About Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund, an accelerator and incubator program founded in 2018, is based in Amman, Jordan. With a presence in 5 countries, it has supported around 16 startups in sectors like Retail, Enterprise Applications. As of Sep 2026, Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has witnessed 2 portfolio exits. Most notable companies in
its portfolio include Abwaab, Little Thinking Minds and Abjjad.com. The program is backed by a team of 6 people who primarily support Seed startups based in Jordan. Its latest investment was a $1.55M Seed round in Coretava on Jun 08, 2022 along with Bank of Palestine.
Key Metrics
Founded Year
2018
Location
Amman, Jordan
Portfolio Companies
Sectors of Investment
Stages of Investment
Seed & Series A
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's List of Top Investments
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has a portfolio of 16 companies. Their most notable investments are in Kader and MEI.Their portfolio spans across Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait and 2 more locations. They have invested in Retail, Enterprise Applications, Consumer and 9 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A stages. Here is the list of top investments by Innovative Startups & SMES Fund:
1. Abwaab
Online tutoring platform for school curriculum. It offers short interactive videos, review summaries, model answers, and explanations, and practice questions. It also offers a discussion forum and organizes competitions. Apps are available for android and iOS users.
Key facts about Abwaab
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: Amman (Jordan)
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $27.5M
- Employee Count: 664 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: GSV Ventures, BECO Capital and 11 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Nov 15, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Little Thinking Minds provides Arabic educational content for school children in the form of videos, songs, digital books, and apps. They also sell their products through Amazon,eBay, and other e-Commerce partners. Available for Android and iOS platform. They have won several awards such as the Cess Education Award, Dubai (2015), MIT Business Plan Competition, Egypt (2014) among others.
Key facts about Little Thinking Minds
- Founded Year: 2004
- Location: Amman (Jordan)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $2M
- Employee Count: 77 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Algebra Ventures, Alturki Ventures and 6 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Grant (prize money), Apr 06, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
3. Abjjad.com
Abjjad is an Arabic social network for book readers, writers, and bloggers. Users can share their reading progress, highlights, quotes, reviews, and ratings, with a network of fellow readers on the service, as well as with friends on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists. Also recommends books based on user reading history, as well as direct recommendations from the users followed.
Key facts about Abjjad.com
4. Kader
Kader is an online job board for restaurants and hotel jobs. The platform allows candidates to create a profile by mentioning skills, experience, and find jobs nearby and filtering based on category and apply for jobs. It allows recruiters to post jobs by writing a text message mentioning the job description and shortlist and hire candidates. The clientele includes McDonald's, InterContinental, Crystel, Kababji, Fairmont, Hamleys, Little Italy, etc. The product is available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Key facts about Kader
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Amman (Jordan)
- Stage: Seed
- Total Funding till date: $400K
- Employee Count: 23 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Village Capital, EBRD and 1 Other
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, Feb 15, 2022, $*****
5. POSRocket
POSRocket provides cloud-based POS software and hardware solutions for offline retailers. Its features include order & inventory management, accounting, CRM, employee management, reporting & analytics, and more. The company also provides iPad POS and POS hardware like cash drawers, printers, barcode scanners, and more. It caters to multiple sectors including restaurants, bars, retail stores, salons & spas, and more.
Key facts about POSRocket
- Founded Year: 2016
- Location: Amman (Jordan)
- Stage: Acqui-Hired
- Total Funding till date: $7.15M
- Employee Count: 15 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Algebra Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures and 13 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Aug 03, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has invested in 16 companies over the last 7 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 5 years. Its most recent first time investment was in Coretava.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
2021 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
2020 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
2019 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's Investments by Stage
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has made 13 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $741K and 3 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $2.17M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 13 |
Series A | 3 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's Investments by Sector
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Retail, Consumer, EdTech and FinTech. Notably, it has invested in 12 Tech companies, 9 Consumer (B2C) companies, 5 Enterprise (B2B) companies and at least 5 companies focusing on Software.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 5 |
Retail | 4 |
Consumer | 2 |
EdTech | 2 |
FinTech | 2 |
Others | 11 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's Investments by Geography
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has made most investments in Jordan (13), followed by Egypt where it has made 1 investment.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Jordan | 13 |
Egypt | 1 |
Kuwait | 1 |
Saudi Arabia | 1 |
United States | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's recent investments
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by Innovative Startups & SMES Fund:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 08, 2022 | United States | Seed | 5468 | ||
Jun 08, 2022 | - | Seed | 1048 | [+1] | |
Feb 15, 2022 | Jordan | Seed | 2081 | ||
Feb 07, 2022 | Jordan | Seed | 7966 | - | |
Dec 21, 2021 | Jordan | Seed | 1592 |
Acquired companies in Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's Portfolio
2 companies from Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Little Thinking Minds in Apr 2025 by Seesaw for $*****.Here are Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Apr 15, 2025 | May 19, 2019 | Series A | 4485 | |
Jan 09, 2022 | Aug 03, 2021 | Series A | 2923 |
Team profile of Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
Innovative Startups & SMES Fund has a team of 6 members including 2 Partners and 1 Principal located in Jordan. Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of all team members in Innovative Startups & SMES Fund:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Amman | - | - | |
Partner | Amman | - | - | |
Principal | Jordan | - |
Co-investors of Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
Over the past 7 years, 42 investors have co-invested in Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's portfolio companies. This includes only funds.
- Invested before Innovative Startups & SMES Fund: Oasis500, Ibtikar Fund and 11 others have invested in rounds before Innovative Startups & SMES Fund. There are 4 companies where Oasis500 has invested before Innovative Startups & SMES Fund and 3 companies where Ibtikar Fund has invested before Innovative Startups & SMES Fund.
- Top Co-investors of Innovative Startups & SMES Fund: 19 investors entered a company along with Innovative Startups & SMES Fund. These include investors like Endure Capital (1 company).
- Invested after Innovative Startups & SMES Fund: A total of 10 investors have invested in Innovative Startups & SMES Fund's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include 4DX Ventures (1 company) and BECO Capital (1 company).
Recent News related to Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
•
Jordan’s ISSF invests $5mln in Rua Growth I LPMy Startup World•Oct 30, 2024•Rua Growth Fund, Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
•
•
•
$5 M pledged by ISSF for MSA Novo’s Mena fundIncubees•Feb 13, 2024•MSA Novo, Innovative Startups & SMES Fund
•
•
•
MoHash raises $6M seed funding to bring sustainable, stable yields to DeFiTechCrunch+•Jun 30, 2022•MoHash, Sequoia Capital, Quona, LedgerPrime and 8 others
•
Kuwait’s AlMuhlab leads Gamiphy’s $1.5 million pre-Series A roundWamda•Jun 08, 2022•gamiphy.com, ALMuhalab, Innovative Startups & SMES Fund, Bank of Palestine and 1 other
•
Kuwait’s AlMuhlab leads Gamiphy’s $1.5 million pre-Series A roundexplode.africa•Jun 08, 2022•Coretava, Innovative Startups & SMES Fund, Bank of Palestine
•
ISSF invests in Jordan online marketplace platformTrade Arabia•Apr 25, 2021•Innovative Startups & SMES Fund, Martix
