Wamda Capital plans $100m fund launch

Dubai-based venture capital firm Wamda Capital is set to launch its second investment fund in early 2019. It expects its first close to be in the second quarter of 2019 and is aiming to raise $100 million in capital.

The firm’s first $70 million fund was launched back in 2015 and by the end of last year, 80% of the fund’s capital had been deployed.

Partner Fares Ghandour told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National that the new fund would continue many of the same investment themes, including a focus on fintechs and e-commerce technology.

Investments would also take place at the Series A stage with follow on investments through to Series B.

Some investment will be made at seed stage, the majority of which will feature companies that have graduated from Wamda’s entrepreneurship platform Wamda X.

The platform was partly launched by embattled private equity firm Abraaj, which was also one of the initial investors in the first Wamda fund. However, Ghandour says that the problems facing Abraaj have not hampered Wamda’s fundraising efforts.

While the majority of investments will centre on the Mena region, the fund will also look to extend to Turkey, Africa and Pakistan, according to Ghandour.

©2019 funds global mena

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