Sanabil Investments discloses its ties in global venture, buyout firms  

Sanabil Investments has pledged to commit $2 billion annually in earlier stages of the business lifecycle (File)
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RIYADH: Sanabil Investments, the portfolio company of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has revealed its ties to more than 50 venture capital and private equity firms, including Blackstone and KKR & Co.   

In its first public disclosure, the company revealed that it holds stakes in Andreessen Horowitz, General Atlantic, Hellman & Friedman and Platinum Equity, among others.  

It also divulged its direct investment portfolio, which included the machine learning-based discovery engine Atomwise, customer experience software company ActionIQ and cybersecurity platform Vectra, to name a few.  

According to the company website, Sanabil Investments has pledged to commit $2 billion annually in earlier stages of the business lifecycle, particularly in venture capital, growth and small buyouts.   

“Since its establishment in 2009, Sanabil has broadened its mission to take on greater degrees of risk to achieve more attractive returns within the scope of its commercially rooted investment philosophy and help achieve Saudi Arabia’s strategic aims,” said Yasir Bin Othman Al-Rumayyan, chairman of Sanabil Investments in a statement published on its website.  

Even though the company did not indicate the value of the assets it manages, its website noted that 50 percent of its assets are allocated to venture capital, 30 percent to private equity and the rest to “liquid portfolios.”  

“We want to partner with the architects of these ideas - entrepreneurs and businesses - ​​who harness the innovations of mind and matter to fulfill significant societal needs in scalable and sustainable ways,” said Abdullah Alabduljabbar, CEO of Sanabil Investments, in the statement.  

Earlier in January, data released by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute suggested that the PIF has maintained the sixth spot in the list of top sovereign wealth funds worldwide, with assets worth $607.42 billion.  

The PIF is now leading the economic diversification journey in Saudi Arabia through strategic international and national investments.  

The sovereign fund owns 71 companies in 10 different sectors, creating more than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs.  

PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, in November 2022, said that the PIF is planning to create more job opportunities.  

“We want to create 1.8 million jobs, and these are quality jobs. So, it is not only the figures we are looking at, but the quality of these figures, the quality of these jobs,” said Al-Rumayyan.