Hasan Haider and Sharif El-Badawi have launched Plus Venture Capital (+VC), a $60 million fund. The duo are former managing partners at 500 Startups MENA.

Plus Venture Capital is headquartered in Bahrain but has offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The new fund plans on investing in 120 early-stage startups across the MENA region, most of which are focused on tech and tech-related startups cutting across the sectors of logistics, edTech, fintech, e-commerce, content, and healthTech.

The startup scene is MENA has been crushed by the pandemic and is now bouncing back with renewed vigor. Market slumps result in major rebounds such as the 2008 financial crash. During the last downturn, it is tech companies that emerged as the overall winners according to excerpts by Haider.

For the past decade, Haider has been investing in startups in MENA also working with VC firms in Silicon Valley and MENA.  El-Badawi has 25 years’ worth of technology and growth experience with the firm has worked with several internet companies from the mid-90s while in Silicon Valley such as Google.

MENA region has been a hotbed for investment as it boasts a vibrant youthful population of 400 million people, sharing similar languages and cultures. The fund managers are racing to take advantage of the record innovations that are emerging to meet consumer demands of the post-Covid era.