Oasis500 — MENA's First Seed Accelerator Scaling Jordanian Tech Startups

Oasis500 was launched in Amman in 2010, backed by the King Abdullah II Fund for Development, as one of the first dedicated seed accelerators in the Middle East and North Africa. It has run four successive investment vehicles — Oasis Ventures I (2010), a creative-industries fund (2015), Oasis Ventures II (2019, with the sovereign Investment Support and Financing entity, ISSF, as co-investor) and Oasis Ventures III, a $20M+ fund launched to back scalable early-stage tech companies.

Across its 15-year history, Oasis500 reports having invested in 193 startups, which have gone on to raise more than $135 million in follow-on funding and reach a combined active portfolio valuation of roughly $243 million. The organisation credits the programme with generating close to 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, with portfolio companies now operating in more than 22 countries, and states that every $1 it invests mobilises around $5 in additional capital for its startups. These cumulative figures are corroborated by two independent outlets reporting on the Oasis Ventures III launch.

More granular data exists only for the ISSF-co-invested Oasis Ventures II sub-fund: 36 portfolio companies, 300 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs, $27 million in external financing secured, and 36% of companies led by women founders. Because this breakdown is not published for the full 193-company portfolio, the programme's overall job-quality and inclusiveness figures should be read as indicative of one fund rather than proven across the whole track record.

Read the full analysis: https://waya.media/jordans-oasis500-launches-usd-20m-fund-to-back-early-stage-tech-startups/