COTU Ventures raises $54m for MENA fund
COTU Ventures has raised $54 million to invest in extraordinary founders in the Middle East and North Africa region.
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COTU Ventures has raised $54 million to invest in extraordinary founders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. COTU stands for Champions of the Underdog, a philosophy that embodies the firm's strategy, investing at the Pre-Seed and Seed stages, where founders are most underestimated.
The new fund's limited partners include Lunate, Mubadala, Dubai Future District Fund, Arab Bank and Bupa KSA, to name a few.
"I've been a part of the regional ecosystem since 2008, and it's come a long way since then," said Amir Farha, founder and general partner of COTU Ventures. "Saudi Arabia has opened up internationally, and governments have been driving policies and investment to activate the technology sectors of their local economies. We have a young and growing population of tech-savvy, digitally connected consumers with substantial spending power. When you combine all of this with remarkably low customer acquisition costs and some of the highest revenues per user, there has never been a better and more profitable time to invest in the region than today."
The new fund is sector-agnostic with a focus on identifying and supporting talented founders at the inception of their idea to post-product launch, typically investing between $500,000 to $1.5 million as a first cheque. To date, the fund has invested in over 20 early-stage companies, including Huspy, the largest mortgage platform in the UAE (backed by Peak XV, Founders Fund and Fifth Wall); Supy, a UAE-based ResTech platform; MoneyHash, an Egyptian fintech startup; and Sirdab, a storage and warehouse management solution in Saudi Arabia.
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