Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
The venture capital arm of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund revealed on its website its portfolio of venture capital and private equity funds, which notably includes Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and Techstars.
Why is this important: The 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi raised many questions about who in Silicon Valley had taken money from the Saudis – and what they would do in the future.
- While a number of business leaders have bailed out the big fund confab (or at least skipped the main stage) and some investors said they would never take money from limited partners whose values ​​do not match theirs, some remained silent.
Details: According to Sanabil’s website, it invests around $2 billion a year, and its current portfolio of venture capital and growth funds includes 40 companies:
- Its venture capital portfolio includes: 1984 Ventures, 500 Startups, 9Yard, Andreessen Horowitz, B Capital, Coatue, Collaborative Fund, Costanoa Ventures, Craft Ventures, Dragoneer, eWTP Arabia Capital, Flagship Pioneer, G Squared, General Atlantic, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Griffin Gaming Partners, HLC, Human Capital, Iconiq Capital, Insight Capital, Jazz Venture Partners, JMI Equity, KKR, Legend Capital, March Capital, NEA, OrbiMed, Polychain Capital, Race Capital, Soma Capital, Stripes, TA Associates, TCV, Techstars, Third Point Venture, Treasury Funds, Uncorrelated, Valar Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Village Global.
- Its PE portfolio includes: Advent, Affinity, Apax, Apollo, CVC, FSN, HIG Capital, Hellman & Friedman, K1 Investment Management, Leonard Green & Partners, Novacap, Platinum Equity, PSG, Silver Lake, TA Associates, Thoma Bravo, Triton, Vista Equity Partners.
- According to its website, it has been in operation for about a decade, although its venture capital strategy was only approved in 2019 (it also invests in real estate and directly in businesses).
Earlier information reported about Sanabil’s portfolio disclosures.
Between the lines: As Axios has covered in the past, some business leaders have done a slippery slope argument to ignore the atrocities of some governments and not others is to signal virtue at chosen times.
The bottom line: At least we get a bit more transparency.