UAE’s ADQ Launches $100M Tech Fund in Jordan

The United Arab Emirates’ ADQ has launched a $100 million technology-focused venture capital fund with the Jordanian Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MoDEE), according to a company press release.

The fund is designed to support high-growth tech firms and the ongoing growth of the digital economy in Jordan, the release stated.

The fund will specialize in companies in several different fields, including information technology; telecommunications; financial services; food and agriculture, healthcare and life sciences; mobility and logistics; and clean energy technology, according to the release.

Twenty-seven percent of tech entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are from Jordan, which hosts more than 600 tech companies, the release stated.

“Jordan’s dynamic marketplace offers vast investment potential in sectors where we have significant expertise,” said ADQ Managing Director and CEO H.E. Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi in the release. “… [W]e intend to accelerate growth opportunities and market access for companies, entrepreneurs and funds that are at the cutting-edge of technology.”

Based in Abu Dhabi, ADQ bills itself as one of the region’s largest holding companies, with investments in a broad swath of the economy.

Earlier this year, Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates gave its blessing to Wio, a new digital banking platform backed by ADQ, which owns a 65% stake in the bank along with investment holding company Alpha Dhabi.

Read more: UAE Approves New Digital Bank Wio

ADQ has said the bank was set to launch a beta version, initially aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The launch of ADQ’s new fund comes at a time when funding for startups in in the MENA region is on the rise.

See more: Investment in MENA Startups More Than Doubled in Q1 to $864M

Investments in startups in that part of the world more than doubled in the first quarter of 2022, hitting $864 million, even as the region’s economies were still recovering from the pandemic.