UAE’s Alpha Dhabi to Invest $2.5B in Alpha Wave Ventures II Fund

Considered one of the UAE’s fastest-growing investment holding companies, ADX-listed firm, Alpha Dhabi, has announced that it will invest $2.5 billion in Alpha Wave Ventures II, a VC fund run by Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Capital and New York’s Alpha Wave.

The fund has hit the ground running and already made a handful of investments under a global remit that sees it target multi-stage private firms, with a focus on growth stage companies. The fund also focuses on an eclectic range of sectors, with everything from artificial intelligence, fintech, B2B services, to  consumer internet and life sciences cited as targets. What ties these seemingly diverse sectors is Alpha Dhabi’s growth strategy, part of which is to invest in disruptive tech that can feed into the UAE’s goal of fostering a diversified, tech-enabled and competitive economy and culture of innovation. 

“We continually look at investments in disruptive technologies as a means of advancing our group of operating subsidiaries which include market leaders in their respective sectors,” said Hamad Al Ameri, CEO of Alpha Dhabi. “As a cornerstone and significant investor in this fund, we are able to firmly demonstrate this commitment to innovation, technology and growth-stage companies while also adding scale to our investment portfolio and delivering superior returns for our shareholders.”

The news comes off the back of an impressive 2021 for VC funding in UAE, which reached $1.17 billion - a large portion of the $6.8 billion raised across the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Turkey. With 1,329 investments recorded, fintech led the charts of the most prolific sectors, followed by ecommerce and then transport & logistics.  

Alpha Dhabi’s investment will be divided into a capital contribution of $708 million and an undrawn capital commitment of $1.8 billion, which will be drawn down over the investment period of the fund.