Investor Profile: Vision Ventures (Saudi Arabia) — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Vision Ventures funding carries a slogan that sums up the firm: "By Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs." Founded in 2016 in Dammam by entrepreneurs Kais Al Essa and Haitham BuAisha out of Sahara Net's diversification, Vision Ventures transitioned from corporate VC to an independent GP/LP firm in 2018. It is a sector-agnostic early-stage investor focused on MENA — Saudi Arabia at its heart — taking lead positions and board seats.

Thesis & focus

The thesis is operator-led early-stage MENA investing: back strong founders, take the lead, stay involved. Stated focus areas: fintech, SaaS, cybersecurity, infrastructure technologies, cloud, e-commerce and AI. The firm wants strong, passionate, resilient founders — full-time, with an MVP, a legal entity and a large target market.

Sectors & stages

Vision Ventures invests at pre-seed to pre-Series B, with seed and Series A as its core. The approach is essentially sector-agnostic within technology: fintech, SaaS, cybersecurity, infrastructure tech, e-commerce and AI are the areas it names most often.

Fund size & cheque size

Saqr Fund II carries a publicly stated target of $90 million, anchored by a $15M commitment from SVC (October 2024), with further commitments including $5M from ISSF (November 2024) and an investment from Takamol Holding. The size of Fund I is not publicly disclosed, and per-deal cheque size is not publicly disclosed either — the firm publishes no cheque range.

Notable portfolio

46+ companies backed since 2016. Named portfolio companies include Dabchy, Calo, Foodics, Vuz, Rain, Tamatem, Rewaa, Salla and fintech unicorn Tamara. Exits claimed: six, including Tamara, Social Dice, MunchOn and POSRocket.

Key people

Kais Al Essa — Founding Partner and CEO of Vision Ventures — is the firm's public face; Haitham BuAisha serves as Founding Partner and Investment Manager.

Programs, credits & perks

No accelerator, incubator or founder programme is verifiable for Vision Ventures — none is mentioned on the official site or in press coverage — and no cloud-credits or perks programme is publicly stated. The value-add the firm claims is lead-investor positioning and board-level involvement rather than programme-based support.

How to apply for funding

For founders figuring out how to get funding from Vision Ventures, the route is email, not a portal: the site's "Ready To Venture?" section lists [email protected] — no public pitch form is verifiable, so no public application route; introductions only for the warmest path. Check their bar first: full-time founders, an MVP, a legal entity, a large market. It won't appear on a list of angel investors in india since it invests in MENA, but Gulf-expanding Indian founders should note its fintech and SaaS appetite.