The story
Abdallah Abu-Sheikh was born in Jordan and grew up between China, London and Jordan. When his father, who had founded a private charter aviation business, died in 2013, he became responsible for his mother and seven younger siblings. He went to Africa hoping to sell some of the aviation business's assets, and there the president of The Gambia asked him whether he could build a renewable energy project. That led to Lux Development Partners, which he co-founded and which, by his account, built 1.2GW of power projects across sub-Saharan Africa before he exited in 2018. In 2019 he co-founded Rizek, a home services app that also offered COVID-19 testing, and in 2022 Barq, an electric mobility company for last-mile delivery. He then founded Astra Tech, which acquired the calling app Botim, grown to more than 150 million users in 155 countries, before selling his stake to G42 in late 2024. In 2025 he founded Mal, an AI-native Islamic digital bank that raised a $230 million seed round.
