Shorooq Partners Launches $150M Seed Fund

Shorooq Partners, a United Arab Emirates-based early-stage venture capital firm that serves the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan region, has launched the second edition of its seed stage-focused fund of $150 million, the firm announced Wednesday (March 23).

Like its previous financing schemes, the Bedaya Fund II was developed to fund startups. The latest pool of cash continues Shorooq Partners’ long-term strategy to double down on the earliest stages of the startup founders’ journey.

The new fund will focus on pre-seed, seed, pre-Series A, and Series A stage startups in FinTech, software, platform verticals and digital assets, the company said. This is aligned with the firm’s fundamental principle of acting as founders’ partners, company builders and value investors, per the release.

“We have always been early movers, be that robo-advisory, crowdfunding, small- and medium-sized business lending, open banking, card issuer processing, and so forth,” Shorooq Partners Founding Partner Shane Shin said in a statement. “We believe Web 3.0 models like DeFi, NFT, metaverse are going to be the key players in the next iteration of online business.”

In February, PYMNTS reported Shorooq Partners was part of the investment team for TruKKer, a Saudi Arabia-headquartered digital freight network. The round raised $96 million in a mix of debt and equity Series B financing.

See more: TruKKer Secures $96M in Series B Funding Round

At the time, the company planned to use the capital to expand in existing markets in the Middle East and Central Asia and launch new products and features, TruKKer Chief Financial Officer Amit Agarwal said.

The firm said the round was led by ADQ, an Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company, and Saudi Technology Ventures. There was also participation from of Mubadala Capital Ventures, an Abu Dhabi-headquartered global ventures platform, and the Public Investment Fund-backed Riyad Taqnia Fund.