Vision Ventures, a Saudi Arabia-based early-stage venture capital firm that backs tech-led startups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has secured a limited partner commitment from a Jordanian fund-of-fund for its second investment outing.
The Riyadh-headquartered VC firm, which manages a portfolio of over 40 companies, has onboarded Jordan’s Innovative Startups and Small and Medium Enterprises Fund (ISSF) for its second vehicle, Saqr Fund II. ISSF has committed $5 million to the $90 million target fund to invest in Jordanian startups. This is the World Bank and the Central Bank of Jordan-backed ISSF’s seventh limited partner-style bet this year.
Vision Ventures has backed over 46 companies since its establishment in 2016. These include fashion marketplace Dabchy, healthy online food delivery platform Calo, restaurant management company Foodics, social immersive video app Vuz, cryptocurrency exchange Rain, and mobile games publisher Tamatem.
It has so far exited six investments, including Saudi fintech unicorn Tamara, SaaS company Social Dice, lunch delivery at work platform MunchOn, gyrocopter provider Gyrocraft, point of sale platform POSRocket, and online media publication MENABytes. While Vision Ventures is essentially sector-agnostic, it focuses on sectors including fintech, SaaS, cybersecurity, and infrastructure technologies. It backs companies across investment stages, from seed to pre-Series B.
“Vision Ventures has been one of the most active investors in the region since 2019, with investments in the region, including Jordan…Through our partnership with ISSF we intend to continue this role and explore additional synergies,” said Kais Al Essa, founding partner and CEO, Vision Ventures.
Vision Ventures has already started deploying from Saqr Fund II, and has invested in Saudi Arabia’s full-stack inventory management platform for the retail industry Rewaa.
"Our investment in Vision Ventures aligns with our vision of catalyzing the growth of our ecosystem of innovative startups in Jordan and providing them with accelerated access to the Saudi and GCC markets," said Mohammed Al Muhtaseb, CEO, ISSF.
In October, ISSF backed Riyadh-based tech-focused, growth-stage investment vehicle Rua Growth Fund I, the first venture capital fund by Riyadh-based investment firm Osool&Bakheet, in partnership with Abu Dhabi-based venture capital investment firm iMENA Group.
ISSF is a $98 million fund, whose portfolio includes vehicles by Shorooq Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Arzan Venture Capital, Access Bridge Ventures, Global Ventures, Flat6Labs, and Oryx Fund.
ISSF, which commits up to $ 15 million in venture capital firms, was established in 2017 with $50 million financing from the World Bank and an additional $48 million from the Central Bank of Jordan and seeks to support Jordanian businesses. The fund, established following the recommendation of the Jordanian Economic Policy Council, earlier this year invested $5 million in MSA Novo’s $200 million target Middle East and North Africa-focused fund.
ISSF backs funds seeking to raise between $750,000 and $ 2 million.
In July, ISSF invested $5 million in Global Ventures, which manages a portfolio of over 60 companies. ISSF is a returning limited partner for its $200 million target Global Ventures Fund III. In March this year, ISSF made an additional $1.5 million commitment to Amman-based Propeller Ventures' $15 million second investment vehicle, taking its total funding to $ 5 million.