• ​​​​​​Fund of Funds (FoF) Jada and Alpha Saudi Equity Fund sign investment agreement to fin​ance​ emerging F&B SMEs in Saudi
• Al-Ateeq: Our investment with Alpha Saudi Equity Fund part of strategic plan to enable thriving private equity ecosystem in Saudi
• Al-Saud: Investment strategy in Saudi growth-stage F&B SMEs will boost capital gains potentials

​​​Jada, the Fund of Funds, part of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), today signed an investment agreement with the Alpha Saudi Equity Fund, to finance growth-stage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Kingdom’s food and beverage (F&B) sector.

The agreement was attended by Adel Al-Ateeq, CEO of Jada and Fahad bin Khaled Al-Saud, Managing Director and CEO of Alpha Saudi Equity Fund. The agreement will boost both companies’ contribution to the private equity investment sector and support the Kingdom’s economic diversification efforts in line with the nation’s Vision 2030.

Commenting on the occasion, Adel Al-Ateeq, CEO of Jada, Fund of Funds, said, “Jada’s commitment to the Alpha Saudi Equity Fund today underscores its core aim to foster local innovation and entrepreneurship by directing investment capital to promising, emerging Saudi-based SMEs through private equity and venture capital.”

He added: “This investment agreement marks Jada’s first investment in private equity funds, having previously invested in several venture capital funds. It is a clear indication of our confidence in the fund management capabilities of the investment team at the Alpha Saudi Equity Fund to implement the Fund of Fund’s strategic investment priorities to achieve the returns investors are looking.”

The Alpha Saudi Equity Fund is the first fund in Saudi to target growth-stage SMEs in the F&B sector to catalyze enhanced capital gains. It is licensed by the Capital Market Authority and is one of the leading and most active companies in private equity and asset management.

Saudi’s F&B sector is set for rapid growth, once a full-scale recovery from the disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is underway. According to Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 Outlook of the KSA and UAE F&B Market, had forecast – prior to COVID-19 – that consumer expenditure in the Kingdom’s F&B sector was set to witness 5.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth from 2019 to 2020, equivalent to $50.6 billion. Opportunities to tap a thriving market in the Kingdom are many and varied.

Fahad bin Khaled Al-Saud, CEO of Alpha Saudi Equity Fund, said: “We aim to develop long-term capital gains by investing in companies that have the potential to grow and scale, and are managed by capable and ambitious entrepreneurs. The fund management will be supervised by an investment team characterized by a diversity of experiences in fund management, strategy and corporate governance.”

Jada was established by the Saudi Cabinet to increase the localization of non-oil sector economic growth and build an ecosystem of private equity and venture capital activity that can drive the Kingdom’s long-term diversification and raise the SME sector’s contribution from 21 percent to 35 percent of the Kingdom’s GDP by 2030.

By stimulating investment in private equity funds and venture capitalism, the Fund of Funds finances the growth of the Kingdom’s SME sector, while guiding the management of the fund’s beneficiary companies. The PIF established Jada company with an investment capital of 4 billion Saudi riyals.