Berytech Fund I, a venture capital fund, founded in 2008 as part of the Berytech eco-system, declares its exit from 3 of its portfolio companies and a 14.4% dividend. Since 2008, the Fund invested in 15 ventures focusing on technology companies in Lebanon with proven commercial viability. Investment tickets ranged $100,000 to $1,200,000 per transaction.
Berytech fund I, 8 years after its formation, is approaching the end of its investment cycle. Many of its portfolio companies have shown substantial growth and offer excellent exit opportunities to the fund with a good return on investment.
The initial objective of the fund is to invest in Lebanese startup companies in the technology field, help them to grow and exit its investment within 5 to 6 years’ time horizon.
Mr. Maroun N. Chammas, Chairman of the fund, highlighted: “In addition to its commercial aspect, the fund had a major social impact mission contributing to the Lebanese economy’s boost through entrepreneurship and job creation. We actively contributed to the establishment of “Banque Du Liban” Circular 331 and we have learned tremendously from our first experience which led us to create Berytech Fund II”.
“Such exit, says Mr. Sami Beydoun, managing partner of the fund, could be through a merger, acquisition, management buyout, or a commercial sale to another investor. Once the Lebanese Capital Market becomes more matured, a listing on the electronic stock exchange may become another possibility. “
Berytech fund I exited three of its portfolio companies using a combination of the above mentioned methods, and they are are:
PayPlug – a fintech company in mobile payment- “Further to it previous exit announcement from PayPlug, Sami Beydoun, managing partner of Berytech fund, explained that the decision to exit, which took place in May 2016, was taken because of the approaching expiration of the fund. “
PayPlug was born in 2012 from the vision of two Harvard business school graduates, Camille Tyan and Antoine Grimaud.
They build a simple and secure payment gateways tool enabling small to medium size merchants to collect payment.
Active Identity – a Radio-frequency identification company (RFID) the fund sold its shares to the founders at 2 times the initial investment in a management buy-out transaction.
Active Identity designs and develops scalable and customized RFID infrastructure solutions, helping its global partners realize the full potential of RFID systems by maximizing return on investment and reducing total cost of ownership. The Envoy, Active Identity’s RFID Engine, is at the core of many demanding RFID deployments worldwide.
Cook & Eat Lebanese – an online food recipe company- The fund exited its investment at cost through a merger & acquisition transaction.
Cook and Eat Cuisines from the Middle East is a platform aimed at helping users benefit from a list of differentiated services in the area of Cooking and Eating. It provides users with access to premium content from the Middle East rich cuisines through recipes that are uploaded by other users and high profile chefs.
The recipes are rated among the best in terms of accuracy and validity.
Some of the remaining successful portfolio companies from Berytech fund I include:
Instabeat: a wearable device which can be fixed on any swimming goggle to detect swimmer heart beats, number of lapses, speed, and various other measurements.
CardioDiagnostics: data analytics software attached to a heart-monitoring device that monitors patient heart activities over a period of one month, and send live details remotely to a monitoring center.
Dermandar: photo stich software that produces panoramic pictures and live 3D, 360 degrees video.
Element^n: a SaaS company serving telecom operators, which has grown into the internet of things (IOT) space under the name of Scriptr.
YallaPlay: a mobile gaming company with the card game Tarneeb as their flagship.
BSynchro: an InsurTech company focused on delivering innovative projects for the insurance industry.
DomControls: a software company for house automation
For any additional information please contact Sami Beydoun, Managing Partner of the Berytech Fund I at sami.beydoun@berytechfund.org
