The Jameel Investment Management Company (JIMCO) is the active global investment arm of the Jameel Family (see Mohammed Jameel).
From 2024-01-04 Kaan Adanir:
- Jameel Investment Management Co is a Corporate Venture Group for investing in startups. The family’s core business is ALG Holdings - a lot of auto distribution business. Close ties with Toyota and with MIT.
- Four Jameel projects at MIT:
- J-WAFS
- J-PAL
- J-CLINIC
- J-Something
- Mohammed Jameel met with the founder of Rivian when he was still at MIT. They were the first investor in Rivian. They have invested $300M in it.
- ALG Holdings is looking to diversify their business. Their interests include:
- Automotive
- Power generation (e.g. recently acquired FRV, invested in CFS and Found Energy and Lilac Solutions and The Engine)
- Fusion
- Mohammed Jameel is a huge supporter of Nuclear fusion, so they’ve supported General Fusion and Kyoto Fusioneering in addition to CFS.
- They are looking at ways they can facilitate even earlier stage tech to the point where they could be spun out and JIMCO could potentially help there as well. MIT Proto Ventures appears as it could be part of that process and JIMCO would like to learn more.
- Their check size for fusion is very large. They invest in early stage (pre-seed or beyond). First check size 3M, and then they typically keep filling out follow-on funding rounds.
- They also invest in VC funds (DCVC, The Engine, Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer…).
- They don’t necessarily act as a corporate VC. They don’t usually invest for strategic reasons; the main rationale is financial.
- They also have a newco arm as well.
- In MENA, they only invest in fintech and e-commerce, not deep tech.