Waha Capital exits from Optasia, marking most significant departure to date

05/11/2025 01:52 AST

Waha Capital, a leading investment management company, announced on Tuesday the completion of its subsidiary Waha VAS Limited's divestment from Optasia, an AI fintech company. This comes after Optasia's highly successful listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

The Abu Dhabi-listed investment company first acquired a stake in Optasia in 2017, and over the years transformed from a regional fintech innovator into a global leader in AI-driven financial services. It has enabled digital credit and microfinance access across as many as 38 countries.

Mohamed Al Nowais, Managing Director of Waha Capital, said that this exit underscores the company's commitment to delivering strong returns to shareholders and redeploying that capital into high-impact opportunities. "The investment reflects our ability to identify and support transformative businesses that create meaningful impact and long-term value," he said.

This marks a milestone for the investment company as one of the most significant exits to date and represents Waha Capital's ability to identify, scale, and monetise high-growth opportunities so that investors can benefit from high returns.

Currently, the Waha Capital is worth over Dh3.1 million, with an opening price of 1.66. In one week, the bid size jumped from 1.58 to 1.70 from October 23 to October 30. The bid size represents the number of shares that investors are willing to purchase at the best available bid price, as defined by Investopedia. Each bid size represents 100 shares each.

Optasia's listing on the JSE has given the company a market valuation of approximately $1.3 billion. The offering, which included both primary and secondary shares worth 6.5 billion South African rand (approximately Dh1.3 billion), was multiple times oversubscribed, reflecting strong investor demand in South Africa and internationally.

Optasia provides AI-powered credit and financial services in partnership with mobile network operators, financial institutions, and distributors. Its Optasia 2.0 platform enables instant credit scoring and decisioning, empowering millions of users across emerging markets to access airtime credit and microfinance products that promote financial inclusion.

WAHA Capital manages assets in fintech and financial services, healthcare, energy, infrastructure, industrial real estate, and capital markets. It manages investments both locally and globally but is deeply rooted in Abu Dhabi to help strengthen its economy.

Khaleej Times