Endure Capital, Egypt’s VC Firm, Closes First Round of its New $50M Fund
Endure Capital, an Egyptian-based early-stage investment fund, has completed the first close of its new $50 million fund from British International Investment (BII) – the UK’s Development Finance Institution and impact investor, formerly known as CDC Group; The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) – Egypt’s Social Fund for Development; and founders of various leading startups in the region to invest in pan-African early-stage startups.
Endure Capital’s second early-stage venture capital fund, dubbed ‘Endure 21,’ will invest primarily in impact-driven early-stage startups in Africa, with a selective approach to growth-stage startups globally.
Commenting on the first close of its second fund, Tarek Fahim, founder and managing partner of Endure Capital said, “Endure is committed to adding value to the region’s flourishing startup founders, and ecosystem, and we love to partner with founders that relentlessly pursue entrepreneurship as a means for value creation to society and who are building lasting businesses.”
Endure has also launched the Endure Opportunity Fund, which will invest twice as much as its previous top investments. “We are here to serve our founders long-term, and we want to invest in their startups throughout their lifecycle – our strategy as a firm is to provide patient, long-term support to entrepreneurs,” Fahim added.
What the Investors are Saying
Abhinav Sinha, Managing Director and Head of Technology and Telecoms, British International Investment says “BII is excited to be partnering with Endure Capital, a well-embedded leading local fund manager in Egypt’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am delighted that our partnership with Endure21 will help support the next generation of visionary entrepreneurs in Egypt, providing them with the capital to build transformative businesses that are creating innovative solutions and accelerating productive, sustainable, and inclusive growth across society.”
Also, Hany Emad, Director and Head of the central sector for financing small projects at MSMEDA said “MSMEDA is proud to partner with Endure Capital to promote the Egyptian economy by supporting the entrepreneurial environment and enabling young innovators and entrepreneurs.”
For its second fund, Mohamed Noweir joined Endure Capital as a partner to lead the investment team. Noweir has over 15 years of business and startup experience across IBM, McKinsey & Company, Careem, and Rocket Internet.
The new partner said “There are a lot of exceptional founders in the region and we are super excited to partner with them early on in their entrepreneurial journey. And we are also thrilled to kickstart “Endure…Pay it Forward” initiative where we work with our portfolio founders to mentor aspiring founders and give back to our new budding startup environment.”
About Endure Capital
Tarek Fahim founded Endure Capital in 2015. The early-stage investment backer has since established itself as one of the region’s leading VC firms. Its first fund was an early institutional investor in Careem, which was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. The acquisition remains the largest tech exit in the Middle East to date. Also. Endure’s first fund also included regional B2B e-commerce leader MaxAB and Breadfast, the grocery delivery startup that pioneered dark stores in Egypt.
Furthermore, Boom Supersonic, Tribal Credit, and Aspect Biosystems are among the international iconic startups in Endure’s debut portfolio. The first fund has a 43 percent IRR and a 4.3x multiple on its investments, putting it in the top quartile of performing funds in its vintage year.
However, Endure 21 will take a sector-agnostic approach and invest in 24 companies. Endure Capital will also set aside half of the fund for follow-on investments in its portfolio’s top performers.
The new fund has already made several investments, including co-leading Series A of Brimore, Egypt’s leading social commerce platform; investing in Cassbana, a BNPL alternative credit solution for SMEs; and investing in Pylon, a smart infrastructure startup that provides subscription-based “Smart Metering as a Service” (SMaaS) for emerging market electricity and water companies.