STC Group Vice President for Strategic Affairs Dr. Fahd bin Mishait confirmed that STC group experiment in launching a venture capital fund, as the main investor, underscores its trend to have stakes in a wide scale group of promising small and medium size enterprises, especially, those in their early infantile stages, or those realizing positive cash liquidity, however, the latter case is considered as highly risky mean of financing.In a working paper he presented to the Saudi Small and Medium Size Enterprises’ Forum which took place in Riyadh, he reviewed the experiment of STC group in the domain, pointing that it is concentrating in investing in the domain of information technology, telecommunications and software programs.
STC group is keen on boosting entrepreneurship and partnership through funding those who have brand new ideas, innovations or models for businesses in need to venture capital, Mishait pointed out, notably that the working banks in the kingdom do not forward loans to such a sector, her remarked.
Selling a company funded by the venture capital fund or going public of it would yield more for the fund, which is of attract to investors and partners in the fund, he stated.
For example, the investments of big businesses and firms in so many infantile enterprises, at the time, such as in Google and Amazon, when they were private companies, have yielded a lot as well as creating thousands of significant jobs, he added.
Entrepreneurs have a rare and interesting idea about the Facebook or marketing of an internet protocol in a given university, like the Google, which helps in finding a group that identified with him, as is shown by the experiment of Apple which changed, forever, the world, he stated, a fact that venture capital funds are funding in addition to sponsoring likewise ideas, bin Mishait concluded.
STC group has announced recently investing $50 in a venture capital fund for small and medium size start-ups, through a self-financing, as the sole investor in the fund, at its early stage, while local and foreign firms, alike, would be invited to invest, later on.
The Forum witnessed the participation of 500 economist and 30 spokespersons of both private and public sectors in addition to world-class experts.
