(Bloomberg) --
Amanat Holdings PJSC has completed its first venture capital deal as it looks to deploy about 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) over the next few years.
“Technology is disrupting both the education and health care sectors, and Covid has accelerated that disruption quite significantly,” Chief Executive Officer Mohamad Hamade said in an interview after the the Dubai-based company invested $5 million in education technology firm BEGiN.
Amanat is looking at other technology startups, Hamade said, and will target further investments of $5 million to $10 million or potentially larger. The company will also look at distressed education and health care companies that have struggled amid the pandemic.
“Our objective is to deploy the capital we have available to us and raise debt, so that gives us more than 1 billion dirhams that could be deployed,” Hamade said.
Amanat, which invests in education and health care, has previously focused on traditional schools and hospitals in the Middle East. It owns stakes in Abu Dhabi University Holding Co. and Taaleem Holdings, and is in talks to sell Middlesex University's Dubai campus, people familiar with the matter said in July.
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