ALBAWABA — eWTP Arabia Capital reported on Thursday that it was close to raising $1 billion in a fund to back technology startups in China, India, South-East Asia along with the Middle East and North Africa region.
Founded in 2019, the fund is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and China’s Alibaba Capital Partners, the investment arm of Alibaba Group, founded in 2008 and based in Hangzhou, China.
To date it has invested in 16 companies and plans to list three of them on Tadawul, the Saudi Stock Exchange and another two on the United States-based New York Stock Exchange next year, Jerry Li, eWTP Arabia Capital managing and founding partner, told Bloomberg in Riyadh.
“Saudi has a very big market and China has Internet and technology companies that are preparing to expand globally, so one hand has the market, and the other hand has the technology,” Li added.
Li suggested that both Alibaba and the PIF would remain major contributors in the second funding round along with other international investors.
To encourage young entrepreneurs to set up their own startups as a means of diversifying the economy and helping create jobs PIF created a $1 billion fund for venture capital firms while also directing investments through its subsidiary, Sanabil Investments, a financial investment company that commits approximately $ 2 billion in capital per annum in private investments that include venture, growth capital and small buyouts.
