Italian B2B Innovation Platform GELLIFY to Launch $24 Million MENA Fund in 2021

GELLIFY, an Italian accelerator and investment firm, has announced a new €20 million ($24 million) MENA fund, set to launch in 2021. The fund will focus on B2B SaaS startups in healthcare, wellbeing, education, culture, wealth and finance, environment and sustainability, hospitality and entertainment.

GELLIFY already has operations in Dubai, but with this fund hope to tap into and stimulate the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region

“We are scouting startups to start investing with our own funds and mid next year we will also open a fund to attract other investors from Europe,” said Massimo Cannizzo (pictured), CEO of GELLIFY Middle East. “There is a fragmentation in the innovation ecosystem in the Middle East, capital is available but the ability to connect to that capital is difficult.”

They currently have a €80 million fund in Europe and are hoping to help their European startups expand into the Middle East and vice-versa, with Canizzo adding, “The weakest part of the bridge of all these [regional] ecosystems is exporting to the rest of the world. We import a lot, but if we don’t export our startups from the Middle East to the rest of the world, we will never make another unicorn. B2C requires a lot of consumers to grow, but in B2B when you have a nice solution it is easier to sell it globally.”