Azimut Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of European asset manager Azimut, partnered with innovation platform Gellify Middle East to launch a $50 million venture capital fund focused on business-to-business start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The Azimut Gellify Mena VC Fund will invest in start-ups in the seed stage, market phase and those ready to scale up, the companies said in a statement on Monday.
The start-ups will have the potential to create disruptive innovation in areas including smart cities, healthcare, digital commerce, FinTech, Industry 4.0 and tourism with the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain and cyber security, the statement added.
We aim to replicate our experience in Europe where we have made successful exits and, in the process, enhance the innovation capacity of the region
Massimo Cannizzo, chief executive and co-founder, Gellify Middle East
“We aim to replicate our experience in Europe where we have made successful exits and, in the process, enhance the innovation capacity of the region,” Massimo Cannizzo, chief executive and co-founder of Gellify Middle East, said.
Investments in start-ups have boomed in recent months, following a brief pandemic-induced slump over the past year. Mena start-ups raised $1.2 billion in the first half of 2021, up 64 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, according to data platform Magnitt. However, the number of deals dropped by 20 per cent to 254 as angel investors diverted funds towards more traditional asset classes such as stock markets and property.
The UAE led in terms of deal numbers, securing 61 per cent of all investments. Major funding rounds in the first six months of the year included $415m for Dubai’s cloud kitchen company Kitopi, $30.5m for Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce platform Sary and $30m for Egypt-based freight start-up Trella. Digital payments start-up Paymob also secured $15m in new funding to expand its operations across the region as the coronavirus pandemic prompts a surge in cashless transactions.
The top three Mena centres – the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – accumulated 71 per cent of total capital invested during the period, the Magnitt data showed. The UAE closed 65 deals in the first half of the year, accounting for 26 per cent of all transactions in the Mena region. Egypt and Saudi Arabia were ranked second and third with 24 per cent and 21 per cent of transactions, respectively.
Dubai ranked 30th in the world in terms of its ability to attract venture capital and 32nd in a category that evaluated how well start-ups are funded, according to the first Innovation in Business Index from Finom, a business-to-business financial platform in the Netherlands. The index assessed more than 100 cities across the world.
Gellify Middle East is open to receiving applications from start-ups that are relevant to the fund’s target investment portfolio, the statement said.
The Gellify business platform supports start-ups from the ideation stage to the launch of a minimum viable product into the market, up until it is ready for a successful scale up and growth.
In 2019, Azimut and Gellify raised €65m ($75.3m) for the Digitech Fund – a venture capital fund predominantly focused on European start-ups, according to the statement.
The partners have also been co-investing in the Middle East. In June this year, the Azimut Gellify Digitech Fund invested an undisclosed amount in Workfam – a UAE-based employee SaaS platform company – to help it scale up.
“The Middle East governments are committed to innovation and have successfully taken steps to make their economies more digital,” Maroun Jalkh, chief executive of Azimut Middle East, said. “We see great potential for both high returns for investors and creating innovation opportunities in the GCC.”
Gellify, based in Italy, connects high-tech business-to-business start-ups with traditional companies to innovate their processes, products and business models, while Azimut is a European independent asset manager active since 1989.
Updated: October 18th 2021, 10:20 AM
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