Dubai’s Global Ventures closes first fund of $50 million to invest in growth-stage startups across Middle East & Africa

Global Ventures, a Dubai-based VC founded by Noor Sweid who was previously with Leap Ventures and Dubai Future Foundation, has closed its first fund of $50 million, its Managing Partner Basil Moftah revealed in a conversation with MENAbytes earlier today.

The fund that has been investing in startups across the region for a little over two years hit the close earlier this year. It is backed by Jada, the $1 billion fund of funds created by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, UAE’s Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Office, and different other investors.

It has already invested in fifteen startups including Kitopi, HolidayMe, Mumzworld, Elmenus, Floranow, Tribal Credit, Mamo Pay, and SpiderSlik.

Global Ventures is led by Noor Sweid who was previously a managing partner at Beirut-based Leap Ventures and most recently Chief Investment Officer of Dubai Future Foundation, and Basil Moftah, the former president of Intellectual Property & Science at Thomson Reuters. He had led the acquisition of Zawya for Thomson Reuters and exited a $1 billion revenue division of Thomson Reuters to a private equity firm in 2016 for $3.55 billion.

The firm generally invests in revenue-generating startups (with at least $1 million in annual revenue) across Middle East & Africa but has made few exceptions. On its website, Global Venture says that they’re looking for startups that are revenue-generating, industry winners, capital-efficient, immensely scalable and have a clear path to exit.

Noor and Basil shared more details about the kind of businesses that they are looking to invest in, in a MENAbytes Live session earlier today. You can watch the full session here on Facebook.