A Bahraini-Chinese venture capital fund headquartered in the kingdom is on the cards, Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) Chief executive Khalid Al Rumaihi has mentioned to GDN on the sidelines of a Ramadan majlis organized by the EDB at the Arcapita Building.
According to Khalid Al Rumaihi, the unique fund will bridge Bahraini entrepreneurs with Chinese business models. “We are also hopeful of announcing another investment with a Chinese venture capital firm because we think a bridge to the east is as important as a bridge to the Middle East and the West.”
Moreover, EDB’s Chief Executive Khalid Al Rumaihi just returned back from a week-long trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco where he met a couple of tech companies. “We had very positive meetings and hope to build on them and I think we will see increased momentum in terms of our attraction for the technology names we all know,” he said.
He adds stating: “We have to make a case for Bahrain alongside our neighbors and I believe what we have done in terms of the start-up environment, laws on data protection, electronic transactions, data jurisdiction, all of these with the efforts that we have made in terms of attracting a major data center provider.”
Al Rumaihi is also hopeful of announcing another investment with a Chinese venture capital firm that he believes will connect the Middle East to the east. “That will be a very unique fund. It will be set up in Bahrain as its headquarters and will bridge Bahraini entrepreneurs with Chinese business models,” he said.
Al Rumaihi also makes another announcement stating: “The EDB will soon announce a Los Angeles based sister working place for Bahrain Fintech Bay (BFB). So we will soon have a sister location for BFB in the heart of California so we can link Silicon Valley with Bahrain to allow entrepreneurs between the two locations to interact and be focused on FinTech.”
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