G Capital (formerly Injazat Capital), a leading private equity investor, advisor and fund manager in the region, has announced the successful exit of its Jordan-based managed fund Injazat Technology Fund (ITF).

A subsidiary of the Bahrainib bank Gulf Finance House (GFH), G Capital said the $50 million fund was the first Sharia’a-compliant venture capital fund established in the region.

Focused on technology, media and telecommunication, the ITF was considered a pioneer in the industry. The fund was established in 2001 by GFH and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, as well as a number of other investors from around the region.

It focuses on identifying promising investment opportunities in the technology, media and telecommunication sectors in the Mena region.

The fund is seen as one of the most successful of its kind in the region, and has now completed the full life-cycle of the investment process, achieving extremely favourable internal rates of return (IRR) that have reached up to 75 per cent.

The ITF continues to successfully repay investors which include top financial institutions such as GFH (Bahrain); Dubai Islamic Bank; Saudi Economic and Development Company, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, Saudi Arabia and many others.

Additionally, ITF has recently been awarded a multi-million dollar ruling on a 4-year long legal case, which set legal precedent in the Dubai International Financial Centre courts.

'This year marks our tenth anniversary since entering into the region’s technology investment sector. This latest exit marks another success for ITF, which has consistently performed well over the years, and fits well with G Capital’s strategic plan going forward,' remarked Hisham Alrayes, the managing director of G Capital.

'We are very proud of our achievements with the pioneering ITF which truly did set the standard for technology and PE/VC investing in the region and it gives us great pleasure to be paying back our investors from this successful pioneering fund,' he stated. 

G Capital said additionally, the board of directors had approved a distribution of the returns from the exit to the investors in ITF.

Commenting on the move, COO David Haigh said, 'ITF was founded with the belief that it takes teamwork, experience, strategic thinking, and resources to turn early stage ventures into great companies, and our latest exit was just one example.'

'We are keen to invest in different technology based companies across the region and look forward to the continued success of the fund going forward. In fact, due to the success of ITF 1, we are happy to announce plans to launch a successor fund, ITF II later this year,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service