Dubai, UAE – May 2026 – SHUAA Capital psc (DFM: SHUAA), a pioneer in regional financial services with a history spanning over four decades, and Key Capital Ltd, the region’s first dedicated venture capital secondaries asset manager, today announced a strategic partnership to support the development of the venture capital secondaries market across MENA and EMEA.
Key Fund I LP targets a fund size of USD 50 million and pursues a disciplined secondaries strategy focused on acquiring positions in high-growth technology companies through off-cap-table transactions. The strategy is designed to provide liquidity to early shareholders while enabling a differentiated entry point into scaled assets, with the objective of delivering accelerated distributions and diversified portfolio exposure. The fund has successfully closed two transactions to date and is structured as an ADGM Limited Partnership.
The partnership comes at a pivotal moment for the MENA venture capital ecosystem. Annual VC deployment across the region has grown from USD 1.1 billion in 2020 to USD 3.8 billion in 2025, according to Magnitt. As venture capital deployment in MENA has accelerated, liquidity pathways have not kept pace, creating a structural need for dedicated secondary solutions. This dynamic is creating a maturing pipeline of technology assets and an expanding pool of founders, early shareholders and investors seeking secondary liquidity. Key Capital estimates the regional secondaries market at over USD 1 billion and growing. Against this backdrop, global secondaries transaction volume reached a record USD 240 billion in 2025, according to Jefferies, underscoring the asset class’s increasing relevance to institutional allocators worldwide.
Under the terms of the partnership, SHUAA Capital will provide advisory support across capital formation, strategic relationships and capital markets execution, leveraging its institutional platform to complement Key Capital’s specialized secondary strategy, sourcing network and investment discipline.
Nabil Al Rantisi, Group CEO of SHUAA Capital, commented: “The MENA venture capital market has reached an inflection point, and the secondaries segment represents one of the most compelling and structurally underserved opportunities in the region today. Key Capital brings a highly specialized team with a proven track record and a clear first-mover advantage, and we are delighted to partner with them.”
Basil Moftah, Managing Partner of Key Capital, commented: “Key Capital is built on the conviction that MENA’s venture ecosystem has matured faster than its liquidity infrastructure. The time has come for a regional secondary strategy, providing a dedicated liquidity layer, supporting early stakeholders with structured exit pathways while enabling investors to access high-quality technology assets at a more balanced entry point. SHUAA Capital’s institutional platform and regional reach will enhance our ability to scale this strategy and broaden access to the asset class as we approach our first close.”
