Al Waha Fund of Funds, which indirectly provides venture capital to Bahraini start-ups, aims to deploy all of its inaugural $100 million fund within the next two to three years, after allocating 45 per cent of it since its launch last June, a senior executive said.

Al Waha was set up by Bahrain Development Bank, a development finance institution, last June. Through its fund of funds framework, it distributes financing to existing global and regional VC funds, which in turn allocate funding to start-ups according to their own policies.

Bahrain, like other Arabian Gulf states, is working to increase the number of small and medium-sized enterprises to boost economic growth. The country has a debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of 85 per cent, the highest in the GCC, and had a budget deficit of around $3.5bn in 2017 – although this is set to fall by 35 per cent under Bahrain’s proposed budget for 2019-2020.

Source Credit: The National
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