Throughout the past 5 years, IM Capital under USAID’S MENA-Investment Initiative (MENAII) has been extensively providing support to early stage businesses and entrepreneurs in order to create jobs, leverage private investments and advance the investment ecosystem of business support.

In September 2014, USAID awarded Berytech Foundation the program entitled “MENA Investment Initiative” (MENAII), creating a fully owned subsidiary “Insure and Match Capital” (IM Capital) to manage and direct the Investment Initiative.

The program has been effective in meeting its goal of advancing the development of Lebanon’s private sector by increasing the competitiveness and revenue growth of early-stage businesses.

MENA II’s approach of investment matching, building networks of local individual investors, providing equity guarantees to mitigate risk, and building technical support institutions successfully built the early-stage investment ‘ecosystem’ in Lebanon.

To date, IM Capital has invested more than US$9 million in 25 startups, leveraging more than US$24 million in private capital investments and creating more than 250 jobs. It also contributed to the development of the Lebanese ecosystem by launching the first seed startup accelerator, the first structured and syndicated Business Angels program and the first mentorship platform powered by MIT Venture Mentoring services.

More than 125 investors trained in five different groups, pooling about US$3.7 million for investment. These investors have heard pitches from more than 100 entrepreneurs, co-invested in 13 startup enterprises, and helped create more than 20 jobs.

IM Capital also established the Lebanese Women Angel Fund (LWAF) specifically for women investors, in collaboration with the Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), that would in turn invest in women-led startups, the first such network in the MENA region.

Finally, more than 800 entrepreneurs have been  trained on best practices to start and grow a business and have been offered technical assistance and mentoring.