Time for startups across North Africa to dust up their pitch decks and get ready to pitch to the Dubai-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm BECO Capital’s BECO Fund II. BECO Capital has just announced that it has closed a capital raise for a $100-million Middle East and North Africa (MENA) focused tech startup fund, BECO Fund II.

Here Is All You Need To Know

• According to BECO Capita, investors in this round of equity capital financing include the Dubai-based Rimco Investments, the International Financial Corporation (IFC), Bahrain’s Al Waha Venture Capital Fund of Funds, Warba Bank, Watar Partners and KAAF Investments.
• The VC said in a statement today that BECO Fund II is “well in excess” of its initial $80-million target and explained that this was driven by the significantly improved technology investment landscape in the region.
• BECO Capital primarily invests in early-stage tech startups with founding and engineering teams based in the MENA region.
• The firm’s investment strategy is to invest in a diverse range of promising startups at the seed and Series-A stage and then provide follow-on capital to its best performing companies.

BECO Capital has previously invested in startups, notably in Egyptian startups Vezeeta, Swvl and MaxAB

BECO Fund I saw investments In 22 Startups, including four exits

The VC firm, which was founded in 2012, has to date made 22 investments. Its portfolio includes Egyptian startups Vezeeta, Swvl and MaxAB.

BECO Capital said its investments have collectively raised over $1-billion in follow-on capital and created over 9000 jobs in the region.

The firm added that its BECO Fund I has had four exits to date. These include Uber’s acquisition of Dubai-based taxi aggregator Careem in March and Cisco’s acquisition of collaboration platform Voicea in August.

Read also: How 5G Connectivity Will Boost The Output Volume of African Startups

BECO Capital co-founder and managing partner Dany Farha said success stories like Careem have produced dozens of highly skilled and experienced individuals who he said have built businesses to global standards and at immense scale.

“We believe these individuals will go on to have the equivalent impact of PayPal in the region, building the next wave of great companies that will serve regional and global markets,” said Farha.

He also pointed out that of late there have been “substantial leaps” in the technology landscape in MENA.

“Companies like SWVL, Wahed and Kitopi, which we have backed, are now exporting business model innovation from MENA to the rest of the world,” said Farha.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world