RAED Ventures

Strategy is driven by the three Founding Partners — Omar Almajdouie, Saed Nashef, and Talal Alasmari — alongside General Partner Wael Nafee. Their backgrounds span Sadara Ventures, Almajdouie Manufacturing, and multiple startup exits, giving the investment committee an operating lens that influences stage focus and sector selection across fintech, enterprise software, and e-commerce.

RAED relies heavily on the operator networks of its partners and Venture Partners. Saed Nashef’s Sadara lineage, Wael Nafee’s Careem alumni connections, and Venture Partner Abdulrahman Alfozan’s position as Engineering Lead at OpenAI create sourcing channels that reach founders before they engage other regional funds. The firm’s RAEDPlus platform further embeds the team into the local founder ecosystem.

RAED is an asset manager that raises external capital from institutional investors, family offices, and financial institutions, not a single-family office. Its website and leadership structure confirm a traditional venture fund model with a Head of Investor Relations managing fundraising across the GCC and a compliance function overseeing multi-jurisdictional fund platforms.

Founding Partner Saed Nashef co-founded Sadara Ventures in 2011, one of the first venture firms in the Arab Middle East. While RAED is a separate entity, Nashef’s dual identity links the two firms culturally — several of RAED’s advisors, including Seth Levine, also hold board or advisory roles with Sadara. The firms share a heritage but operate distinct fund structures.

RAED acts as a lead investor in early-stage rounds across its target sectors and geographies. The firm deploys directly into seed and Series A rounds and participates in growth-stage follow-ons, though it does not publicly disclose fund commitment sizes. Its investment team manages deal execution through a pipeline concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

RAED lists focus sectors including fintech, e-commerce, logistics, edtech, digital health, enterprise solutions, entertainment, retailtech, and AI/ML. The firm does not name exclusions but signals a positive screen for businesses with financial, environmental, or social sustainability — suggesting it avoids sectors that cannot credibly claim scalable impact in the MENA region.

RAED’s Venture Partners maintain external operating roles while contributing deal flow, due diligence, and portfolio support. Abdulrahman Alfozan works full-time as Engineering Lead at OpenAI; Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud runs family office East40 Holding; Kushal Shah operates a pet-care PE fund. This structure gives RAED access to talent that would be difficult to hire full-time without diluting the firm’s operator ethos.