Venture capital firm VentureSouq has launched a $50 million fund focused on fintech across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and Pakistan.
The fund will invest in early stage fintech and SaaS companies focussed on areas such as payments infrastructure, alternative credit, digital banking, proptech, insurtech and personal financial management.
Regional powerhouses backing the fund include Jada Fund of Funds programme and Saudi Venture Capital Company, Bahrain’s Al Waha Fund of Funds, UAE’s DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform and Mubadala Investment Company, as well as multinational conglomerates such as OFC.
So far, investments have already been made in regional BNPL firm Tabby, Saudi-based B2B marketplace Sary, UAE-based Flexxpay and Pakistan's digital ledger platform Creditbook.
VentureSouq general partner Suneel Gokhale says: "Based on what we have seen in other emerging markets that we have invested in, we believe it is still early days in terms of the fintech ecosystem in the Mena region and we are really excited about the overall opportunity set.”