Vodafone Ventures investment fund of Vodafone Egypt is planning to announce fresh investments within the current month to make the total number of the companies which the fund invested in them 8-7 companies. Eng. Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Vodafone Egypt, said the fund is studying now 3-4 companies in order to pump new investments, pointing out that the new investments will not exploit all the investments allocated to the fund worth EGP 20 million. Mohammad Al-Ayouti, Business Development Senior Manager at Vodafone Egypt, has asserted to Amwal Al Ghad that Vodafone eyes to invest in 10 companies annually, explaining that the reason of delaying is due to the increase of the required period to study the market after announcing the fund in last August. Vodafone Ventures Fund invested in three firms such as Ogra - a taxi booking service for Cairo that allows users to book taxis via SMS or phone call, Gyrolabs - a company working to make traditional television viewing more interactive, building applications for SmartTVs and mobile that merge the online world with TV, and Eshtery - a mobile-based virtual supermarket for Egypt that depends on modern techniques such as QR. It is worth noting that Vodafone Egypt had launched its mutual fund named Vodafone Ventures with a capital up to EGP 20 million targeting investing and developing the mobile-based small enterprises. Vodafone Egypt intends to support infrastructure and regulation in order to support both startups and investors, while continuing to invest in tech and telecom ventures.
