British International Investment is planning a $100 million investment in Egyptian startups.

British International Investment (BII), formerly known as CDC Group, the UK government’s development finance institution (DFI), has announced a plan to invest US$100 million in Egyptian startups over the course of its current strategy period.

BII announced its future plans for Egypt at a business reception launching its new name, and reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen its partnership with Egypt and increase climate finance to support the country’s green growth.

The DFI announced new commitments to Algebra Ventures and Endure Capital, two leading local VC firms that support and partner with the most promising early-stage businesses to build transformative companies across sectors such as fintech, agritech, edtech, logistics, and healthcare, as part of BII’s ambition to strengthen Egyptian VC.

BII has also made an investment in MaxAB, a well-known B2B e-commerce platform in North Africa. The funding will help MaxAB create 4,000 jobs and expand across Egypt and Morocco, allowing the company to reach an additional 73,000 micro-retailers in the region.

“These investments are an important part of BII’s new five-year strategy and reflect our local priorities of constantly exploring opportunities to support local venture capital fund managers and direct our capital toward stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation among indigenous businesses in impactful sectors.” “We believe that local investors are ideal partners for identifying the next generation of high-potential entrepreneurs whose unique solutions help solve development challenges, such as climate change,” said BII CEO Nick O’Donohoe.