Happy New Year and 2021 in Review

From all of us here at Global Ventures, we hope you had a joyful holiday season and wish you all a happy and healthy 2022! As we conclude 2021 and ring in a new year, it is time to put a bow on what has been an extraordinary 12 months for venture capital in emerging markets.

At a macro level, 2022 saw funding records broken ($3 billion in MENA and almost $5 billion in Africa), a shift toward later-stage deals (Series A+ rounds received 56% more investment than in 2020), rising international interest from prominent firms along the lines of Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, and an ever-increasing pool of sophisticated founders building impactful global solutions. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such a brilliant cohort of entrepreneurs who are proving every day that some of the most exciting opportunities of tomorrow will originate from emerging markets!

Four years ago, we set out on a mission: to elevate emerging market founders by providing them with the capital they need to build impactful and successful global businesses. Every year since, we are proud to have made strides toward our mission by building a venture capital firm that is truly founder-centric, holistic, and forthcoming. We continue to believe that our success is a factor of theirs and undoubtedly, in the trust you continue to place in us, for which we are continuously and endlessly grateful for.

In achieving our mission, our work is about identifying and supporting high-potential entrepreneurs from both a returns and impact perspective; in other words, backing the founders who are doing well and doing good. Over the past year:

We are grateful to have been able to raise and close a second fund…
… and to deploy capital in 21 new companies in the accelerated industries of digital health, fintech, edtech, agritech and logistics and mobility
We reached new frontiers and thrilled to have backed our first foundersin Pakistan, Turkey, and Rwanda, bringing our geographic footprint to a grand total of 12 markets
Fund I recorded 4 exits this year - Kitopi, Mumzworld, Lean Technologies and Tribal – returning over 70% of the fund!
We are fortunate to have built an incredible team of 32 analysts, associates, thought leaders and investment professionals with wide-ranging market expertise, now spanning the region: Cairo, Nigeria, Tunisia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Jeddah!
While the past two years have pressure-tested our portfolio founders, we are incredibly proud of the demonstrated resilience and perseverance that have allowed them to bounce back from the year’s unexpected adversity. 86% of them have successfully reached pre-pandemic levels of revenue.

We are grateful to have met many of you at our AGM this year, and hope 2022 brings more of these invaluable shared experiences!

We are entering 2022 with great enthusiasm! The work of our founders, their teams, and the technology they are building is proof that the future is always a source of hope and progress. We are grateful to work with a group of exceptional entrepreneurs and looking forward to partnering with others on their journey toward building impactful and category-defining businesses.

We wish you health and prosperity this new year, and thank you for your unwavering support!