Dubai: After music, Dubai's asset management company Shuaa Capital is turning its attention to farming.
It led a $50 million structured sukuk for Pure Harvest Smart Farms, the UAE-based agri-business. Shuaa has also co-invested in Pure Harvest through its managed funds as part of this round, and also brought in cornerstone investments from Franklin Templeton and Sancta Capital.
The company originated, structured and placed the financing solution, which comprises a $50 million 3-year sukuk with embedded warrants. Simultaneously, Pure Harvest raised $10 million in growth equity.
It was in January that Shuaa confirmed an investment into Anghami, the Abu Dhabi headquartered music streaming portal and which will soon go in for a Nasdaq listing.
This is the first time in the region that an early-stage business has been able to secure venture debt funding from the capital markets, bringing to attention Shuaa's "capabilities to structure instruments which meet the objectives of the business as well as the strong investor demand for products such as for Islamic investments and ESG (green sukuks). This investment round attracted cornerstone investments from Franklin Templeton and Sancta Capital amongst others.
Jassim Alseddiqi, Group CEO of Shuaa, said: “We see exciting potential in the technology space and this is a great example of how we are executing on our stated strategy to focus on this area, this time supporting a market leader in agtech as it seeks to accelerate its growth.”
What's Pure Harvest all about?
Founded in Abu Dhabi to grow sustainable food sources, Pure Harvest will complete its second high-tech hybrid greenhouse growing system within the Emirates. It is currently constructing its first project in Saudi Arabia, and had announced a 39 million euro expansion in Kuwait. On completion of the new projects, the company will produce a variety of tomatoes, leafy greens, and berries, and with plans to continue to diversify its offering further.
