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Mar. 20, 2015 | 12:15 AM

$71M venture capital fund unveiled at ArabNet

The Arabnet conference in Beirut, Wednesday, March 18, 2015. (The Daily Star/Hasan Shaaban)

This article was amended on Monday, March 23 2015

This article was changed on March 23, 2015 to clarify that Henri Asseily did not lament that the BDL's Circular 331 "had not had the effect on the Lebanese ecosystem that he and his partners were hoping for." Rather, Asseily lamented that existing players were not looking at the full life-cycle of the venture ecosystem, which prompted he and his partners to launch Leap Ventures.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on March 20, 2015, on page 4.

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Summary

A $71 million Middle East and North Africa-focused venture capital fund named Leap Ventures was launched at this year's ArabNet conference by Henri Asseily, a partner in the fund.

Asseily told The Daily Star the fund plans to invest an average of $3 million to $7 million in no more than three companies a year over a lifetime of four to five years with the aim of securing large exits. The investment may reach up to $12 million but only through partnerships with other firms.

Leap Ventures plans to take companies at this stage and expand them into a regional or global presence, Asseily said, so that they're big enough to get to an exit or reach a much larger round of investment.

Asseily and his partner's new venture capital firm is the result of Lebanon's Central Bank Circular 331 initiative which was launched last-year to much fanfare.

Asseily recalled that his fellow partner Herve Cuviliez, whose company Diwanee sold a majority stake to French digital publisher Webedia for around $12 million-$16 million last year, had great difficulty finding the $5 million in funding he needed at one point to take his company to the next level.

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$71M venture capital fund unveiled at ArabNet

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