Since its launch in 2018, Al Waha Fund of Funds has played the role of one of the main pillars of support for Bahrain’s burgeoning startup ecosystem. Be it in helping startup founders with the highest-quality mentorship, or access to a global network of investors and entrepreneurs, Al Waha is a one-stop platform dedicated to helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs reach their full potential.
And while Al Waha is a Fund of Funds (meaning it invests in other funds)startups can still benefit a lot from them. In this article today, we’re going to present a brief overview of how you, as a budding startup, can benefit from Al Waha Fund of Funds, and the perks you’ll be entitled to along the way.
But before we jump into that, let’s begin with a brief background about Al Waha Fund of Funds.
What is Al Waha Fund of Funds?
First of all, the Al Waha Fund of Funds is not your run-of-the-mill startup fund, which is perhaps evident from its moniker itself. It is a Bahraini public and private sector-led initiative that provides capital to venture capital firms that meet its eligibility criteria.
For example, just a couple of months back Al Waha made a substantial investment in the Bedaya Fund I, a seed-stage fund by venture capital firm Shorooq Partners.
With $100 million at its disposal at launch, the Fund of Funds is primarily focused on addressing the needs of the nascent venture capital community in Bahrain, as well as the broader MENA region.
Among Al Waha’s portfolio companies are some of the leading global VCs including 500 Startups, BECO Capital, MEVP, Shorooq Partners, MSA Capital, among others.
How your startup can apply to receive support from Al Waha Fund of Funds
Let’s get to the real reason why you’re reading this article, you wanna know how to benefit from Al Waha Fund of Funds right? You’d be happy to know that Al Waha can basically help you in three main ways:
- Offering mentorship.
- Connecting you with Venture Capital firms (VCs).
- Access to markets.
Startups from pretty much any industry including FinTech, AgriTech, AdTech, SaaS, IoT, Content, and more can make the most of the previously mentioned support. Since being offered mentorship and access to markets seem pretty clear, we want to help you understand the process of getting you connected to VCs.
Naturally speaking, Al Waha Fund of Funds has a list of funds they’ve invested in so far, and that means their website is a handy directory of VCs who are interested in Bahrain. How? It’s quick and easy to find the list:
- Visit their website over here.
- Head over to their ‘Portfolio’ page right here to view the list of portfolio VCs.
The list of portfolio funds includes:
- BECO Capital
- MEVP
- 500 Falcons
- Finch Capital
- MSA Capital
- Shorooq Partners
Impressed? Great! But that’s not the only way Al Waha links your startup to VCs. It has always been an integral part of Al Waha’s mission to provide supportive efforts that boost the startup ecosystem not just in Bahrain, but the Middle East as a whole. This is manifested through their creating of a culture of knowledge, awareness, and connection between startups and VCs; by building and co-hosting workshops, virtual VC office hours that you can register for through their events page over here, and other events in collaboration with VCs.
Further contributing to the empowerment of the ecosystem – hence the economy, Al Waha takes high regard of providing knowledge-transfer, and building local engagement, not to mention actively encouraging company expansion into Bahrain.
Don’t miss out on all of these incredible opportunities offered by Al Waha Fund of Funds! And if you have any further queries about Al Waha Fund of Funds, don’t hesitate to reach out to us using any of our social media channels over at Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn!
