A Solo GP Betting on MENA’s Shift from Tech Consumers to Producers

Few people embody the journey from founder to funder as naturally as Tambi Jalouqa. In this Industry Voices feature, Tambi shares his path from gaming on a Sakhr computer in Amman to co-founding one of Jordan’s most active funds, why he believes the region needs more VCs, not bigger ones, and how he’s shaping Maza Ventures to back the ambitious, risk-taking founders he once wished he had behind him.

From Gaming to Building to Backing

Tambi’s entrepreneurial spark started early. Growing up in Jordan, he was glued to his Sakhr computer (a popular 1980s Arabic-language PC), first through gaming and then by teaching himself programming. “I used to like gaming… which led me to learn programming,” he recalls. That curiosity led him first into mathematics, then computer science, and later into founding roles, where he served as CTO at JoblandApp and at POSRocket, which went on to be acquired by FOODICS.

He loved building products and solving problems, but over time another realization set in: the region didn’t just need more startups, it needed stronger capital infrastructure to sustain them. He watched promising founders struggle to raise, and talented teams hit ceilings not because of skill, but because of limited funding. Venture became the natural next step. 

Tambi wanted to be the kind of backer he wished he had when he was building, one who could combine capital with genuine empathy. “When you’ve been in the trenches, you understand the pressure, the setbacks, the grit it takes to be a founder. You’re not speaking from the top of the food chain.” That operator’s perspective allows him to meet founders where they are, offering advice, patience, and credibility born of experience. 

In Silicon Valley, many of the most iconic firms, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, a16z, were started by operators who had built before they invested. In MENA, the path has often been reversed: many funds were raised by people with financial backgrounds rather than operating ones, capital first, experience later. 

That’s left a gap in the ecosystem for backers with founder DNA; a gap Tambi is determined to fill.

Starting Propeller

The next chapter of Tambi’s journey came with Propeller, the venture firm he co-founded with Zaid Farekh. It wasn’t part of a grand plan to become career investors, it grew out of a shared desire to build and support fellow founders. What began as a way to stay close to and help entrepreneurs eventually formalized into a fund. “I didn’t choose to be a VC, I embraced being a VC,” Tambi says.

The results spoke for themselves: Propeller’s first fund delivered a 3.5x return with three exits, a strong signal for two first-time managers who never saw themselves as financiers. The second fund, now fully deployed, backs a roster of regional leaders, global standouts, and YC graduates like OpenCX and ActivePieces. But for Tambi, performance isn’t about quick wins. “I don’t want fast exits,” he explains. “They might look good on paper, but they don’t create enduring companies or real returns.”

For him, venture was never about headlines, it was about filling a financing gap in MENA and helping founders build sustainable, lasting businesses.

Launching a new VC - Maza Ventures

For Tambi, staying in builder mode has always been more natural than settling into scale. After co-founding and growing Propeller, he felt the pull to start fresh again, this time with Maza Ventures in MENA. “I’m a builder at heart,” he says. “That’s why I created a VC firm, and now I want to create a new one that’s simpler, faster, without regional mandates, just focused on supporting the best founders.” 

With Maza, that focus is on moonshots: ambitious entrepreneurs tackling hard problems in markets, technology, or society, not just chasing quick flips. Even the name reflects that ambition, Maza means “moon” in Circassian, a nod to his heritage and to aiming higher.

Maza isn’t only about backing bold founders, it’s about shifting the role of MENA in the global tech economy. “Growing up, none of the products around us were built here,” he says. “Our TVs weren’t Iraqi-made, our dishwashers weren’t Saudi-made, our software wasn’t Egyptian. We’ve been consumers, not producers. That has to change.” His mission with Maza is to help build companies that change that equation, ventures that create intellectual property, products, and science from the region, so the next generation grows up with global technology that proudly carries a MENA origin.

Leaving Propeller wasn’t about walking away from success, but about returning to the creative, early-stage energy he thrives in. As a solo GP, Maza gives him the freedom to rebuild on his own terms while pursuing that bigger mission: helping MENA claim its place as a producer of world-class technology.

Maza Ventures’ Thesis

Maza Ventures is still in the process of closing $15M fund to back around 40 companies at the pre-seed stage, with average check sizes of ~$150K. It has already started deploying funds and Tambi is clear that this isn’t about playing it safe, he wants to take risks on ambitious founders tackling deep, technical problems. 

While B2B SaaS and enterprise software are part of the mix, his thesis extends far beyond that into DeepTech: Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Computing, BioTech, and Robotics. The idea is to back technical teams solving global challenges, even when the path forward isn’t fully clear, and to lean on a network of experts and LPs to evaluate the toughest, most scientific bets.

The Fundraising Process

Fundraising for Maza Ventures so far has been no small feat. As Tambi put it, “I'm gonna say it hasn't been easy, but at the same time, I don't want to compare with startup founders. It's harder for them.”

Instead of anchoring the fund with two or three large institutional LPs, he deliberately chose a different path. Tambi went broad, building a base of 47 LPs so far, most of them operators, founders, and builders who had lived the entrepreneurial journey themselves. For him, it wasn’t just about raising capital; it was about surrounding Maza with a network of people who could add real value to founders beyond money.

The process, he says, feels similar to building a startup: move fast, talk to customers, iterate. He treats LPs like early users, pitching them, fielding their questions, refining his deck, adjusting his investment model, and going back again. Early on, he thought he’d invest in 100 companies; through iteration and feedback, that narrowed closer to 40.

Tambi estimates his hit rate with LPs has been closer to 25%, not because it has been easy, but because he has been intentional about who to approach. Still, the scale of conversations is massive. “You can imagine how many people I talk to… and I’m still talking to people. I need to double the fund, so I’m going to keep going.”

At its core, his strategy was about building a fund with the same speed, adaptability, and customer focus he once applied as a founder.

Mandate Rebalancing Adjustment

Tambi is exploring an idea that could reshape how mandate-driven investors participate in funds. The concept isn’t concrete yet, it’s something he wants to test over time, but it aims to create a fairer balance between development-focused LPs (i.e. sovereign wealth fund of funds) and traditional LPs.

The idea is simple: when a fund includes an LP whose primary goal is to grow their local economy, supporting startups, creating jobs, and fostering innovation, they should take on more of the initial risk, or “first loss,” in financial returns. This allows other LPs to benefit more fully from the upside, without being penalized by the constraints of the mandate.

Tambi envisions a proportional approach: the more capital the LP wants invested in their country, the larger their share of the first-loss position. That way, the mandate-driven LP still achieves its societal goals such as creating jobs, even if the fund underperforms financially, while traditional LPs enjoy a fairer chance at returns.

It’s a concept that challenges traditional fund structures, and Tambi is curious to see how it might work in practice, a potential experiment in aligning impact, incentives, and fairness within the ecosystem.

The Region Needs More VCs, Not Just Bigger Ones

Tambi argues that the Middle East and similar markets need more venture capitalists, not just larger funds. More VCs mean more “shots on goal”, more opportunities for founders to iterate, learn, and try again.

He also points out a structural challenge: the region lacks deep-pocketed LPs like endowments, large NGOs, or pension funds willing to invest in venture. Many pension funds remain heavily focused on real estate, avoiding the risks, and potential rewards, of innovation. This short-term, risk-averse approach limits the growth of VC-backed startups, which historically have been engines for transformative technology and economic development.

Importantly, Tambi emphasizes that the region doesn’t need bigger funds, it needs more funds. A larger fund doesn’t automatically see more deals or take more bets across different areas; doubling a fund’s size doesn’t double the number of companies it backs. In fact, bigger funds often focus on larger deals with the same, or only slightly expanded, teams. In contrast, multiple smaller, independent funds bring diverse perspectives, cover a wider range of sectors and stages, and make more total investments across the ecosystem. For Tambi, impact comes from more funds, more perspectives, and more bets, rather than simply writing bigger checks into a handful of deals.

Why Tambi Chose the Solo GP Path

For Tambi, launching his fund as a solo GP was about speed, focus, and independence. “I can move faster, I can support people faster,” he explains. Without the layers of hierarchy or internal politics, he can dedicate his time to what matters most: helping founders, building connections, and getting things done.

He acknowledges the trade-off: bandwidth is limited. But that limitation forces him to prioritize and operate smarter, automating where possible and avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy. “I’m not gonna spend time on managing people. I’m gonna spend time on managing my own time, and supporting the founders,” he says.

Looking ahead, Tambi doesn’t rule out expanding, but only with true partners, not associates or layers of junior staff. Inspired by models like Benchmark, he envisions a lean group of partners who each source, win, and support deals independently, without hierarchy. “Independence is really important. You don’t want to become the next traditional financial institute,” Tambi notes. For now, the solo GP model gives him the agility and clarity to build the kind of VC firm he believes the region needs.

Looking Ahead: Tambi’s Legacy

Ask Tambi about legacy, and he’ll tell you it goes far beyond financial returns. For LPs, he hopes the experience of backing his fund feels like a rewarding chapter, ten years marked by growth, friendships, and a sense of belonging to something meaningful. “When you buy a stock, it doesn’t talk to you… LP-ship is different. It should be engaging and fruitful,” he explains. 

For founders, he wants to be remembered as someone who helped raise their ambitions, who reminded them that building big, world-class companies from the region is possible. If his work leaves the ecosystem just a little more confident, more connected, and more ambitious, Tambi would consider that the legacy worth leaving behind.