Rainmaking, billed as a global leader in venture building, is set to foray into Saudi Arabia, its second expansion in the Middle East region after the UAE.
The Copenhagen-headquartered firm is also in the process of raising funds in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to finance its ambitious expansion plans in the region.
“We are growing fast in the UAE and will launch in Saudi Arabia shortly,” Lars Buch, CEO – MENA & Russia of Rainmaking, told Arabian Business.
“We are in final negotiations with four corporate partners (in Saudi Arabia) to start venture studio work now and the first investor will be submitting capital within weeks,” Buch revealed.
“The first steps (on the Saudi entry) are done by our Dubai team. We are preparing to be physically on the ground in the country as soon as the pandemic situation allows. We have the physical frame ready and waiting,” he added.
The Saudi entry is in line with the target of Rainmaking to emerge as the biggest independent corporate venture builder in the Middle East in the next two years.
Under the business model, venture builders partner with leading companies to set up start-up ventures to identify and solve various pain points in their businesses which will be later sold to the partner company at a pre-agreed price, unlike the consultancy firms which work on business advisory projects for a fee.
Buch also revealed that Rainmaking’s focus sectors in the Saudi market in the initial phase will be fintech, transport and logistics.
Rainmaking’s focus sectors in the Saudi market in the initial phase will be fintech, transport and logistics
“We are working on the first scoping work with the first partner and expect to go public soon. We will add 2-3 more over the next 8 weeks,” Buch said.
On the fundraising plans, Buch said the team was currently in talks with some of the Family Offices in the UAE to raise capital.
He said in Saudi Arabia, talks are ongoing with some boutique investors.
The company’s plans include firming up 3-4 investment deals in the range of $40-$60 million.
Rainmaking, which is globally well known for its ‘Startupbootcamp’ accelerators, said while capital is almost unlimited in the Middle East region, the obstacle to overcome is to move that capital to be more risk willing.
Lars Buch, CEO – MENA and Russia of Rainmaking
“Startups in general are an extremely high-risk investment which makes many investors in the region turn away even after trying it for a couple of years,” said Buch.
“We believe we have created a ‘venture builder’ concept that effectively creates a new asset class with much lower risk, very effective abort mechanisms with non-optimal concepts and predictable outcomes – pre-agreed exits – that will help to unlock more capital,” Buch added.
Follow us on
