The UK government’s development finance institution (DFI) British International Investment (BII), formerly known as CDC Group, has announced its plan to invest US$100 million in Egyptian startups over its current strategy period.
At a business reception launching its new name in Egypt, BII announced its future plans for the country and reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen its partnership with Egypt and increase climate finance to support the country’s green growth.
As part of BII’s ambition to bolster Egyptian VC, the DFI announced new commitments to Algebra Ventures and Endure Capital, two leading local VC firms that support and partner with the most promising early-stage businesses to build transformative companies across sectors such as fintech, agritech, edtech, logistics and healthcare.
BII has also invested in MaxAB, a prominent B2B e-commerce platform in North Africa. The funding will support the creation of 4,000 jobs and facilitate MaxAB’s expansion across Egypt and Morocco, enabling the company to reach an additional 73,000 micro-retailers across the region.
“These investments form a critical part of BII’s new five-year strategy and reflect our local priorities to continuously explore opportunities to back local venture capital fund managers and direct our capital toward stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation among native businesses in impactful sectors. We believe local investors are ideal partners to identify the next generation of high-potential entrepreneurs whose unique solutions help solve development challenges, including climate solutions,” said BII CEO Nick O’Donohoe.
