Arab Angel Fund founder Kyle Hendrick explores how Gulf investors can make the most of the United States’ tech start-up scene
In cafes and conference rooms across the world’s leading and emerging technology capitals, it is not uncommon to hear the same conversation-starter.
Members of the investment community invariably introduce themselves by giving their name before proudly pronouncing: “I am an early stage investors in such and such.”
This sense of pride and recognition generated by their involvement in an early stage tech start up investment does not currently exist in the Gulf Cooperation Council but is something that is on the horizon.
I have spent a significant amount of time working with sovereign investment vehicles, state-owned-enterprises, family offices and high-net-worth individuals from the GCC regarding their investments and the diversification of their portfolios.
When analysing the assets in the portfolios of a HNWI or family offices you will typically see some similar investment patterns. In most cases, these pattern investments include real estate, local capital markets, fixed income and longterm equities, a trading company, a local sponsorship agency and a hospitality or food and beverage entity. In some cases you have savvy investors that are engaged in hedge funds and private equity funds but rarely do you see allocation to the venture capital asset class.
I started to explore and learn more about why this was the case and what opportunities exist for investors to access the VC community in the United States.
Venture capital investments have not been a ‘foreign’ or ‘unchartered’ asset class to the likes of sovereign investment vehicles. The recent $3.5bn investment into Uber by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is testament to the confidence of VC-backed tech growth companies.
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