Cairo Angels, an Egyptian angel investor network, has announced the inaugural closing of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF), a Delaware-based angel fund that will invest between $100,000 and $250,000 in Middle Eastern and African firms.
Cairo Angels was Egypt’s first organised network of angel investors when it launched, and it has since become one of the Middle East and Africa’s most active early-stage investors in startups and high-growth firms, with 31 investee companies in 18 different industries.
Its syndicate fund is a tiny venture capital fund that focuses on Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, investing in post-seed and pre-Series A firms.
CASF also negotiates additional co-investment rights for its LPs on a deal-by-deal basis, allowing the fund’s investors to double down on their commitment.
With its first closure, the fund is ready to deploy cash, and it is already in talks with a number of firms that suit its investment thesis, which seeks sector-agnostic, early-stage scalable platforms with strong technical teams and domain knowledge.
CASF consciously focused fundraising for the first closure on private investors and family offices in order to democratise access to this new asset class. The sole exception was one institutional investor, who has made a soft commitment to participate and assist the fund and will formally join in the first quarter of next year.
CASF will now concentrate on closing the deal and meeting its fundraising goal of $5 million, for which it is in advanced talks.
“This fund is a natural step in the evolution of the Cairo Angels,” said Aly El Shalakany, chief executive officer (CEO) of CASF.
“It couples our already strong deal sourcing platform with a faster and more rigorous due diligence and capital deployment capability further down the value chain. This is the new missing middle.”
