yes, absolutely — venture capital remains an unproven model in the middle east for the precise reason that pure equity financing does not fit the predominant capital needs of emerging enterprise in the region.
the challenge for impact investors will be in creating the opportunity to experiment with a mix of financial tools and funding structures for different types of enterprises and really understand what works and what doesnt. this requires LPs that are willing and open to risk-taking, which is not alway easy to find.
finally, i think an interesting impact investing fund model would be not solely looking at financial vs. impact returns on the enterprise level. alternatively, identifying portfolio level KPIs, and allowing managing partners to mix and match impact and nonimpact investments (per sector, for example) that can create stronger financial ROI and focused impact ROI.
