美国风险投资公司Activate Capital将在多哈开设其在美国境外的首个办事处，因为卡塔尔主权财富基金正通过其30亿美元的基金中基金平台，扩大将该国打造成科技和初创企业投资者中心的努力。
The News US venture capital firm Activate Capital will open its first office outside the US in Doha as Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund expands its effort to make the country a hub for tech and startup investors through its $3 billion Fund of Funds platform.
卡塔尔投资局（QIA）作为交易的一部分，以未披露的金额成为Activate的有限合伙人，并将帮助总部位于旧金山的成长型股权公司将其部分投资组合公司引入该地区。这些公司的业务涉及能源、太空、供应链韧性和气候适应等领域。
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) put in an undisclosed sum to become a limited partner in Activate as part of the deal, and will help the San Francisco-based growth equity firm bring some of its portfolio companies into the region. Those businesses work in areas like energy, space, supply chain resilience, and climate adaptation.
Activate是加入QIA在多哈项目的第13家风险投资公司，其他参与的风险投资者包括B Capital、Founders Circle和Liberty City Ventures。卡塔尔还通过与QIA的合作伙伴关系吸引了摩根大通和高盛等公司在该国建立业务。
Activate is the 13th venture firm to become part of QIA’s program in Doha joining other venture investors including B Capital, Founders Circle, and Liberty City Ventures. Qatar has also used partnerships with QIA as a way to attract firms including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to build up operations in the country.
了解更多：QIA支持风险投资公司投资初创企业的举措仅占其5800亿美元基金的一小部分，但这是其发展当地经济、获取具有潜力带来超额回报的新兴管理人更广泛战略的一部分。其长期目标是在多哈建立风险投资和创业生态系统，以帮助该国通过研究和创新创造更多价值。
Know More QIA’s move to back venture firms taking risks on startups represents a small fraction of the $580 billion fund, but is part of a broader strategy to develop the local economy, and get access to emerging managers with the potential to deliver outsize returns. Its long-term goal is to build up a venture capital and entrepreneurial scene in Doha that helps the country generate more value from research and innovation.
“这是一个以商业为驱动的项目。我们在这里就是为了赚钱，”QIA基金部门负责人莫辛·皮尔扎达对Semafor表示。他补充说，管理人还需承担与卡塔尔国家战略挂钩的发展目标。
“It’s a commercially driven program. We’re in the business of making money here,” QIA’s head of funds Mohsin Pirzada told Semafor. Managers are also held to development goals tied to Qatar’s national strategy, he added.
该计划的目标是将风险投资公司、其投资组合公司及其专业知识带到多哈。管理人员必须在当地设立办公室，配备高级投资专业人员。卡塔尔投资局鼓励他们将所支持的初创公司迁至当地，并在这些公司在卡塔尔开设办事处后，为其提供算力等激励措施。皮尔扎达还将多哈推介为门户市场：“四小时飞行即可覆盖20亿人口。”
The program’s aim is to bring venture firms, their portfolio companies, and their know-how to Doha. Managers must staff a local office with senior investment professionals. QIA encourages them to relocate the startups they back, offering those companies incentives like compute power once they open shop in Qatar. Pirzada also pitched Doha as a gateway market: “a four-hour flight that captures a population of 2 billion.”
安努普·雅各布表示，与卡塔尔投资局的谈判开始于大约一年前。雅各布是Activate的联合创始人兼管理合伙人。尽管伊朗战争爆发，决策进程仍按计划进行。“在我们有生之年经历的任何重大动荡中……照常营业通常就会停止，而我们在这里并未发现这种情况，”雅各布说。
Talks with QIA began about a year ago, said Anup Jacob, Activate’s co-founder and managing partner. Despite the breakout of the Iran war, decision-making stayed on schedule. “In any normal massive disruption that we’ve had in our lifetimes … business as usual just stops, and we did not find that here,” Jacob said.
据雅各布介绍，Activate的支持者要求多哈办公室从同一资本池中投资，而非设立独立的区域投资工具。其多哈团队将在卡塔尔及全球南方地区寻找交易机会，并将投资组合公司引导至该地区“能源成本更低廉、算力获取更便捷”的市场，雅各布表示。
Activate’s backers requested the Doha office invest from the same pool of capital rather than a separate regional vehicle, according to Jacob. Its Doha team will look for deals in Qatar and across the Global South, and will steer portfolio companies toward the region’s “much cheaper energy and much better access to compute,” Jacob said.
他表示，获得卡塔尔投资局的支持也有助于Activate获取竞争性交易。雅各布描述了一位首席执行官的案例，该CEO的融资轮次已超额认购，并问道：“我为什么要让你加入我的融资轮次？”没有卡塔尔投资局这样的支持者，“我们的资本只是资本。”
Being backed by QIA also helps Activate access competitive deals, he said. Jacob described a CEO with an oversubscribed round who asked, “Why should I let you into my round?”Without backers like QIA, “our capital is just capital.”
据卡塔尔投资局卡塔尔基金主管哈亚·阿尔加尼姆表示，来自海外的基金经理仍存在学习曲线。她说，最常被问到的问题是关于着装规范。不过，一旦他们来到多哈，许多人在该国的投资额度会超过原计划，她表示。“所有基金经理来时都有在卡塔尔承诺要做的事情计划，但我看到他们所有人都超出了该计划。”值得注意的一点是，像海湾地区大多数同行一样，卡塔尔投资局在战争期间仍保持投资意愿，Semafor报道称。
There’s still a learning curve for fund managers coming from abroad, according to Haya Al Ghanim, Qatar funds director at QIA. The most frequently asked question, she said, is about the dress code. Once they are on the ground in Doha, though, many are investing more in the country than they originally planned to, she said. “Across all the fund managers, they come in with a plan of what they are committing to do in Qatar, but what I see from all of them is they are going beyond that.”Notable Like most of its peers in the Gulf, Qatar Investment Authority is maintaining its appetite for investment during the war Semafor reported.
根据风险投资追踪机构MAGNiTT的数据，阿联酋和沙特阿拉伯主导了风险投资，占该地区初创企业筹集的30亿美元资金的近90%。
The UAE and Saudi Arabia dominate venture funding, accounting for almost 90% of the $3 billion raised by startups in the region, according to venture capital tracker MAGNiTT.