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Flat6Labs adopts new structure with the launch of F6 Venture: Flat6Labs launched a seed-stage investment arm, F6 Ventures, which will operate alongside its accelerator platform under the newly established F6 Group, according to a statement. To understand more about what this means, we spoke to co-founder and general partner of F6 Ventures Dina El Shenoufy (LinkedIn).
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What changed? While Flat6Labs started off as a VC providing investments to early-stage startups, it quickly became associated with its entrepreneurship support programs for startups, helping them build an ecosystem, El Shenoufy told EnterpriseAM. This pushed the company to dedicate Flat6Labs to solely manage and provide the programs while shifting the investment aspect of its operations to F6 Ventures — where all current and future investments and funds will be housed, El Shenoufy said.
Under F6 Ventures’ belt: The new investment arm will manage six funds with over USD 90 mn in assets under management (AUM), according to the statement.
As for ownership, things are also slightly moving around: Both Flat6Labs and F6 Ventures will come under F6 Group, with El Shenoufy leading as CEO. The founders of Flat6Labs remain to be its main shareholders, with Yehia Houry (LinkedIn) now leading it as CEO. F6 Ventures will see El Shenoufy and Ramez El Serafy (LinkedIn) — both original co-founders of Flat6Labs — leading it.
The group is currently managing 300 portfolio companies, with Egyptian firms accounting for 50%. The other half is split between companies in Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, and Bahrain, El Shenoufy said.
An Africa Seed Fund is on the way: With the group shifting its focus toward regional investments, rather than country-specific investments, F6 Ventures aims to achieve the first close for its USD 65 mn Africa Seed Fund within the next couple of months, she said.
How it will be deployed: The fund will focus on East, West, and North Africa, with 40-50% of the fund’s investment set to go to Egypt. Meanwhile, 20% will go to North Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia, and the remaining 30-35% will be directed to East and West African countries.
Africa Seed Fund will focus on sectors with the largest scalability potential, including edutech, health tech, agritech, logistics and transportation, financial inclusivity, climate sustainability, as well as B2B and SaaS solutions, she said.
Who will finance it? F6 Ventures targets USD 20-25 mn in the first close for the fund, El Shenoufy said. “We're almost 80% there, with the IFC committing 20%. We also have commitments from the Visa Foundation and Sawari Ventures,” she added. The company is also in talks with other Egyptian institutions and a local lender, which it hopes will help the fund reach its first close by October.
Up next: The next fund is going to be a GCC mandate, which will be a merger of the existing Saudi and Abu Dhabi funds, and there are also plans to set up a Levant fund. Those two funds could potentially be merged into one, El Shenoufy explained. All these efforts are part of the group’s goal of expanding its AUMs to USD 200 mn.
Further down the line, F6 Ventures could eventually look into expanding to new markets like Turkey, Pakistan, and even Eastern Europe, El Shenoufy said. “But I think for the next three years, our focus will remain to be the Middle East and Africa,” she noted.
