UAE-based accelerator and investor Turn8 launched a $60 million venture capital fund on Sunday for technology innovation.

This new fund makes Turn8 one of the largest providers of seed capital in the region that also targeting global startups.

The new fund will use a dual investment strategy, investing seed funding to accelerator-stage startups and follow-on funding for growth stage startups that graduate from the Turn8 accelerator. The ticket size ranges from $100k to $500k. 

"We are looking to invest in over 150 startups over the life of the fund," says Turn8 general partner Kamal to Wamda.

Turn8 supports its accelerated startups with investment, mentorship, training and year-long business development support. The follow-on investment is intended to help them scale and grow globally.

The fund has two part: $20 million for the accelerator program and $40 million for follow on seed/series A. "In the next few years, 80% of our follow on funding will go to Turn8 accelerator graduates," says Kamal. The follow on funding strategy is to co-invest with other investors into startups with a great product to market fit in the GCC or the USA.

With the latest fund, which joins the seed fund Turn8 launched in 2013, the Dubai-based venture fund wants to fill a gap in the regional market.

“This strategic move comes from witnessing a major gap in the market for startups to grow from the accelerator stage into full-fledged businesses that attract venture capital,” said Hassan in a statement.

“The fund will continue to support the startup ecosystem and look for opportunities in technology innovation that match our portfolio requirements and are in line with our strategic objectives,” he said.

So far, the Turn8 accelerator has launched and invested in over 60 companies, including Pixelbug, Loadme, and Kashmi.

DP World and Innovation360 set up the Turn8 accelerator in 2013. Since then it has successfully provided pre-seed funding to startups in sectors such as digital healthcare, crowdsourcing, edutech, fintech and cloud solutions, and raised over $6 million in co-investment for its portfolio companies from various worldwide investors.