The operating partner for companies entering the Gulf.
A7i Partners gets international healthcare and life sciences companies into Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC. We don't distribute. We pair you with the distributor who fits, then embed inside your company as fractional operating partners, acting on your behalf in the Kingdom. We partner selectively.
The operating partner, not the consultant.
We work with international companies that have something the region needs and want to bring it to market the right way.
If you are building something the Gulf should know about, we should talk.
We don't distribute. We pair you with the distributor who will actually move your product, then we embed inside your company and run the in-Kingdom commercial operation on your behalf, as fractional operating partners. Real regulatory pathways, real government relationships, real commercial structures built to last, with people accountable to the revenue they help create.
Our focus spans six sectors shaping the future of healthcare in the region. These are the categories where Gulf governments are deploying capital, where demand is accelerating, and where the right international partner can build a position that compounds for decades.
Founded by operators with direct experience securing more than $1B in GCC distribution contracts, A7i brings the network, the regulatory fluency and the commercial discipline international companies need to win in one of the world's fastest-moving healthcare markets.
Why the Gulf, and why now.
The Gulf is not a destination market. It is an inflection point, where capital concentration, regulatory openness and demand for category-defining health platforms now sit in the same place.
Who we work with.
Diagnostics & IVD
Biotech & Genomics
Medical Aesthetics
Healthspan & Longevity
Wellness & Nutraceuticals
Digital Health & MedTech
How we engage.
Validation
A7i begins with a market read. Regulatory environment, buyer readiness, pricing reality, competitive position. We test whether the product has a real commercial pathway in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and we deliver the answer in writing before any structure is built around it.
Structuring
We design the in-region commercial model around how the buyer actually buys. Direct entry, local partnership, distribution, pricing logic, contract framework, regulatory pathway. The structure decides whether the company scales or stalls. We treat it that way.
Activation
We open the doors that matter. Senior government, hospital group procurement, private health networks, and the clinical and operational leaders inside the institutions our partners need to reach. These are relationships that already exist, in markets where introductions decide who gets the meeting.
Operation
We stay after launch. You are not handed to a distributor and left to navigate the market alone. A7i becomes part of your company and operates inside the engagement on your behalf, fractional operating partners in the Kingdom, for as long as the work needs us.
An international life sciences company enters Saudi Arabia.
A field note on the work, the timeline, and what it takes to enter the Kingdom properly. Identifying details withheld.
In late 2024, we began working with an international life sciences company with credible technology and a clear thesis on the next decade of demand. What they did not have was a presence in the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia was the obvious entry point. The buyer infrastructure is mature, and the relevant capability is a named national priority under Vision 2030. The question was not whether the market existed. It was how a foreign company arrives in a way that lasts.
Foreign companies often arrive with the playbook that worked elsewhere. A strong product pitch. A persuasive proposal. A timeline they believed in. They learn quickly that the deal does not close on the proposal. It closes on the relationship that precedes it, and on whether the company reads as aligned with where the Kingdom is going. Companies who arrive transactional are treated transactionally. Companies who arrive operating are treated as long-term partners.
The first three months.
Validation. Regulatory environment, pricing reality, competitive position, buyer readiness, partner selection. We delivered the read in writing, then designed the in-region commercial model around how the buyer actually buys. By month three, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the partner we identified as the strongest fit.
Months four through nine.
From structuring to activation. Senior government meetings. Hospital group procurement. The clinical and operational leaders inside the institutions our partner needed to reach. Time in Riyadh and Jeddah. The rooms where relationships are confirmed.
Nine months from first engagement to signed distribution agreement with one of the largest distributors in Saudi Arabia. That speed is not standard for foreign companies entering this market. It is what happens when the entry is designed, structured and operated by people present in the Kingdom rather than visiting it.
If you are building something the Gulf should know about, we should talk.
Partners & advisors.
Brigitta leads A7i's commercial strategy, partner selection and international origination. She is also embedded in commercial leadership inside one of A7i's foreign principals, building the international commercial function from inside the company A7i helped bring to market.
With clinical training and founder experience, she operates at the intersection of clinical, commercial and entrepreneurial fluency, with firsthand expertise across diagnostics, aesthetics and longevity. She is also an active investor in biotech and agtech.
Based between Melbourne and the Kingdom, Brigitta runs A7i's Australia–GCC corridor because both ends matter. Capital and technology move from one. Demand and capability are being built at the other.
Salman leads A7i's in-Kingdom execution, government engagement and partner operations. Saudi-born and Jeddah-based, he holds direct relationships across senior government and the Kingdom's major institutional health buyers.
A scientist by training with hands-on commercial experience across biotech and diagnostic laboratory environments, he brings a rare combination: the technical fluency to evaluate what should be brought into the Kingdom, and the operating relationships to make it land.
He runs the Kingdom-facing operation as A7i's commercial principal on the ground, present in the meetings, embedded with the partners, accountable for the outcomes. Beyond A7i, Salman is an active investor in biotech and food technology.
Dr Mandura brings 35 years of clinical practice across the Saudi healthcare system, retired from her role as Head of the Home Medical Care Department at a major Jeddah hospital.
Her career spans primary care, surgery, integrative medicine and the home health pathway, the four lenses through which most foreign diagnostics, longevity and wellness platforms must ultimately succeed in the Kingdom.
She advises A7i on clinical fit, point-of-care realities and the operating context of Saudi healthcare from the inside.
Arab Board, Surgery · 35 Years, Saudi Healthcare
Get in touch.
For international healthcare and life sciences companies entering the Gulf, and for institutional partners considering engagement with A7i. We partner selectively. Message directly, or send a brief.