Bakery opens in Dubai to fund emerging markets, backed by Abraaj

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A new venture capital firm, focused on investments in emerging markets, is set to launch in Dubai.

Senior executives at Bakery, which is set to commence operations in the coming months, described in detail the remit of their new investment vehicle, and the role that the Abraaj Group is playing in backing their business, in an interview with Gulf News. Bakery will operate in Dubai, Lahore, Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Istanbul, and Karachi.

“We’re tired of looking to the West. There’s a lot of talent, a lot of quality ideas and commercial thinking and acumen here, we should be building that locally over here,” an official company spokesperson told Gulf News in a recent interview.

The scope of investments are set to range from $500,000 to $5 million and will cover the range of early-stage funding all the way through to expansion and later-stage funding, provided it is in an emerging market.

The company is currently self-funded by its founding members, who include Faaris Naqvi, son of Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi.

On its relationship with the Abraaj Group, one of the largest private equity firms in the Middle East, the spokesperson for Bakery told Gulf News that Abraaj had “effectively allowed us to get to this stage,” though no comment was made over the company’s current status following allegations of misuse of funds.

Alongside Bakery’s internal investors, the company says it has been funded by external backers too, the company declined to mention who those external backers are or how much the company raised.