OTF now a leading investor in start-ups

Eng Yousef bin Ali al Harthy, CEO of Oman Technology Fund (OTF), announced on Tuesday that the Fund is the leading venture capital investment fund in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with MAGNITT – the region’s leading data platform – ranking the Sultanate the fourth most important investor in startups.

The CEO said: “As part of the Sultanate’s efforts to support a knowledge-based economic transformation, OTF was established in November 2016, at which time the Sultanate’s ranking was 17th regionally in the MENA region. After the fund’s inception, it invested in innovative projects based on technology.

OTF ended its first year with 17 investments, which made the Sultanate advance to the tenth place, according to the report of Arab Net, which is specialized in monitoring bold investments.

By the end of 2018, the Sultanate ranked fifth in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to MAGNITT, which publishes periodic reports on start-up investments. In 2019, the Oman Technology Fund invested in 51 innovative technology-based projects.”

Oman, he said, is highly placed in the innovation space, according to a report by the Global Innovation Index in 2019. The Sultanate ranked first globally in the ratio of Engineering and Science graduates, in comparison with the total number of general graduates, which constitutes one of the most important components of technological innovation.

OTF has recently supported 14 projects based on innovation and technology to support the national drive against the spread of COVID-19, he said. OTF launched an initiative to encourage innovation in areas that help society overcome the challenges it faces by allocating RO 1 million for youth-led projects. The Fund has so far invested in five projects submitted by more than 20 Omani young men and women.