Rami Karabibar Shares His Journey Through the World of Modern Investment, Both as an Operator and as an Investor - Across Technology, Food Delivery, Machine Learning and Autonomous Vehicles

Modern-day investments are not just a numbers game. A successful investor must be able to analyze the market, evaluate the quality of a company, and anticipate the future (to the best of their abilities). Furthermore, successful investors must also be able to conduct thorough research and communicate effectively, as we all know investments are nothing without the people behind them.

Rami Karabibar is an individual who checks all of the boxes, and his professional experiences span economics, investing, and leadership roles at technology-based startups. Having begun his university studies in engineering – before switching majors to complete his Bachelor of Commerce – Rami was always passionate and curious about the tech world. In fact, he built his own computer at just 13 years old. After realizing that he was much more drawn to the business side of technology vs. the technical side of coding, he decided to pursue a career in finance and excelled in McGill University’s highly competitive Honours program in Investment Management. His long-term vision was that he would hone his skills to be well-rounded and capable of launching his own startup.

The program gave him a chance to explore the ins and outs of investing, under the supervision of a professional asset manager, as the class oversaw a $3M portfolio which they used to invest in stocks and bonds. Rami was a leader in his class and graduated with distinction. This made him a hot commodity entering the working force, and he was quickly recruited by Bain and Company – a leading consulting firm. During his time with Bain and Company, Rami Karabibar spent the majority of his time evaluating investment opportunities on behalf of Bain's clients in Bain's Private Equity Consulting group.

From Consulting to Food Delivery

Ready for a change of scene, Rami left Bain and Company to take on a position as a Strategic Finance Lead with former food delivery tech startup Zoomer. In this role, Rami partook in certain fundraising efforts but primarily worked as an operator helping to guide and support the company through their growth, including launching new products.

While operators have previously been highly undervalued, they have recently received more recognition as a key component for the success of any startup because they’re the ones building the right infrastructure for scale and long-term maturation. Operators work under the radar – studying tactics, analyzing data, and figuring out what works. Their role isn’t exactly flash and fame, but it is absolutely essential.

Back to Tech with a Bang

Returning to his area of expertise, Rami Karabibar took on a position as a Tech Growth Investor with Warburg Pincus – one of the largest and most prestigious global private equity firms. There he led both financial and commercial diligence of minor and major investments for the company, in the range of $50M-$1B+.

He also played a role in sourcing efforts and conducted diligence on hundreds of startups – one of his coverage areas centered around machine learning. However, his most successful contribution was his work on the closing investment in the cybersecurity firm eSentire Inc. While a specific figure was not revealed, sources shared that the final cheque was in the 9-digit range. This was a huge contribution to Karabibar’s already impressive resume and reputation, opening up exciting new opportunities for his future.

Where Creative Technology Meets Real-life Needs

The next step in Rami’s journey was with Waymo, formerly Google’s Self-Driving Car Project. Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around.

Although the company was already experiencing great success when he arrived, Karabibar was an essential component of their expansion from self-driving cars to self-driving trucks. He led prospecting efforts by conducting diligence and sourcing strategic partnerships and joint ventures across key stakeholders in the mobility space. Through this process, he connected with the engineering team at Anki, a former consumer electronics startup. Anki’s unfortunate dissolution was in fact the perfect solution for Waymo, and the entire team of engineers was brought on to lead the trucking efforts. There is no doubt that this was a vital move in building Waymo’s reputation as such a world-renowned autonomous vehicle company.

Beyond this, Karabibar also led key diligence efforts as one of the internal deal leads for Waymo’s first external fundraise of a whopping $3+ billion – the second-largest private tech fundraise in US history.

What Does the Future Hold?

These days, Rami Karabibar is most interested in working with startups. He learned at a young age from his father that there is immense benefit in carving out your own path and being able to live life on your own terms. Furthermore, he is passionate about finding meaningful projects to work on, and, like so many people these days, he respects a business plan that is not just for profit, but that also has a lens on making a positive impact.

His latest venture is EvenUp – a startup company with a mission to help personal injury victims get the justice they deserve, irrespective of the victim’s income, access to capital, or legal representation. EvenUp relies on machine learning to help personal injury victims and their attorneys achieve better results. For the victims, they provide litigation and pre-settlement financing, so they can pursue litigation without settling early or incurring debilitating debts. For the attorneys, they supply software that provides information about the value of their lawsuit, allowing them to have data for principled settlement negotiations. This is a true passion project for Rami, as he worked tirelessly to raise the $4.4M seed to get the company going.

At only 29 years old, Rami Karabibar already has an extremely varied and impressive resume under his belt. His expertise in finance, substantial experience in analysis, and his love of technology makes him an absolute asset in this industry. His future is bright and we look forward to following along in his journey.

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