{"id":47224,"date":"2025-06-02T19:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/?p=47224"},"modified":"2025-06-02T19:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:44:21","slug":"47224","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/2025\/06\/47224\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Badir Fund Partners with \u201cNahda Fund II\u201d to Empower SME Growth<\/strong><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Partnership Aims to Expand Access to Financing for Startups<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has announced a new strategic investment through its financing arm, Badir Fund, by entering into a partnership with \u201cNahda Fund II\u201d, a fund managed by Shorooq Partners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0This initiative aims to accelerate the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the region.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Strategic Timing<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">This partnership comes at a crucial moment, as many startups struggle to access traditional bank financing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0This growing challenge highlights the urgent need for more flexible and structured financial alternatives.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cNahda Fund II\u201d is a certified fund registered with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and is designed to support innovation and expansion within the tech sector and other vital industries.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Stakeholder Statements<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Nathan Kwon, Partner and Head of Credit at Shorooq Partners, commented:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cPartnering with Bader represents a pivotal milestone in empowering SMEs, combining our expertise with Badir\u2019s developmental capital to drive sustainable economic progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Nahda Fund II Fund has already provided tangible support to several notable startups, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><strong>Abhi<\/strong>: a fintech company, which received $15 million to scale its salary advance services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Box<\/strong>: a self-storage firm, which secured $12.5 million to improve its operational capabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">About Badir Fund<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Established in 2009, Bader Fund operates as a special account managed by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0It focuses on financing and providing technical assistance to SMEs, with an emphasis on job creation and private-sector-led growth.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Dr. Essam Al-Qurashi, Secretary-General of Badir Fund, added:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cThis investment opens new horizons for startups and contributes to expanding financial inclusion across the Arab world, especially for communities underserved by traditional banking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">A Shift in Development Finance Philosophy<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The announcement concluded by emphasizing that this partnership is more than a capital injection\u2014it reflects a broader transformation in development finance.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0Investment funds are increasingly acting like development banks but with more flexible tools and a better understanding of the evolving needs of growing businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has announced a new strategic investment through its financing arm, Badir Fund, by entering into a partnership with \u201cNahda Fund II\u201d, a fund managed by Shorooq Partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":47211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1772],"tags":[8577,8574,8576,8575,8573,6640],"class_list":["post-47224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startups","tag-badir-fund","tag-dr-essam-al-qurashi","tag-financial-services-regulatory-authority","tag-nahda-fund-ii","tag-nathan-kwon","tag-shorooq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}