Established in 2023, Rasmal Ventures LLC is the first independent venture capital (VC) company in Qatar. The company today announced the opening of Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC, its first domestic venture capital fund.
It will be managed by a highly skilled group of venture capital experts who have collectively managed over 100 venture deals and remarkable exits. This new fund will be the first to be established in Qatar.
The historic endeavor hopes to secure investments totaling $100 million. It includes a prominent institutional investor, family offices, and individual high-net-worth investors from Qatar and around the globe for its first closing of more than $30 million.
The Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) has Rasmal Innovation Fund LLC, a Qatar-based company, registered under registration number 02532.
The fund’s investment objectives are to support high-performing and innovative technology startups and scaleups in Qatar, the MENA region as a whole, and abroad at the pre-Series A, Series A, and Series B stages. Although the fund will agnostically scout all technology sectors, supply chain logistics, fintech, artificial intelligence (AI), and climate and energy tech are among its strategic interests.
The Third National Development Strategy (NDS3) of the nation is fully aligned with the establishment of Rasmal Innovation Fund I LLC, as it seeks to facilitate the development of a thriving tech ecosystem supported by convenient access to a variety of funding and investment opportunities.
The fund is supported by a group of seasoned venture capitalists, such as Alexander Wiedmer and Angus Paterson, who were previously partners at Iris Capital and STC Ventures. Careem is the first unicorn in the Middle East, and the fund was the first to invest in it, among other successful ventures.
Both have over ten years of experience in the GCC and more than twenty years of individual venture capital experience.
Kahramaa Dr. Shaikha Al Jabir, the founding director of Doha Tech Angels and a former executive at Ooredoo, and Soumaya Ben Beya Dridje, who has experience in venture capital, fund investment, and entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Europe, and North Africa, also join them.
