Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – 23 October 2023: Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) announced its investment of $10 million in “Ruya Private Capital I LP,” a private credit fund managed by Ruya Partners.
The fund will focus on providing capital solutions in the form of private debt instruments to SMEs with a concentration on mid-market companies, including late-stage venture capital-backed businesses, in Saudi Arabia and the region.
The subscription agreement was signed by Dr. Nabeel Koshak, CEO and Board Member at SVC, and Omar Al Yawer, Partner at Ruya Partners. The signing ceremony was also attended by Nora Alsarhan, Chief Investment Officer, and Haifa Bahaian, Chief Legal Officer at SVC, as well as Mirza Beg and Rashid Siddiqi, Founding Partners at Ruya Partners.
Dr. Koshak commented: “The investment in the private credit fund managed by Ruya Partners is part of SVC’s Investment in Funds Program. The investment also comes as a result of the increasing demand for venture debt and private debt by Saudi startups and SMEs and to implement SVC’s strategy related to the launch of the “Investment in Venture Debt Funds and Private Debt Funds” product to fill financing gaps in the ecosystem”.
“We are honored to have received this commitment of capital and trust from SVC and look forward to a successful partnership together,” stated Omar Al Yawer. The Founding Partners Mirza Beg and Rashid Siddiqi added: “We firmly believe that offering private credit capital solutions to companies in a manner which is non-dilutive to shareholders will serve as a powerful catalyst for their future growth and should contribute towards the continued expansion and development of the SME ecosystem.”
SVC is a government investment company established in 2018 and is a subsidiary of the SME Bank, one of the developmental banks affiliated with the National Development Fund. SVC aims to stimulate and sustain financing for startups and SMEs from pre-Seed to pre-IPO by investing $2 billion through investment in funds and co-investment in startups. SVC invested in 43 funds that have invested in 700+ companies.