Recipients also include UAE-based Venture Capital firm Global Ventures

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has invested 60 million UAE dirhams ($16.3 million) in a new batch of startups and fund managers through its Ventures Fund.  

The recipients, according to ADIO, include: Securrency, TruKKer, Sarwa, YACOB and Okadoc. These startups are innovation-focused companies that are either based in Abu Dhabi or expanding into the emirate.

ADIO also signed its first investment in a Venture Capital (VC) firm, UAE-based Global Ventures, it said in the statement.

The VC firm received funding through the Ventures Fund’s New Fund Manager Programme, which matches every dirham raised by the VC in the private market.

The company is a growth-focused VC investing in revenue-generating enterprise technology companies that can scale and create impact in emerging markets.

Tariq Bin Hendi, Director General of ADIO, said: “The Ventures Fund was created to deepen Abu Dhabi’s innovation ecosystem and ensure big thinking is not constrained by limited capital.

Once a startup is operational, Abu Dhabi is safe ground for innovation and a place where entrepreneurs can confidently take commercial and creative risks. ADIO is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs, we want to give startups the opportunity to become the next regional, or perhaps even global, tech success story.”

Ventures Fund opened in May 2019 as an initiative of the Abu Dhabi Government’s Ghadan 21 accelerator programme.

The fund is supporting the growth of Abu Dhabi’s startup and venture capital ecosystem by increasing access to capital and stimulating the number of high skilled jobs in the UAE capital’s growing technology sector.

source: zawya