Ennis Rimawi Profile, Catalyst CEO, in Emerging Private Equity
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Ennis Rimawi, managing partner and
founder of Catalyst Private Equity, is
passionate about technology. He says: “I
am from Jordan but grew up in the US. I
always had the intention to come back and
build a tech industry in the region. Through
technology you create sustainable economies
that are designing the widget as well
as manufacturing it, and are not based on
who you are or what your last name is.”
Rimawi’s time in the US includes earning
a Masters from MIT (the world renowned
Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and
working for Ford Motor Co.
Pre Catalyst
Through Catalyst Private Equity, which invests
in technology companies with products
related to the energy and water sectors,
Rimawi is poised to have a positive impact
on the region through technology. But this
was not where he began on his return to
Jordan and the wider Middle East region.
He explains: “I started a software company
and in four years grew that to be 350 people
company. It was a software development
company with research based in Jordan and
China and it was positioned to go public
on NASDAQ in 2000 but the market imploded.
We ended up having to spin off the
Jordanian business and closed everything
else down. So One World Software became
estarter solutions and we turned it around
as a regional software solutions company.
It was the first company Microsoft invested
into in the region and Cisco came in later.”
From here Rimawi went on to found Catalyst
Private Equity late in 2006.
Fundraising
The following year in September he had
secured $50m for Catalyst Private Equity’s
first fund. This fund is made up of $33m in
debt and $17m of equity. The $33m debt
component comes from OPIC, which sent in
a third party due diligence team, an experience
Rimawi describes as “rigorous”.
OPIC, the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, is a US government agency
that provides medium- to long-term funding
through direct loans and loan guaranties
to eligible investment projects in developing
countries and emerging markets
where it feels conventional financial institutions
may be reluctant or unable to lend on
such a basis. The $17m equity comes from
institutional investors. The eventual target
on which Rimawi hopes to close this maiden
fund is $100m.
Rimawi envisages that when fully invested
the fund will carry around 12 investments
that will each have around $7m of investment
from Catalyst. That figure is likely to
be invested over the life of an investment,
rather than in a single round.
Why water & energy?
Rimawi explains the focus on water and energy.
Water treatment, he believes, will become
increasingly important as the Middle
East region’s population grows: today the
region has 5% of the world’s population
compared to 1% of its fresh water supplies.
And with the region’s large and existing,
and previously under invested in, infrastructure
surrounding the oil and gas industry,
herein lies another opportunity as countries
have stepped up investment levels again.
“We have made two investments so far,
one in oil and gas technologies in the UAE
and the other in a solar energy technology
company that also has water technologies,
which is based in Jordan. They are all profitable
companies, but they are small,” says
Rimawi.
It’s not just the companies that are small,
Jordan’s venture industry, and for that matter
the whole of the Middle East region’s
venture industry, is fledgling and as such the
infrastructure supporting early stage growth
companies is limited. And such companies
are rarely au fait with the concept of private
equity or venture backing, what to expect
from it, how to attract it or even where to
go looking for it. |
