Cairo – Mubasher: Sawari Ventures on Monday announced closing its venture capital arm that focuses on investing in Egypt with a total value of EGP 440 million.

The venture capital fund brings in finances from Misr Insurance Group, Ekuity Holding, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, and Suez Canal Bank.

The fund previously announced closing EGP 650 million of investments from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the UK’s CDC Group, Proparco, the private sector development arm of the French Development Agency (AFD); the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), which is managed by Triple Jump, and Sango Capital, a South African fund.

The new closures raise the fund’s total capital to more than EGP 1 billion, directed towards investing in Egyptian tech startups.

Founder and Chairman of Sawari Ventures, Ahmed El Alfi, said that the fund was established as a privately-held entity, regulated by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), with the aim of achieving returns by investing in the capital of technology and knowledge-driven companies.