The Team

Chadi Hajjar
Founder and Managing Director
Chadi founded VII Ventures in 2020 following a number of successful start-up ventures in the technology and innovation space. An accomplished and multi-faceted executive with scientific and engineering acumen, he is keenly focused on assessing and reviving business models, team coherence, technologies, and financial models to achieve top- and bottom-line impacts. He currently holds a number of prominent board positions across key markets including the US, GCC and Europe, including with Rebartek, WahedX, Jumbotail and Avisa Myko. Chadi has also been recently appointed as the Chief Investment Officer of the newly formed GCC focused Venture Capital firm “Bunat Ventures”, a venture builder that has recently been registered in Abu Dhabi Capital Markets. A Lebanese national, Chadi holds an Engineering Degree and Executive MBA from ESCP Business School in Paris.
Edmund Olotu
Senior Advisor

Edmund has been consistently recognized as one of Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs in the technology and financial services industries and has founded several successful businesses in Nigeria. One of those companies, BlocHQ; previously Techadvance; was named by the London Stock Exchange in 2019 as one of the top 100 most exciting companies in the Continent. Edmund has a Masters in Management Finance and Control from Harvard University.

Sumeet Khutale
Senior Advisor
Sumeet is an entrepreneur with a successful track-record across banking, finance and Fintech. He is the founder of Lamaa, Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing Fintech focussed on supply chain finance and B2B Buy Now Pay. Lamaa recently secured $5.5M of funding led by Raed Ventures and Saudi Aramco’s entrepreneurship arm Wa’ed, the two of the largest VCs in the region. Before founding Lamaa, Sumeet worked across the banking industry for 20 years, working in several global roles for the likes of JP Morgan and Barclays across investment banking, private banking, treasury management and cloud computing.