Animoca Brands Expands to the Middle East and Appoints Omar Elassar as Managing Director

Animoca Brands today announced its official expansion into the Middle East, with a presence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to meet the growing demands of Web3 organizations moving into the region. The company has also appointed Omar Elassar as managing director for the Middle East and head of global strategic partnerships.

Omar will oversee the company's Middle East growth and operations, and will play a key role in advancing Animoca Brands' presence in the region. The new location will serve as a hub to engage with local and international partners, foster innovation, and guide strategic direction, operations, and partnership initiatives to enhance the company's presence in the Middle East.

Omar is a Web3 veteran that brings eight years of strategic Web3‑native, technology and financial business development experience to Animoca Brands in the Middle East. Prior to Animoca Brands, he held senior executive roles in growth strategy and business development at major Web3 protocols such as Polkadot, via Parity Technologies, and Ripple, where he spearheaded strategic partnerships and investments across gaming, music, decentralised social networks, real‑world‑asset tokenization (RWA), and payments. Before Omar entered the Web3 industry, he worked across corporate and technology strategy, as well as financial advisory at firms including Oliver Wyman, Deloitte, and Morgan Stanley. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, and an Honours degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada.