Stride Ventures expands in GCC: India-based venture debt firm Stride Ventures is expanding its GCC activity, with plans to grow its regional assets under management to about USD 500 mn by 2028. Deployment will be prioritized in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Fariha Ansari Javed, partner for GCC and global capital formation at Stride, told EnterpriseAM in an interview.

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The firm has raised about USD 300 mn in institutional commitments toward its funds in India, the UAE, and the UK, with a planned global close of USD 600 mn. This includes an ADGM Fund V for which Stride announced a first close earlier this year. The raise is backed by sovereign wealth funds, global banks, asset managers, treasuries, and ins. firms.

What’s driving deployment? “The India-GCC corridor is evolving into a two-way flow of capital and operational scale, marking a shift from unilateral investment to cross-border expansion,” Javed said. Indian companies are entering Saudi Arabia and the UAE to tap into larger-ticket sizes driven by stronger unit economics and policy support. A growing base of Gulf-based startups is “leveraging India for technology, talent, and cost-efficient scaling,” while adopting India-style playbooks in FinTech, logistics, SaaS, proptech, and B2B SaaS.

Stride focuses on high-growth, asset-light, tech-enabled businesses by leveraging Indian experience and applying it in the GCC with regional nuances — “where India’s operating depth combines with the GCC’s capital availability and regulatory momentum,” Javed told us.

Partnership with SAB: Earlier this year, Stride partnered with Saudi Awwal Bank’s investment arm SAB Invest, which Javed described as a “cornerstone of its broader GCC strategy.” The move “combines SAB Invest’s best in class asset management platform and deep understanding of the Saudi market with Stride’s global venture and growth debt expertise,” she added. The partnership has already begun deploying credit in high growth startups and SMEs in the kingdom with shariah-compliant structures.

Stride intends to commit about USD 500 mn in Saudi Arabia by 2028, with selective exposure to Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain through partnerships rather than standalone vehicles, while maintaining a sector-agnostic approach, Javed said. The firm plans to enhance its scale in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in 2026 to mature its platform with an eye on other GCC markets.

Changing dynamics across the Gulf and India: Equity markets have turned far more selective globally, reshaping founder behaviour across both India and the GCC, Javed told us. “India is a mature and expanding venture debt market, with annual issuance of over USD 1 bn. As founders optimize dilution and preserve runway, venture debt has shifted from being a supplementary product to a core part of capital planning,” she said. In the Gulf, she sees a strong pivot towards on-balance and off-balance sheet structures driven by preference for non-dilutive capital and by the region’s deep liquidity.

Active agreement pipelines are concentrated in fintech, SaaS, healthcare, logistics, climate, and energy transition, and ticket sizes in the Gulf are significantly larger than in India, with on-balance sheet transactions averaging USD 20 mn and off-balance sheet SPV structures exceeding USD 50 mn.

IN CONTEXT- The GCC has accelerated reforms and seen a rise in private credit and alternative finance, making the region an increasingly attractive hub for structured financing vehicles, according to a State Street Global Advisors report. Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation under Saudi Vision 2030 and regulatory frameworks in financial centers like Abu Dhabi Global Market and Dubai International Financial Center have helped reposition the Gulf as a capital-markets and private-credit hub.

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