageous as well as socially constructive, opening market access across the Middle East, North Africa and the Arabic-speaking diaspora and producing more resilient teams. Zaitoun acts as a business-development company connecting Israeli and Arab entrepreneurs, providing capital, strategic guidance, operational support and an international partner network to back disruptive startups across surgical and medical devices, enterprise SaaS, edtech, neurotech, consumer apps and deep-tech hardware, generally as a co-investor. Reported deployment was approximately $19M in its first year of operations with a stated target of around $100M of deployment in 2016. Disclosed portfolio companies include Pi-Cardia in structural heart-valve repair, its most recent reported investment in April 2020, Sodyo in mobile-interaction software, LeapLearner in kids-coding edtech, which Ami Dror also founded, Comedy Break, a Tel Aviv-Ramallah AI comedy personalization company, Myndlift in attention-disorder neurotech, Ninispeech in speech therapy, Sidis Labs in motion-sickness wearables and Teramount in optical connectivity. Recent public activity has been limited since 2020, and current fund size and team roster are not publicly disclosed. By backing companies co-led by Jewish and Arab founders, Zaitoun Ventures pairs capital with a thesis that diverse teams unlock regional market access and resilience.