Further Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Further Ventures is an Abu Dhabi-based, sovereign-backed venture investment and venture-building platform, anchored by a $200M fund from ADQ (Abu Dhabi's state-owned investment holding company). The firm positions itself as an "institutional co-founder" rather than a passive check-writer: it makes concentrated capital commitments, works proactively with regulators, forges strategic partnerships (e.g., with Mastercard), and layers hands-on operational support (regulatory affairs, licensing, talent recruitment, business development, marketing) on top of capital. The stated focus is building and backing category-leading companies in regulated, frontier financial-infrastructure industries.
Sector Focus
Further Ventures concentrates on:
- FinTech - payments, lending, wealth management, embedded finance, banking infrastructure
- Digital Assets / Crypto - blockchain infrastructure, institutional custody, tokenization, decentralized exchanges, derivatives settlement
- InsurTech - regulated insurance infrastructure
- Supply Chain / Logistics - regulated frontier logistics technology
- AI - software for capital markets
The firm explicitly targets "regulated frontier industries" where its sovereign backing and regulatory relationships (ADGM, VARA, etc.) provide a structural edge.
Stage Focus
Early-stage through Series A, with reserved follow-on capital to support portfolio companies from idea stage through to exit. Public fund materials describe backing founders "from idea stage to exit."
Check Size
Not publicly disclosed. Third-party fund trackers (VCsheet) list check size as not specified; deal evidence (e.g., a $19M GRVT Series A, a $55M CredibleX seed, a $45M Yuno Series B) suggests the firm typically participates in syndicates for larger rounds rather than solo-writing full checks at any single stage.
Lead Tendency
Mixed evidence. Third-party trackers list Further Ventures as not typically a lead investor, but the firm co-led GRVT's $19M Series A (alongside ZKsync, EigenCloud, and 500 Global) in September 2025, indicating a "both" posture - willing to lead/co-lead selectively while more often participating as a strategic syndicate member.
Recent Activity
Fund status: actively deploying. Confirmed recent investments:
- August 2026: Participated in Yuno's $45M Series B (global payments orchestration), alongside a16z, Tiger Global, and others.
- September 2025: Co-led GRVT's $19M Series A (privacy-first on-chain finance/DEX).
- May 2026 (per third-party reporting): Participated in CredibleX's Series A led by Mubadala.
- December 2023: Announced a strategic partnership (and investment) with Mastercard to accelerate next-generation payments and asset-management infrastructure in the UAE/MENA region.
Portfolio Highlights
Further Ventures' portfolio (via its Further Ventures builder/investment arm) spans ~25+ companies including GRVT (on-chain finance DEX), CredibleX (UAE SME embedded lending), Zodia Custody (institutional digital-asset custody, backed by Standard Chartered), Dfns (wallet/custody infrastructure), Pave Bank (Singapore-based digital wholesale bank), Yuno (global payments orchestration), Twinstake (institutional staking), Bundle (Dubai fintech), Aurem, BridgePort, Fuze, Kemet Trading, Theia Insights, Four Pillars, EQTY Lab, Yantra, Optimum, ABEX, Soter Insure, Silicon Data, OP_NET, KAIO, and DORA.
Team
- Nabyl Al Maskari - Chairman
- Faisal Al Hammadi - Managing Partner
- Wajahat Ali - Partner, CFO & COO
- Akshay Subramanian - Senior Principal
- Ganesh Mahidhar - Principal
- Miki Mak - Investment Principal
- Gary Sheynkman - Venture Partner
- John Ounjian - Venture Partner, Digital Assets
- Olivier Behets - Partner
- Robbie Nakarmi - Partner
- Eugene Chang - Partner, Liquid
- Isabella Tisenhusen - General Counsel
The team combines a sovereign-backed institutional core (Al Maskari, Al Hammadi, Ali) with specialist venture partners drawn from crypto/digital-asset and payments backgrounds (Sheynkman, Ounjian).
Decision Process
Structured as a partnership with a Managing Partner and several Partners/Venture Partners driving deal execution, supported by an investment/operations team (Senior Principal, Principal, Investment Principal). No public evidence of a solo-GP or pure investment-committee structure.
Founder Preferences
Further Ventures explicitly favors founders operating in regulated, frontier financial industries who need help navigating licensing (ADGM/VARA), institutional relationships, and go-to-market in the UAE/MENA region - i.e., founders for whom regulatory and institutional support materially de-risks the business, not purely product-led consumer plays.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with a stated global mandate: the portfolio spans the UAE, UK, US (New York), Singapore, South Korea, France, and Switzerland. The firm leverages its UAE base and ADQ backing to help portfolio companies expand into the Middle East, while also backing companies building globally relevant financial infrastructure.
Note on Source URL
The user-supplied website (furtherventures.com) resolves to an unrelated Adelaide, Australia-based technology/content company with no connection to venture capital. The actual "Further Ventures" VC firm operates at further.ae (corporate site) and ventures.further.ae (venture arm site). This research and the submitted payload use the verified further.ae domain/website; the firm record's website/domain fields have been corrected accordingly.