Beco Capital, a Dubai-based venture capital firm, raised $100 million (Dh367m) through its second fund, $20m more than its initial target as appetite for investments in start-ups grows.
The higher demand for Beco Fund II was driven by "the significantly improved technology investment landscape" in the region, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The second fund received backing from a number of investors in Beco Capital's first fund including the International Finance Corporation, a development finance arm of the World Bank, and Rimco Investment. New investors include Warba Bank, Al Waha Venture Capital Fund of Funds, an investment vehicle owned by Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, and family offices such as Watar Partners and KAAF Investments.
“Success stories like Careem have produced dozens of highly-skilled and experienced individuals, who have built businesses to global standards and at immense scale. We believe these individuals will go on to have the equivalent [effect] of PayPal in the region, building the next wave of great companies that will serve regional and global markets,” said Dany Farha, co-founder and managing partner at Beco Capital.
Ride hailing company Careem, which was sold to competitor Uber in a $3.1 billion deal earlier this year, was one of 22 investments Beco Capital made via its first fund and one of four exits from the fund to date. Beco Capital has also backed three companies started by ex-Careem employees.
Other notable investments have included the backing of Dubai-based real estate portal Property Funder, which raised $120m in its last funding round.
The company typically invests in early-stage start-ups that have founders and engineering teams based in the region at both seed and Series A funding stages, but then provides follow-on funds for the best-performing companies in its portfolio.
"We're still going to be focusing on seed and Series A as we were in the first fund, but with follow-ons we have more reserves given the fund size," co-founder and managing partner Amir Farha told The National, saying that it typical reserves around 50 per cent of funding to invest in follow-on funding.
He said that the new fund took about two years to raise.
"We were raising at a time when people were still questioning whether there were viable exit opportunities for these companies, and then during the period of raising we had one massive exit (Careem). It didn't really help us that much because we had at that point raised a significant part of the fund but at that point it just brought about more demand for the asset class."
He said that more companies in the region have been able to raise bigger rounds of capital, both from international investors and from local investors seeking better returns than are available elsewhere.
"People are getting more aware of this asset class. They start seeing these younger entrepreneurs emerging with bigger ideas," Amir Farha said. "Secondly, the market is not great in other sectors. That benefits us because, by default, investors look to find other sources of returns and this happens to be one of the best at this point in the market.
"Real estate is a difficult asset class right now in the region, public market are somewhat turbulent and private equity as an asset class in the region is struggling. By default, they are more open to other asset classes."
In July, technology platform Magnitt, which tracks venture capital investment in the region, said that a record number of start-up investment deals took place in the first half of 2019. The amount of funds raised increased by 66 per cent to $471m and the number of deals increased by 28 per cent to 238.
Al Jazira's foreign quartet for 2017/18
Romarinho, Brazil
Lassana Diarra, France
Sardor Rashidov, Uzbekistan
Mbark Boussoufa, Morocco
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SHAITTAN
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The Energy Research Centre
Founded 50 years ago as a nuclear research institute, scientists at the centre believed nuclear would be the “solution for everything”.
Although they still do, they discovered in 1955 that the Netherlands had a lot of natural gas. “We still had the idea that, by 2000, it would all be nuclear,” said Harm Jeeninga, director of business and programme development at the centre.
"In the 1990s, we found out about global warming so we focused on energy savings and tackling the greenhouse gas effect.”
The energy centre’s research focuses on biomass, energy efficiency, the environment, wind and solar, as well as energy engineering and socio-economic research.
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
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Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
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