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• Saudi Arabia-based venture capital fund, Khwarizmi Ventures, has announced the first closing of its fund at $63 million.
• The VC, which targets Seed to Series A stage startups across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, was launched in 2018 as a sector-agnostic corporate investor and has to date invested in UAE-based eyewa and TruKKER.
• “Khwarizmi Ventures takes an empathetic entrepreneur-centric approach in enabling the next generation of MENA startups, with an aim to support founders beyond capital by leveraging our vast network and rich expertise,” said Yasser AlKadi, Founding Partner. 

Press Release

 Khwarizmi Ventures (KV), a Saudi-based Venture Capital fund investing in early-stage startups with proven traction (Seed through Series A) in the MENAP region, announced the first closing of its first fund at an oversubscribed $63 million, backed by a broad lineup of high-profile private investors and family offices.

By “Enabling Algorithms That Will Change the Future” and aiding foremost companies of tomorrow in accelerating the reach to their full potential, Khwarizmi aims to be the preferred partner of exceptional entrepreneurs building disruptive startups in the MENA region. The fund has established vast networks and rich experiences in the MENA region and is pursuing scalable opportunities and novel ideas to solve the problems of today’s ever-changing world.

 “Khwarizmi Ventures takes an empathetic entrepreneur-centric approach in enabling the next generation of MENA startups, with an aim to support founders beyond capital by leveraging our vast network and rich expertise,” said Yasser AlKadi, Founding Partner.

 The current sector-agnostic firm started its activity in 2018 as a corporate VC, investing at the very early stages of notable startups in the region including eyewa (online eyewear store, UAE) and TruKKer (on-demand trucking, UAE), and is now closing its first fund as an institutional VC aiming to tap into various industries. The founder-focused firm has also backed a wide group of founders beyond the local regional scene from the farthest end of North Africa (Moroccan, Algerian, Egyptian), crossing the Middle East (Jordanian, Saudi, Bahraini), all the way to Southeast Asia (Indian, Singaporean, Pakistani).

“We are on a mission to back exceptional entrepreneurs who aim to improve the lives of MENAP countries citizens by leveraging the power of technology. Once we invest in a company, we become their supporters in their expansion and growth journey. We’d love for our portfolio companies to think of us as an extension of their teams when tackling matters like expanding to the Saudi market, connecting to strategic partners, recruiting and growth hacking, and securing late-stage funding,” said Abdulaziz Al-Turki, Managing Partner.

Based in Saudi Arabia with experience and access to Europe, North America, North Africa, and the rest of Asia, the KV team is led by Yasser AlKadi as Founding Partner and Abdulaziz Al-Turki as Managing Partner. The enablement-driven fund works with a respectable group of leading advisors in the region comprising of experienced founders and CEOs. In addition to its current pool of dedicated members, KV is keen on incubating talents and building a strong team able to drive its mission in enabling and exploring unprecedented ideas, industries, and regions, and it appears to be on the footpath towards its sectorial and regional growth.