Raff raises $1.7M to bridge online brands with physical retail

Raff, a Saudi Arabian retail technology company, has raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round. Vision Ventures led the investment. 500 Global, Palm VC, Oqal Group, and Salman Butt, the co-founder of Salla, also took part, along with other backers.

The company was founded in 2024 by Ali Al Qudah and Abdul Kareem Munla. It operates a platform that connects consumer brands with physical retailers, taking over distribution, inventory management, order fulfilment, payments, and other commercial operations. Raff said the money will fund expansion across the GCC, speed up product development, and strengthen its AI capabilities.

Raff is focused on a problem that has become visible as e-commerce matures in the Gulf. Digital marketplaces have made it easy for a brand to launch online. Getting products into physical stores is still a slow and costly process. Each retailer can require separate onboarding, logistics, and commercial terms. The company describes the GCC retail market as worth more than $300 billion a year, which puts a high value on removing those frictions.

Its platform handles the distribution process end to end. Commercial operations, inventory, fulfilment, and payments are digitized in one system, giving brands a quicker route into offline channels. For retailers, the platform automates workflows and makes it easier to manage a growing vendor network. It also integrates with leading point-of-sale and accounting software in the region, so shop owners spend less time on administration and more time on the business.

Al Qudah, now chief executive, has an e-commerce background. He built and scaled two online brands, joined Salla as an early employee, and later became head of growth at legal-tech company Qanoniah. Munla brings more than two decades of financial management and business operations experience, including work on financial transformation, governance, compliance, and operational efficiency across multiple sectors.

Al Qudah said in a statement that the founders built Raff after seeing first-hand how difficult it is for growing brands to move past online sales. The barrier to starting an e-commerce business has come down, he said, but physical retail still forces brands to navigate many operational hurdles and commercial relationships. He described the investment as a way to accelerate that work, expand across the GCC, and continue building the infrastructure needed for the next generation of retail. He also described the company's mission as simplifying that journey and giving brands a faster and more efficient way to reach offline customers.

Kais Al-Essa, founding partner and CEO of Vision Ventures, said his firm previously backed the move from offline to online through an early investment in Salla. He sees the reverse movement as equally significant. Raff, he said, is solving a high-friction problem at the intersection of retail technology and logistics, and creating a new efficiency layer for commerce in the region. He called the team high-execution talent. He also expressed pride in leading the round and support for the team's ambitious vision.

Raff has been operating for less than 18 months. The company says more than 900 brands across nine countries, including the GCC and the United Kingdom, have used the platform to build a stronger physical retail presence.