▸ Al Salam Bank-Bahrain is an Islamic financial institution licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.
▸ MSA Capital is a Beijing, China-based venture fund focused on investing in AI, genomics, mobility, and SaaS companies globally.
As reported by The National on Wednesday, Bahrain’s Al Salam Bank has partnered with China-based MSA Capital to launch a new $50 million venture capital fund known as ‘Al Salam-MSA Bahrain Fund I’ or ‘MEC Ventures’ – in a move to bring in Chinese technologies and business models to the Middle East.
“Al Salam Bank-Bahrain is uniquely positioned to provide regional access to capital and investment opportunities in the ever-growing Mena market complementing MSA’s deep industry expertise,”
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“MEC Ventures will be an active participant in the regional venture capital landscape which only stands to grow by leveraging on cutting edge China-based technologies and expertise.”
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– Rafik Nayed – CEO, Al Salam Bank
“We believe that the Mena region is nearing an inflection point that can be accelerated through the adoption of Chinese-inspired mobile-first business models. We are proud to partner with Al Salam Bank-Bahrain to establish MEC Ventures, and see Bahrain as a hyper-efficient, user-friendly gateway to the MENA region,”
– Ben Harburg – Managing Director, MSA Capital
About Al Salam Bank, Bahrain
Al Salam Bank is an Islamic lender with assets of about 1.9 billion Bahraini dinars (Dh18.6bn) as of September 30. The bank, which has retail, corporate and private banking arms, increased profit to shareholders by 19 per cent in the three months to September to 4.9m dinars, as total operating income rose 25 per cent to 12.7 million dinars.
About MSA Capital, China
MSA Capital is a Chinese venture capital fund with more than $1bn of assets under management, according to its website. Last month, Al Waha Fund of Funds, an investment vehicle into venture capital owned by the Bahrain government’s sovereign fund, Mumtalakat, announced it would invest into a $250m fund by MSA Capital, which claims to have made 10 investments into the Middle East already.
ⓘ Source: The National
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