Saudi Arabia Venture Investor Considers Second $500 Million Fund
Saudi Arabia Venture Investor Considers Second $500 Million Fund
(Bloomberg) -- STV, the venture capital investor that backed a Dubai ride-hailing firm before its sale to Uber Technologies Inc., is considering raising a second fund of at least $500 million.
“I definitely see a path to a second fund that is equal or larger to the $500 million fund we have today,” said Chief Executive Officer Abdulrahman Tarabzouni.
Interest in Middle East technology startups has been rising. Uber bought Careem Networks in March for $3.1 billion, while Amazon.com Inc. purchased Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com in 2017. STV expects venture capital investments in Saudi Arabia alone to grow tenfold by 2025, according to a report Wednesday.
STV started operations in 2017 with funding from Saudi Telecom Co., and ex-Google executive Tarabzouni left Silicon Valley to run it. It has already backed companies including e-commerce firm Mrsool and education app Noon Academy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Martin in Dubai at mmartin128@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, Shaji Mathew, Claudia Maedler
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