World Bank Backs Egypt’s $50M Venture Capital Program

Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea, executive director of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), on Friday (Feb. 25) announced that the nation is launching a $50 million venture capital program that’s backed by World Bank, MAGNiTT reported.

Gamea has repeatedly “emphasized the state’s interest in supporting young innovators and providing them with technical and financial support to help them turn their ideas into projects that meet the various needs of people,” the report said.

MSMEDA has “taken a particular interest in continually assessing and improving its financial services in order to satisfy the demands of a wide range of projects,” especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Gamea.

The venture capital program will fund new and existing investment funds that support entrepreneurship projects and implement specialized training programs for employees working in financial institutions “to raise awareness of the mechanisms of this type of funding and help them expand their applications.”

Egypt’s VC sector saw 176% year-over-year growth in 2021, the report said, adding that 12 out of the 20 top investors in the region were local, including Flat6Labs, AUC Angles, EdVentures and Foundation Ventures.

Gamea’s announcement came at the opening of the Direct Investment Week, which was co-organized by the Egyptian Association for Direct Investment and the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, in collaboration with the World Bank, the German Agency for International Cooperation, Misr Insurance Holding Company and more than 120 financial and investment professionals present.

Related: MENA cCommerce Platform Zbooni Expands to Egypt

Last week, connected commerce platform Zbooni brought its services to Egypt, where the company said it will provide digital commerce tools to the 33.5 million small- to medium-sized businesses in the North African nation.

Zbooni’s platform will let businesses in Egypt target the country’s more than 50 million social media users, helping them capture orders, take payments and track their progress.