BIM Ventures launches second fund “BIM Investments II” valued at $32M
Venture Building studio BIM Ventures announces the launch of its Second Fund “BIM Investments II” with a value of $32M (SAR 120M) to contribute to the region’s startup ecosystem.
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BIM Ventures (Business Innovation Mine), a Venture Building studio, has launched its second venture building investment fund, “BIM Investments II” with a value of $32M (SAR 120M) in its pursuit to effectively contribute to the region’s startup ecosystem through venture building. BIM Investments II's strategy will primarily focus on building startups alongside founders, starting with idea validation and until market launch. It will also provide emerging local tech companies with the capital, expertise, and operational support they need to grow and prosper in the market. Moreover, BIM Investments II has an allocation for direct investments in follow-on rounds, which will enable and support startups in their spin-off from the studio.
The MENA region has been a strong center for VC interest having aggregated over $800M in the first quarter of the year, as seen in our MENA Q1 2022 Venture Investment Report. Aside from raising sizable rounds including a couple of Mega rounds ($100M+) this year, the region has also witnessed the launch of many MENA-focused funds this year. Topping the list is the $100M fund launched by DIFC, aimed at fueling FinTech innovation and entrepreneurship in the region, a fund launched by Flat6Labs and SVC to empower Saudi-based startups, and SHUAA Capital and Shorooq Partners each launched funds to support Early-Stage startups and new players, earlier this year. The region has been seeing active efforts towards empowering startups, recently, CE-Creates, the business incubation platform of Crescent Enterprises has merged its portfolio of startups with Abu Dhabi-based Hatch & Boost, to oversee the acceleration and growth of select startups.
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BIM investments II will focus on property technologies (Proptech), investment technologies (InvestTech), financial technologies (FinTech) and will be open to platform verticals in other sectors. In addition, BIM will continue to concentrate on Saudi-born ideas and startups while exploring ideas in the MENA region by launching its satellite offices in Egypt and the UAE later this year. Majid AlOsaimi, Chairman of the Board of Directors, stated that: “This step comes to actively contribute to the investment and innovation ecosystem in the Kingdom and the region, in line with the initiatives and support that the entrepreneurship system receives under the Kingdom's Vision 2030. We significantly value the trust and support of our investors and business partners, and we are thankful to the distinguished BIM team that works around the clock to build innovative startups.”
The venture studio’s first fund, “BIM Investments I”, was launched in January 2020 as the first pure-play fund for a venture building studio in Saudi Arabia, and it had co-built and invested in 20 tech startups. BIM targets pre-inception ideas, Pre-SEED, and SEED-stage tech startups. Mohamed Amine Merah, BIM’s Founder and managing partner, emphasized that “This investment vehicle is a continuation of its predecessor and is aligned with the venture-building fundamental principle in acting as institutional co-founders.” He also added “BIM philosophy is to make sure founders build business models that prioritize financial sustainability. We believe in startups that balance strong growth and healthy cash flows by being capital efficient and focusing on unit economics that make sense early in the building journey.”
Rayan AlSharif, the Investment Partner, commented on the fund launch, “We find the Saudi market today to be competitive and rapidly growing, creating qualitative challenges that allow emerging companies to have many opportunities. Accordingly, in the second fund, we aim to develop innovative business models in cooperation with our partners and use our capabilities to efficiently verify the idea's feasibility and then invest in and build it to accelerate its growth and sustainability.”
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