CE-Ventures Acquires Significant Stake in UAE-based Transcorp CE-Ventures plans to invest up to US$150 million in startups over three years.
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CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Crescent Enterprises, has acquired a sizeable minority stake of Dubai-based Transcorp International (Transcorp) to support its expansion across the MENA region.
The transaction is a part of a Crescent Enterprises strategy to invest US$150 million (AED550 million) through CE-Ventures in early- to late-stage startups over the next three years, targeting a broad range of strategic domains from medical technology, artificial intelligence and cyber security to food, energy-tech and supply chain tech.
The company has invested $46 million in 18 startups and VC funds across the US, MENA and South-East Asia, with recent investments including the UAE-based cloud kitchen network Kitopi, Indian meat and sea-food ecommerce company FreshtoHome, as well as the MENA-based digital healthcare platform Vezeeta.
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Tushar Singhvi, Director of CE-Ventures, said in a press release that CE-Ventures' strategy is to identify strong result-oriented founders and support them over the long term.
Streamlining last-mile logistics, Transcorp offers end-to-end solutions to enterprise customers, including warehousing, transportation and product distribution. It has a well-developed network across the UAE and aims to strengthen its presence in Saudi Arabia and other MENA countries. "The investment from CE-Ventures has provided us with the means to fast-track our expansion within the MENA region and introduce our service offering to other industries," said Rodrigue Nacouzi, CEO and founder of Transcorp. "Crescent Enterprises' extensive logistics expertise will enable Transcorp to explore new markets and domains and achieve its goal of addressing the gaps in last-mile distribution services."
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