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A cross-border India-UAE VC fund to invest in startups in both these countries with a corpus of $150 million was launched from the India Pavilion at EXPO2020 Dubai.

A statement said the VC fund is being set up with a purpose to source, invest, and nurture promising ventures through an accelerator to fuel the growth of India and UAE startups. The investors into this fund will be from UAE, India, and GCC countries.

The India-UAE VC fund aims to invest in a minimum of 50 ventures that it calls “demonstrated and validated startups” based in India and the UAE over a period of five years. The target is to turn 10 of them into unicorns by 2025.

Ajai Chowdhry, HCL Founder and Chairman-Startup Committee, FICCI, who announced the launch of this fund, said, “The Fund will bring investment opportunities to startups in India and the UAE. The Indian Angel Network Fund (IAN) will offer benefits to the investors from the UAE including the experience and knowledge that India offers. We are delighted to witness this collaboration and hope to see great results in the near future.”

IAN Co-founder Padmaja Ruparel said, “IAN is excited to participate in the VC Fund as a founding member and grow the entrepreneurial eco-system in the UAE by expanding its investor base and sharing its expertise in developing an Accelerator.” 

The growing startup ecosystem in India has numerous cross-border partnerships which goes much beyond the capital coming in from overseas countries as many startups are exploring business opportunities in the Middle East region.

The EXPO 2020 is being held from October 1, 2021, to March 2022 in Dubai, and this has been rescheduled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It has witnessed participation from countries from across the world with India also making a strong presence.

The India Pavilion is a four-level structure with themes such as climate and biodiversity, space, urban and rural development, health and wellness, agriculture etc.