From The MENA To The World: How Silicon Badia’s Hossam Shafick Turns Local Vision Into Global Value

Silicon Badia is a global venture capital (VC) firm founded in 2012 by Fawaz Zu’bi, Namek Zu’bi, and Emile Cubeisy with a mission, as Principal Hossam Shafick tells Inc. Arabia, “to connect the East and the West.” The founders believed that local solutions could transcend borders and scale globally, and they set out to prove exactly that by becoming the first Arab VC to establish a full-time presence in the US. Today, as an international brand known for delivering double-digit distributed-to-paid-in capital, Silicon Badia stands as proof of the founders’ vision that global value can be created from local conviction.

“We’re no different than the portfolio founders we back,” Shafick says. “We believe, just like them, that with the right vision and grit, it’s possible to build something truly world-class from this part of the world. Today, some of the world’s best tech products are either built by founders from the region—like Replit, Clay, InstaDeep—or powered by engineering teams in the region, like Incorta, Instabug, Expensya, and Userpilot.”

Keeping this premise in mind, Shafick explains that Silicon Badia is focused on backing startups that operate on software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models, given their innate propensity to scale beyond borders. “We’ve backed bold founders who built from Cairo, Amman, Casablanca, Tunis, and are now serving markets like the US and Europe,” he says. “We believe this is the winning flywheel: it creates real local impact—jobs, talent, and know-how—while also addressing the region’s biggest challenge: liquidity and exits. When companies scale globally, they tap into deep capital markets and acquisition appetites, completing the cycle.”

That principle also underpins how Silicon Badia operates. “With teams on both ends of the world, we offer a rare edge: local depth, global reach,” Shafick points out. “So, at our core, we back global ambitions born in local markets— because we’ve lived it, we know it works, and we know how to make it work.”

Now, given that he works at a firm straddling the East and the West, Shafick brings a unique perspective on funding stages in the MENA. “The way we define funding stages—especially Series A—is evolving, and context really matters,” he says. “Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator often uses US$1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) as a benchmark for Series A, and that makes sense in mature ecosystems where product, team, go-tomarket (GTM), and ops are already well-developed. But in the MENA, maturity doesn’t just come from hitting a revenue number—it comes from having the foundational layers in place to scale: a strong team beyond the founders, a validated product, a clear ideal customer profile and repeatable sales motion, and early GTM efficiency and market readiness. At Silicon Badia, we define Series A as readiness—not just traction. It’s when a company has the systems, talent, and insight to grow predictably and efficiently, even if it hasn’t hit $1 million ARR yet.”

In addition, Shafick points out that since Silicon Badia operates on a SaaS-driven investment thesis, it pays close attention to the role of gross margins in defining stage maturity. “SaaS businesses with over 80 percent margins can show meaningful traction at $1 million ARR,” he explains. “But for other models with, say, 20 percent margins, you’d need $4 million in revenue to demonstrate the same level of maturity. We work it backwards from margins, not just top-line numbers. That’s why we also challenge the idea that raising $10 million makes you Series A. If you’re still at $100,000 in revenue with no GTM clarity or team depth, you’re not Series A—you’re just well-funded.”

Such considerations are especially relevant when evaluating startups riding the current artificial intelligence (AI) wave, Shafick adds. “With the AI momentum, we’re seeing companies hit $1 million ARR much faster, but often before the rest of the company is ready to scale,” he points out. “That supports our belief: stages need to be redefined based on capability, not just capital or ARR. In short, you’re Series A when you’re ready to scale—not just when you raise, or hit a revenue milestone.”

When it comes to the long-term play for startups in the MENA, Shafick notes that while initial public offerings (IPOs) are the natural endgame in more mature ecosystems, that’s rarely the case today for the region’s upstarts—and for good reasons. “First, we need to recognize that the MENA is not one market,” he points out. “In non-GCC countries, startups operate under capital controls, limited dollar liquidity, and public markets that don’t yet understand or value tech businesses appropriately. Compare the multiples for fintech or logistics companies in Cairo or Amman versus the Nasdaq or even Dubai—you’ll find a major mismatch.”

Here, Shafick adds that while exchanges like Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul are showing signs of emerging as regional hubs for tech listings, that promise has yet to fully materialize for VC-backed startups in the MENA. Such structural barriers are compounded by how exits often play out in the region, Shafick adds. “Most MENA startups don’t scale to the public markets yet, not because they aren’t great businesses, but because they become more attractive to strategic acquirers or regional private equity long before IPO is even on the table,” he explains. “The sweet spot for exits tends to be $50 million–$300 million, where regional strategics are highly active, and valuations are reasonable.”

Finally, Shafick highlights another factor shaping exits in the MENA: currency alignment. “It’s important to remember that our entry as VCs is in US dollars, and so is our expected exit,” he says. “Until regional public markets offer US dollar-linked returns or attract global institutional investors at scale, IPOs won’t be the dominant path. That said, the momentum is building. And with better regulatory frameworks, investor education, and regional consolidation, the IPO era may not be far off—just not yet.”

Fundraising Fumbles: Hossam Shafick On What Not To Do When Chasing Capital

“Founders often make the usual mistakes—raising too much too early, setting unrealistic valuations, overspending on salaries, or trying too hard to please investors . These are welldocumented, but they still happen all the time. But a few non-conventional mistakes are just as critical:

1. Falling in love with the tech Investors don’t buy the tech. Customers don’t either. Obsession is necessary in venture—but it has to be about the business, not just the product. That means obsessing over your market, your go-to-market motion, your margins, your people. Great tech is not enough. If it doesn’t translate into growth, defensibility, or business value, it’s not fundable.

2. Believing the market will adapt to your product It won’t. You don’t bend the market to your will—you bend your product to the market. And eventually, you adapt it to the sales channel. Facebook isn’t going to rewire its application program interface for your startup. Shopify won’t adjust its workflows. Your product has to fit the way the customer already works, buys, and scales.

3. Holding on too long Sometimes, founders just don’t let go—of a feature, a customer, a market, even an investor. But startups are designed to fail more than they succeed—that’s the nature of venture. If you’re not willing to walk away from what’s not working, you’ll burn time, capital, and morale trying to make the wrong thing fit.

In short: you should raise and spend wisely. Obsess over the business. Fit yourself to the market. And let go fast (when reasonable). That’s how you win in venture.

Pictured in the lead image is Hossam Shafick, Principal at Silicon Badia. Courtesy of Silicon Badia.

This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia. To read the full issue online, click here.