Said Rahmani
Sarava VC
CEO & Founder
Global serial entrepreneur Said Rahmani left Iran to the United States as a teenager. He worked for IBM until the mid 90s when he started his entrepreneurship journey by launching his first startup, Pathlight Technology, in Upstate New York. He later joined Naspers prior to founding Sarava, the first technology VC fund in Iran.
At Naspers, Said held a number of senior positions since he joined the group in 2007. As Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Irdeto, he was responsible for worldwide business strategy to enable new online business models for the world’s most popular app-stores and operators. Prior to this, he was responsible for Cloakware Business unit, implementing a business turnaround to become the global leader in protection of premium content on the Internet.
Prior to leaving Naspers, he was regional general manager and country representative of Naspers in the Middle East. In this last role, Said was responsible for business strategy, market development, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, regional investments, mergers and acquisitions, and country operations. He was asked to evaluate the possibility of investing in Iran start-ups. Ultimately, Naspers decided not to invest, but Said was convinced of the country’s potential and returned to where he was born.
Said returned to Iran and in early 2012 he founded Sarava, the first technology VC fund in Iran, focused on investment in Internet and Ecommerce and incubation of technology startups. Sarava comprises a team of game-changing entrepreneurs to help Iranian startups by providing unrivaled support with world-class mentorship and local services.
Said Rahmani will be speaking at BDL Accelerate in Beirut taking place on December 10 – 11.
