Vision Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Vision Ventures (VV) is a Saudi Arabia-headquartered early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2016 by Kais Al-Essa and Haitham Bu-Aisha, both former operators who built and scaled Sahara Net, one of the first internet service providers in the Kingdom (established 1989, with Belgacom acquiring a majority stake in 2009 for a 7x return). VV brands itself as being "by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs," emphasizing that its team is composed of former founders whose mission is to help other founders succeed. The firm is explicitly sector-agnostic, preferring to back strong, resilient, full-time founders with a working MVP, a legal entity (or near-term incorporation), and a large targeted market, over committing to a narrow vertical thesis.
Sector Focus
While formally sector-agnostic, VV's realized portfolio skews heavily toward fintech and payments (Tamara, MoneyHash, NearPay, Spare, Raqamyah, Sarwa, Wethaq), enterprise/SaaS tooling (Rewaa, Foodics, POSRocket), cybersecurity (Cognna), and ecommerce/marketplace infrastructure (Salla, Dabchy, Cartlow, Brimore, Yamm). A 2024 press profile explicitly describes the firm's focus areas as "fintech, SaaS, cybersecurity, and infrastructure technologies." The portfolio also has a meaningful cluster of consumer and healthtech names (Calo, Shezlong, Shroo7, Chefaa) and logistics/mobility plays (Trella, Buseet, Syarah, RedBox).
Stage Focus
VV invests at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A according to its own site messaging, while its second fund (Saqr Fund II) is mandated to invest from pre-seed through pre-Series B. The firm has backed companies as early as pre-incorporation MVP stage and has also led at least one Pre-Series A round (Konn).
Check Size
No specific check-size range is published on the website or in press coverage found; Saqr Fund II has a $90M target size, spread across a sector-agnostic, multi-stage mandate in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region (with a specific carve-out for Jordanian companies via its ISSF LP commitment).
Lead Tendency
VV describes itself as "keen on becoming a lead investor and taking an active role on the board" to provide managerial and operational advisory to portfolio companies, indicating a hands-on, lead-oriented posture rather than a passive check-writer role.
Recent Activity
Vision Ventures is currently deploying its second vehicle, Saqr Fund II ($90M target). Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) committed $15M to the fund in October 2024, and Jordan's Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) committed $5M in November 2024 specifically to support Jordanian portfolio companies. Saqr Fund II's first disclosed deployment was into Rewaa, a Saudi full-stack retail inventory-management platform. The firm's most recent disclosed investment (per PitchBook) was into Madeed, a bioinformatics/longevity-data company, in May 2026.
Portfolio Highlights
VV has backed more than 45 companies since 2016 and has recorded at least six exits: Saudi fintech unicorn Tamara (BNPL), SaaS company Social Dice, workplace lunch-delivery platform MunchOn, gyrocopter manufacturer Gyrocraft, point-of-sale platform POSRocket, and MENA tech-media outlet MENABytes. Current notable active names include Foodics (restaurant management SaaS), Salla (ecommerce platform builder), Trella (trucking/logistics marketplace), Bayzat (insurance/HR platform), Tamatem (MENA mobile games publisher), Rain (regulated crypto exchange, Bahrain), and Calo (healthy meal delivery).
Team
- Kais Al-Essa — Founding Partner & CEO. Also founding partner and VP of Marketing & Sales at Sahara Net; holds an Executive MBA and a BSc in Computer Engineering from KFUPM.
- Haitham Bu-Aisha — Founding Partner & Investment Manager. Founding partner and CEO of Sahara Net since 1989; studied MIS at KFUPM.
- Mohamed Al-Amad — Managing Partner & Chief Financial Officer. 12+ years in IT/trading finance; CMA certified.
- El Ghali Cherrat — Investment Manager. Former senior advisor to the Province of Flevoland (Netherlands); background in financial analysis and business development.
- Ahmed Osman — Entrepreneur in Residence; Head of Products at CirclePay, prior product experience at Rakuten Japan.
- Basma Altwejri — Community & Marketing Specialist.
- Fahad Al-Rasheed — Investment Analyst; prior experience at a 500 Global-backed fintech startup and HSBC Investment Banking Advisory.
- Abdullah Al-Essa — Investment Analyst.
- Ali Al-Sakkaf — Support Team / Administrative.
Decision Process
VV operates as a partnership with a founding-partner CEO (Kais Al-Essa), a founding-partner investment manager (Haitham Bu-Aisha), a managing partner/CFO, and a dedicated investment manager plus investment analysts screening deal flow — consistent with a multi-partner decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
The firm explicitly screens for strong, passionate, resilient, full-time founders with an available MVP, a real or imminent legal entity, and a large addressable market. Its own founder-led history (the partners built and exited Sahara Net) shapes a stated preference for founder-friendly terms and a long-term relationship-building approach with portfolio companies.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, with additional offices/locations in Riyadh, Cairo (Egypt), and Amsterdam (Netherlands). Investment focus is Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region, with a specific expansion into Jordan via the ISSF LP relationship in Saqr Fund II.