Our Partnership Based Approach
We ‘play for the long-game’
A scalable, impact orientated investment strategy built on partnerships
At OWI, we know that a post-oil UAE future can’t evolve in a vacuum. It requires diversified resources, partners, patient capital, suppliers, and markets to create cooperative networks capable of meeting a sustainable, resilient tomorrow.
OWI identifies and invests in companies and licensed investment managers who have the expertise, opportunities, and operational / execution capability to deliver on OWI’s vision of meeting the needs of a changing UAE economy. We establish mutually beneficial joint venture partnerships, with partners who are focused on achieving impact, protecting capital, delivering a social ROI, and where the partner’s existing businesses align with one of OWI’s investment verticals. OWI provides strategic direction, value-add services contributing towards the use of strategic alliances, impact objectives and ESG, and importantly the introduction of patient capital.
Our research shows that business ecosystems that cross industries are better equipped to fuel sustainable growth than individual companies.
As such, we nurture a complex business ecosystem through strategic alignment with our partnership companies and investment managers across various industries. We create opportunities to coevolve capabilities and develop strategic alliances to work together or competitively around innovation and bring products and services to global markets through the UAE.
Partnership Model
OWI partners with companies and investment managers who use a fund structure to invest in or finance companies providing a product or service that falls within one or more of OWI’s investment verticals. We prioritise partners who can provide the expertise and scale to meet the UAE strategic economic objectives. All partnerships are registered in the prestigious Abu Dhabi Global Markets financial services centre. Opportunities can either be in-country or impact adjacent regions, making the UAE a hub. OWI serves as a bridge between the UAE, Africa, and other global markets, enabling opportunities, alliances, and a structured business ecosystem that enables our partners to thrive in a fast-changing landscape of innovation and digitisation.
Our partnership model is built on four foundational pillars.
What do we look for in a partner?
We look for partners who have existing and tested platform businesses that enable scale and fall under one or more of our strategic verticals:
- Food security
- Digital technology
- Trade finance
- Alternative investment
OWI focuses on establishing anchor partnerships with strong expertise, opportunities, and operational / execution capability within each strategic vertical. For example, OWI can analyse and evaluate other digital and technology opportunities secured in terms of the deal pipeline through the anchor digital technology partner.
OWI almost always selects partners whose capabilities can extend our business ecosystem. For example, a technology partner who can enable an agricultural partner through technology deployment or a trading partner procuring from an agriculture growing partner.
Each of our partners can provide the expertise and scale to meet the UAE strategic economic objectives or those of adjacent regions, making the UAE hub.
An investment thesis designed to deliver significant impact
We believe that we play an increasingly important role in our global financial community, ensuring that capital flows to where it is needed and where fiduciary and impact creates a sound foundation for thinking and decision making. Our investment strategy and approach focuses on four investment verticals we believe are the building blocks of a sustainable tomorrow.
