UAE based Gulf Islamic Investment (GII) has announced setting up an office in Bengaluru. The Shari’ah-compliant financial services firm with over $2 billion of assets under management, said it is keen to partner with Indian start-ups and growth companies in their Middle East expansion plans and is open to collaborating with Indian or global investors in future Indian investments.
UAE is an important partner in India's emergence as an investment destination and in its vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy, Aman Puri, Consul General of India, Dubai said.
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According to a press statement, GII’s investment approach in India will be sector-agnostic and the firm plans to invest another $500 million – Rs 3,500 crore– in India in the next three years.
“We are elated to announce that GII would be opening its office in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Karnataka is the Partner State at India Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai this week and is the start-up capital of Asia with Bengaluru housing 40 per cent of India’s unicorns,” Puri added.
In a joint statement, Mohammed Alhassan and Mr. Pankaj Gupta, Founding Partners and Co-CEOs of GII, said that India represents a prime investment destination for GII and “this expansion demonstrates our commitment to future investments in the country’s burgeoning start-up and high-growth enterprise space.”
“Given the success of our preliminary investment rounds through the India Growth Portfolio series, valued at over Rs 1,000 crore, we look forward to expanding our footprint in India and strategically contributing towards enhancing the India- UAE investment corridor,” the statement read.
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In 2020, GII made its Indian investment debut with India Growth Portfolio (IGP-I) comprising significant minority stake investments in a portfolio of healthcare companies.
Since its establishment in 2014, GII has successfully closed over 45 transactions with asset values ranging from $10 million to $500 million across real estate, private equity and venture capital investments.
