Jordan's ISSF commits $7 million to Endeavor Catalyst V

Published: 2026-06-17T07:39:46.000Z

Jordan's startup ecosystem is small but persistent, and one of its quieter battles has always been about reach rather than just money. The Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund has just committed $7 million to Endeavor Catalyst V, a global co investment fund, to plug Jordanian startups into international venture capital networks.

Jordan's startup ecosystem is small but persistent, and one of its quieter battles has always been about reach rather than just money. Local founders can raise early capital at home, but growth stage cheques and global investor relationships are far harder to come by. The country's Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund, known as the ISSF, has just made one of its more deliberate moves to bridge that gap. The state backed fund of funds has committed $7 million to Endeavor Catalyst V, a global co investment vehicle that has exceeded $300 million in size, with the explicit aim of plugging Jordanian startups into international venture capital networks. The strategic logic is not subtle. Endeavor Catalyst is the rules based co investment fund of Endeavor, the global entrepreneurship network that supports high impact founders across more than 60 countries, and it has built a reputation as one of the more reliable early backers of emerging market companies that go on to become unicorns. By becoming a limited partner in its latest fund, the ISSF is doing something more interesting than chasing local returns. It is buying its country a seat in conversations where Jordanian founders can be put forward to global investors, given access to mentors who have built billion dollar companies elsewhere, and offered exits to international acquirers. The agreement was signed by Mohammad Al-Muhtasib, chief executive of the ISSF, and Allen Taylor, managing partner of Endeavor Catalyst, in the presence of Sami Smirat, Jordan's minister of digital economy and entrepreneurship. The timing tells you why this matters now. The ISSF was first capitalized in 2018 with $50 million from the World Bank and $48 million from the Central Bank of Jordan, and it has just wrapped up its first investment cycle in 2025 before moving into a second phase. Reporting around the new investment suggests the fund earned the highest performance rating during that first cycle, giving it the credibility to expand its remit. This is not the ISSF's first dance with Endeavor Catalyst either, having backed the third fund with $2 million in 2020, but a more than threefold increase in commitment signals deeper conviction in the strategy. The Jordan and Endeavor relationship already has notable proof points. Endeavor Catalyst's portfolio includes Replit, the software development platform founded by Jordanian entrepreneurs Amjad Masad and Haya Odeh, which has grown to a valuation in the neighborhood of $9 billion. Earlier Jordanian companies that have benefited from Endeavor's network include Kharabeesh, Altibbi, Mawdoo3 and Jamalon. These are the kind of regional reference points that make a $7 million commitment look less like a passive allocation and more like a calculated bet on a model that has already produced results. The wider regional read is the most useful takeaway. Across the Middle East and North Africa, access to growth stage capital remains one of the biggest chokepoints on otherwise promising startups, and Jordan is far from alone in that. By tying itself into a globally diversified co investment vehicle, the ISSF is offering a template that other smaller MENA economies might watch closely. In a region where state money is increasingly trying to act like venture capital, getting the structure right is as important as the size of the cheque.