Zain Ventures announced that it will be subscribing to around $10 million through a $100 million PIPE (a private investment in a public entity) in the new SPAC
Less than a week after news of Egyptian-born TransportTech SWVL’s possible SPAC merger broke, one of the region’s biggest telecom groups, Zain, has announced it will be investing into SWVL through its newly launched venture capital arm, Zain Ventures.
Zain Ventures announced that it will be subscribing to around $10 million (approx. 3 million Kuwait dinars) through a $100 million PIPE (a private investment in a public entity) in the new SPAC created between SWVL and Queen’s Gambit growth Capital, according to a statement to the Kuwait stock exchange on Sunday.
“Zain grasped the opportunity to invest in Swvl for reasons that also core to our sustainability, diversity and inclusion corporate strategy: 1. Supporting national transport infrastructure and optimizing mobility; 2. Serving the underprivileged; 3. Sustainability and environmentally friendly; 4. Women empowerment and safety; 5. Unlimited synergies with Zain's footprint across the region,” said Bader Al Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO, in an official statement.
The SWVL and Queen’s Gambit, a NASDAQ-listed company, are planning to merge in a bid to get SWVL onto the NASDAQ stock exchange, which would make it the 2nd ever Egyptian tech startup to go public.
Zain Ventures’ 2nd investment will be into US-based FinTech Pipe, recognized as the world's first trading platform for recurring revenues and one of the fastest FinTech to reach a $2 billion valuation.
The telecom is not the 3rd telecom operator from the GCC to launch a venture capital arm, alongside Mobily and STC Ventures.
Al Kharafi said, “The establishment of Zain Ventures is another step in Zain Group’s ‘4Sight’ strategy and progression to become a full-fledged digital services company. We have already enjoyed tremendous success in the investments we have made in venture capital entities and startups that show promising potential for boosting our revenues in new and developing verticals, and formalizing these investments under a single entity at this time will create shareholder value.”
