OORI's Naif Alajmi on opening Saudi private markets

Public markets became far easier to reach over the past decade. Private markets did not, even as companies stayed private for longer and did more of their value creation before any listing. OORI, a Saudi-based private markets platform, has received a licence from the Capital Market Authority to conduct arranging and advising activities and is preparing to commence operations in the Kingdom. It follows a seven-figure US dollar pre-seed round completed in 2024 and backed by strategic investors, family offices and angels from Saudi Arabia, the GCC and Europe, including Bunat Ventures and RZM Investments.

Naif Alajmi is co-founder, board member and head of arranging at OORI. In written answers to Disrupts, he set out the problem the platform is built for, what the licence allows, why it starts with Shariah-compliant technology deals, and how far the ambition runs.

"Some of the most important companies in the world are staying private for longer, which means a significant part of their value creation happens before they ever reach a public exchange," Alajmi said. "Yet accessing those opportunities has traditionally depended on relationships, very large minimum tickets and complex, fragmented structures."

OORI is his answer to that: "a Saudi-based, CMA-licensed private markets platform that is building the infrastructure for qualified and institutional investors to access private market opportunities through a regulated, digital and transparent experience". It starts with Shariah-compliant technology opportunities, from venture and growth through pre-IPO, "but the longer-term ambition is much bigger: to build the infrastructure through which private market investing can operate at scale across the GCC".

What the licence permits

The CMA licence covers two activities. Under arranging, OORI can structure and facilitate transactions in securities and bring investors and investment opportunities together; under advising, it can provide investment advice and recommendations within the scope of the licence. Alajmi said the significance goes beyond what it technically allows.

"Private markets have historically been relationship-driven and relatively fragmented. If this asset class is going to become a meaningful part of wealth creation in Saudi Arabia, it needs to operate within a regulated framework that gives investors transparency, proper disclosures and clear accountability. We made a deliberate decision from the beginning to build OORI inside that framework rather than around it. We believe regulation will ultimately be one of the biggest enablers of private market growth in the Kingdom."

In practice, investors will onboard digitally, complete identity verification and the eligibility and suitability requirements, and once approved gain access to a curated pipeline. For each opportunity, he said, they will be able to understand what they are investing in, "the underlying economics, structure, risks, fees and relevant documentation". Opportunities offered as Shariah-compliant go through the appropriate governance and review before they are made available; OORI then facilitates the transaction and provides ongoing access to investment information. The aim is a process "significantly more transparent, data-driven and efficient than the fragmented process investors are accustomed to today".

Why technology, and why Shariah first

Technology, Alajmi argued, is the clearest case for private market access. Companies reach significant valuations before IPO, so "a considerable portion of value creation can happen while those businesses are still private", a stretch of the growth curve historically open only to venture funds, private equity firms, large institutions and a small network of investors. "We believe qualified investors in this region should have the ability to participate as well, provided the opportunities are properly structured, understood and suitable for them."

Shariah compliance was designed in from the start rather than added later as a product feature. "It reflects the market we are building for and the principles many investors in Saudi Arabia expect." Technology is the starting point because the team knows the asset class; over time, he said, the infrastructure can extend into other areas of private markets and alternative investments.

On the pre-seed round, he said investors understood the opportunity was "much larger than creating another investment app": substantial private wealth across Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC, growing investor sophistication and strong demand for alternatives, with the infrastructure connecting that capital to opportunities still being built. They also saw a regulatory-first approach and founders "building from direct experience in private markets rather than approaching the problem purely as a technology exercise".

The capital is going into long-term infrastructure: regulatory and compliance capabilities, technology, data and integrations, institutional-grade onboarding, deal sourcing and the network of investment partners. "We are building for scale, but we are not interested in growth for the sake of growth. In private markets, trust and quality matter far more than the number of deals you put on a screen."

The next few years

Alajmi expects Saudi private markets to go through the shift public investing went through years ago. "The opportunity already exists. The capital already exists. What is now being built is the infrastructure connecting the two." Much of the market still runs on personal networks, manual processes, large minimum tickets and fragmented information. He expects it to become "increasingly regulated, digital and data-driven", with the next stage not simply putting more private investments online but building better infrastructure "around discovery, diligence, suitability, execution, reporting and eventually liquidity".

OORI's ambition is to be part of the financial infrastructure connecting GCC investors with private market opportunities globally, while helping capital flow into opportunities emerging from the region. Saudi Arabia is the starting point "because of the scale of the market, the pace of regulatory development and the sophistication of its investor base".

The first priority now is execution: completing commencement requirements, onboarding the initial investors, activating the pipeline and deepening relationships with investment banks, asset managers, venture and private equity firms, family offices and other participants. Education runs alongside it. "Private markets are illiquid, long-term investments with different risks from public markets, and we want investors to understand both the opportunity and those risks."

In parallel the company is building the next layers of the platform: deeper data infrastructure, AI-driven tools to improve how opportunities are analysed and presented and, subject to the relevant regulatory frameworks, secondary liquidity and tokenisation. Saudi Arabia is the anchor market; the longer-term plan is GCC-wide expansion "through the appropriate licences and partnerships" and a connected private markets marketplace for the region.