Twofour54 Ibtikar, the financing arm of Abu Dhabi’s media zone has invested AED9.2m ($2.5m) in two local online games companies Tahadi Games and Jawaker.

“Gaming represents a huge area of growth … However until recently the gaming landscape in the Middle East was significantly under-developed. Our new agreements, which combine Tahadi and Jawaker’s online gaming expertise with Twofour54 Ibtikar’s investment and strategic support will help to strengthen the regional gaming industry,” says Wayne Borg, deputy chief executive officer and chief operating officer at Twofour54.

The investment will be used to help both companies grow and enable them to discover more revenue opportunities.

Tahadi is a regional online games publisher was founded in 2008 by the previous owners of Arabic-content internet services company Maktoob, which was later sold to US’ Yahoo.

Jawaker is a multiplayer card gaming website that was launched in 2009 specifically for the Middle East & North Africa (Mena) market.