One of the largest investment companies in the Middle East has announced the opening of a fund to support blockchain companies.
Bahrain’s second largest investment company, Investcorp Holdings, has launched its first global institutional fund, eLydian Lion. The company is going to distribute the fund’s funds among blockchain startups. Now the company is trying to attract investors to raise funds. The fund will exist as an independent legal entity.
Investcorp said that the new fund will develop and support companies that also deal with decentralized finance (DeFi) and data analytics. According to Gilbert Kamieniecky, head of Technology Private Equity, the company’s senior management believes that blockchain will change the economy in the same way as the Internet did. Kamenetsky stressed that all funds received will go to support developers around the world, not only in the Middle East.
Investcorp currently manages $40 billion in assets and is looking to expand its footprint in Asia by doubling its workforce. At the same time, the company is looking for additional funds for its third-party projects. Last year, the firm acquired MIR Limited, a company specializing in e-wallets and payments. Investcorp has currently invested about $600 million in Indian tech start-ups and plans to invest another $500 million in the future.
On April 10, cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it had obtained permission to operate in Abu Dhabi as part of its business scaling in the Middle East. This will allow the company to operate as a broker-dealer of digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
