UK's Hambro Perks launches $50m fund to purchase Mena's early stage start-ups

Hambro Perks, a good London-based investment firm, achieved the initially close of a fresh $50 million venture fund focused on technology investments in the centre East and North Africa.

The Oryx fund will be domiciled in Abu Dhabi Global Industry and has received backing from Jada Fund of Cash (owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund), the Saudi CAPITAL RAISING Firm and Riyadh Valley Firm, among others.

“There is a wealth of talented entrepreneurs developing impressive businesses and we are excited about partnering with them to greatly help them develop their ideas and scale their companies," Dominic Perks, co-founder and chief executive of Hambro Perks, said in a statement.

He will be among the fund's three general partners alongside managing director Ali Qaiser and Ivo Detelinoc, who joins from the Riyad Taqnia Fund. The business will work from bases at Hub71 in Abu Dhabi and in Riyadh.

Interest from capital raising investors in the centre East is picking right up following a amount of high-account successful exits, such as for example Careem's $3.1 billion sale to Uber, which concluded in January this past year. A Mena Venture Investor Ranking article published by Magnitt before this week discovered that 25 per cent of most investors into regional businesses this past year were based outside the region. Of the 256 active investors deploying a complete of $1bn last year, 11 % were located in the US and 7 per cent in the European Economic Spot.

“Despite Covid-19, we saw ongoing interest from foreign investors and brand-new funds investing in Mena-based start-ups," Philip Bahoshy, Magnitt's founder and chief executive, said. He expects to check out increased expenditure in the region "as the ecosystem proceeds to mature".

Hambro Perks runs several funds and focuses on approaches including venture and secondary venture deals, environmental technology and particular situations. It has already made an investment in to the place, backing UAE robo-advisory program Sarwa in its $8.4m Series A funding spherical in January this past year.

“Our investment in the Oryx fund underlines our belief found in the strong probable of venture capital found in Saudi [Arabia]. There can be real talent within the Saudi start-up network, and the Hambro Perks Oryx workforce is an experienced trader in the sector," Al Jada Fund of Funds leader Adel Alateeq said.

”The growth in regional VC activities has drastically increased in recent years and Saudi start-ups could actually attract funding despite the coronavirus pandemic," Khalid Al-Saleh, leader of Riyadh Valley Company, said. "Our investment in Oryx fund is normally directed to further support the entrepreneurship picture in Saudi Arabia and bridge the gap in pre-seed and seed level funding."