Vodafone Egypt plans to pump new investments in 4 emerging firms within the next 3 months through Vodafone Ventures, the company’s investment arm.
Mohammed Al-Ayouti, Business Development Senior Manager at Vodafone Egypt, said Vodafone is planning to announce fresh investments in two firms within the next month, noting that it will complete its investments in four firms by the end of April. Accordingly, the total number of emerging firms Vodafone plans to invest in will reach seven.
Al-Ayouti added to Amwal Al Ghad that Vodafone is targeting making investments in 10 companies per year. He attributed the delay in the announcement of Vodafone’s new investments to having more time studying the market’s situation amid launching its new fund, Vodafone Ventures last August.
Vodafone Ventures Fund has invested in three firms such as Ogra – a taxi booking service for Cairo that allows users to book taxis via SMS or phone call, Gyrolabs – a company working to make traditional television viewing more interactive, building applications for SmartTVs and mobile that merge the online world with TV, and Eshtery – a mobile-based virtual supermarket for Egypt that depends on modern techniques such as QR.
It is worth noting that Vodafone Egypt had launched its mutual fund named Vodafone Ventures with a capital up to EGP 20 million targeting investing and developing the mobile-based small enterprises.
Vodafone Egypt intends to support infrastructure and regulation in order to support both startups and investors, while continuing to invest in tech and telecom ventures.
