Endure Capital, an Egyptian venture capital firm, has announced that the first closure of its new $50 million fund for investments in early-stage firms throughout Africa has been completed.
Endure Capital, founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneur Tarek Fahim, has made a name for itself as one of the top VC companies in the area. Its inaugural fund was one of the early institutional investors in Careem, which Uber purchased for US$3.1 billion in 2019. Since then, it has made investments in businesses throughout the world, including MaxAB and Breadfast in Egypt.
With a selective approach to growth-stage firms internationally, its new fund, Endure 21, is its second early-stage venture capital fund and will concentrate its investments largely on impact-driven early-stage startups in Africa.
The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA), the Social Fund for Development in Egypt, the founders of various top startups in the area, and British International Investment (BII), a development finance institution and impact investor based in the UK and formerly known as CDC Group, are among the fund’s limited partners.
With Endure 21, the company will invest in 24 businesses while taking a sector-neutral stance. Half of the capital will be set aside by Endure Capital for additional investments in its portfolio’s top-performing businesses. It has already invested in a number of companies, including Brimore, Cassbana, and Pylon.
“Endure is committed to adding value to the region’s flourishing startup founders, and ecosystem, and we love to partner with founders that relentlessly pursue entrepreneurship as a means for value creation to society and who are building lasting businesses,” said Fahim.
“BII is excited to be partnering with Endure Capital, a well-embedded leading local fund manager in Egypt’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am delighted that our partnership with Endure21 will help support the next generation of visionary entrepreneurs in Egypt, providing them with the capital to build transformative businesses that are creating innovative solutions and accelerating productive, sustainable and inclusive growth across society,” said Abhinav Sinha, managing director and head of technology and telecoms for BII.
