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Anara Impact Capital, the MENA-focused impact venture fund spun out of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy, has completed its first close at $48 million against a $50 million target.
The fund is anchored by KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission, alongside Jordan's ISSF (Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund), Dara Holdings and a group of regional family offices and HNWIs.
Anara will invest at seed and Series A in startups across learning, wellbeing and climate, three sectors. “Anara is here to prove that the region can develop scalable and global solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time," said Managing Partner Nafez Dakkak. "We are on a mission to show that impact and returns can and do go hand in hand."
Thomas Reker, portfolio manager at KfW, said bridging the financing gap for purpose-driven enterprises was "essential for the sustainable development of the MENA region," adding that the initiative is "particularly committed to supporting social entrepreneurship, a vital sector that traditionally faces severe hurdles in securing conventional financing."
The fund is domiciled in the Netherlands and aligned with SFDR Article 8 standards, and its investment committee is chaired by Fadi Ghandour, the founder of Aramex.
Dakkak previously founded Edraak at the Queen Rania Foundation, building it into the largest open Arabic online education portal with nearly 10 million learners, and later co-founded BLDR, a venture studio focused on education and fintech across the region. Mohamed Hussain and Nadia Moukaddam round out the leadership team. Dakkak discussed Anara’s investment thesis in a FWDstart Podcast episode released earlier this year.
Alfanar Venture Philanthropy, from which Anara was spun out, was founded by the late Libyan-British investment banker Tarek Ben Halim and has spent more than 20 years supporting impact enterprises across the Arab world.
Its current chair is Lubna Olayan, one of the most prominent business figures in Saudi Arabia. Olayan said there is "a depth of entrepreneurial talent across the region that is often underestimated" and that when directed toward learning, wellbeing and climate, "this talent can generate not only strong and sustainable returns, but also meaningful and lasting impact."
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