The 100: Bilal Mekkaoui, Founder and CEO, OuiCollab

Bilal Mekkaoui, Founder and CEO of OuiCollab, has been featured in Entrepreneur Middle East’s The 100, the publication’s annual guide spotlighting some of the most influential people across the GCC.

The feature highlights Bilal’s journey as a global entrepreneur, investor, and brand builder, tracing his career from investment banking to the creation of OuiCollab, a venture studio focused on building culturally relevant, celebrity-led consumer brands.

Born to a Lebanese family and raised in London, Bilal began his professional career in investment banking, specialising in the technology, media, and telecom sectors. Over the course of nearly a decade, he developed deep experience in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, fundraising, and public-market preparation, a foundation that continues to shape his disciplined approach to business building.

The article also explores Bilal’s transition from finance into the startup and internet-business world. After joining a global e-commerce incubator in 2012, he gained hands-on experience helping take new ventures from concept to market. He later played a strategic role at a major global online marketplace, supporting the company’s preparation for public listing.

In 2016, Bilal founded Jobi Capital, later rebranded as OuiCollab, with the goal of investing in early-stage consumer retail and technology ventures while providing more than capital alone. Through strategic guidance, operational support, and access to global networks, OuiCollab has grown into a venture studio and brand incubator for direct-to-consumer and celebrity-backed consumer goods.

Under Bilal’s leadership, OuiCollab has helped launch and scale consumer brands built around authentic celebrity partnerships, including a luxury home-care label and a pet-wellness brand. These ventures reflect his belief that successful celebrity-led brands require more than visibility, they need strong product fundamentals, clear positioning, operational discipline, and genuine founder involvement.

As highlighted by Entrepreneur Middle East, Bilal’s core philosophy is that enduring consumer brands are not built on hype alone. Instead, they are created through the combination of data-driven market insight, authentic storytelling, cultural relevance, and disciplined execution.

Today, Bilal stands at the forefront of a growing movement that connects celebrity influence with serious brand building, using his background in capital markets, startup growth, and consumer strategy to create brands with the potential to scale globally.