Co-Founder and Managing Partner Ihab Rizk (Photo: Reuters)The Peninsular | 20 May 2025Saudi berries among Egyptian private equity fund’s investments
Growing berries in Saudi Arabia and a farming project by the Nile are among the first investments of a new private equity firm co-founded by the former chief of Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund.
Morpho Investments is making the moves after raising $55 million in first-round financing for its inaugural fund from leading Egyptian and regional high-net-worth family offices and institutional investors, according to managing partners Ayman Soliman and Ihab Rizk.
The firm has invested capital in specialist company Agriventures to help secure an exclusive license to grow, sell and market berries in Saudi Arabia and Oman, they said in an interview in Cairo. They didn’t elaborate on the locations and said the produce would be for both local markets and export.
Berries are the fastest growing category in agriculture, according to Soliman and Rizk, who said the use of precision farming and technology mitigates many of the risks.
It’s an unusual venture for the mostly-desert Arabian nations, which rely heavily on food imports, but fits with their wider ambitions for economic diversification and security.
Saudi Arabia aims to localize 85% of its food industry by 2030, while Oman recently unveiled a multibillion dollar plan to develop three agricultural cities.
Morpho’s fund is also teaming up with Hassan Allam Holding, one of Egypt’s largest engineering and construction companies, to develop Jinet Agriculture, a 60-square-kilometer project in Minya, along the Nile River in southern Egypt. Under the plans, farmers and exporters would be able to access land plots and take advantage of the latest technology and infrastructure to grow their crops.
The project seeks to "bolster Egypt’s food security, drive export capabilities, and foster industrial-scale agricultural processing,” said Rizk, who was an investment director at the
North African nation’s sovereign fund. Soliman was chief executive officer until last year.
Going forward, Morpho will focus on real economy sectors such as manufacturing, food, logistics and healthcare, as well as financial services and logistics, according to the co-founders.
The fund raised almost double its original target in half the projected time and a second funding round is planned to start in the fourth quarter, they said.
Apart from the two deals, Morpho has signed an agreement and is conducting due diligence on funding a healthcare services company that’s going to expand operations to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Romania. It didn’t disclose the name of the firm.
Morpho is planning to widen its Limited Partners’ base in the Middle East and Africa later this year, with an eye on investment opportunities.
"In regions undergoing dynamic economic reform, disciplined deployment is critical,” said Soliman. Morpho is "partnering with businesses that can navigate these changes and emerge as future regional leaders.”
