Innovative Global Crowd Investing Company, Venturefin, Launches

Company offers unique platform for investors and early-stage businesses

14 February 2015, Dubai, UAE – Dubai-based serial entrepreneurs Ibrahim Jaber and Ahmed Al Qassimi today announced the launch of exclusive new crowd investing platform, Venturefin, aimed at promoting and enhancing global investment opportunities.

Venturefin is an elite equity and loan crowd investing platform that connects qualified investors to opportunities in project finance, the start-up ecosystem and early stage companies world-wide.  Venturefin helps facilitate investments by bridging the gap between investors and businesses.  By carefully screening investment proposals and providing advisory services to selected funds, it offers investors the highest value of return on their investments.

Ibrahim Jaber, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Venturefin said, “Our aim is to find the most promising businesses – from start-ups to existing companies with high-growth potential – and back them with smart investment and advisory services – from the financial to the intellectual - becoming true partners with our Venturefin-backed businesses by helping them succeed and ultimately scale their business beyond what could have been possible alone.  We have been there before and done it ourselves, and our experience can help any early stage company scale in a sustainable manner.”

Knowing the potential for the crowding investing industry in the Middle East, Jaber and Al Qassimi leaned on personal experiences within the entrepreneurial space to educate the platform.  “When we were young entrepreneurs, we received a purchase order but lacked the liquidity to fill the order.  Banks are hesitant to loan money to un-proven businesses, so we offer a loan model based upon growth capital for purchase order guarantees and inventory financing, solving a problem we faced as well as many other notable entrepreneurs,” added Jaber.

Partnerships with the globally recognized startup accelerator for social entrepreneurship, the Hult Prize, and social impact consultancy, the Sustainability Platform, have also provided a pipeline of high-impact startups that meet the company’s stringent criteria, and the founders hope to leverage these partnerships to create more global impact.   

Venturefin aims to become the leading crowd investing platform in the industry by educating the market on this recent global phenomenon.
Ahmed Al Qassimi, Founding Partner of Venturefin, added: “We know from the statistics and from our own personal experience that receiving financing as small business owners is one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face.  Venturefin accelerates opportunities for entrepreneurs, thus promoting job creation and prosperity both in the UAE and around the world.”

Jaber and Al Qassimi, both successful serial entrepreneurs and advisors to high-impact businesses across the globe, have worked in a variety of sectors and businesses in the construction industry, brokering numerous multi-million dollar business deals.  The co-founders launched Venturefin as a way to solve some of the biggest challenges facing young businesses seeking financing options as well as a way to answer the inherent investor risk appetite.

The fund’s advisors include Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Founder and Chairman, Barjeel Art Foundation and Barjeel Securities and MIT Media Labs Fellow; Ahmad Ashkar, Hult Prize Founder and CEO, and Clinton Global Initiative Partner; Rehan bin Noor Pathan, Chairman and Managing Partner of Takseem & Chairman of 800 Inc. and a number of other veteran investors, entrepreneurs and advisors.

Advisor to the company, Sheikh Sultan Al Qassimi added, “Venturefin isn’t just disrupting the way we invest, Venturefin is reimagining the way we think about investing and the way businesses succeed, breaking down barriers to support the achievement of innovative entrepreneurial ambitions.  We see massive growth potential in the MENA SME space, with the majority of businesses in the region fitting this profile.  As economies in our part of the world mature and innovate, we are honored to be a unique platform bringing smart capital to serve as a catalyst in this global transformation.”