Glossary

The words they'll use in the room

Funding conversations are full of shorthand. Here is what each term actually means and why it matters to you.

Equity: A share of ownership in your company.; When you take equity investment you sell a slice of the business permanently. It never gets repaid — the investor exits by selling their share later.
Dilution: Your ownership percentage shrinking when new shares are issued.; Owning 60% of a much bigger company is better than 100% of a small one — but only if the money actually grows the business.
Cap table: A list of who owns what percentage of your company.; Every investor asks for it. A messy cap table — dormant co-founders, unclear promises — kills deals.
Valuation: What your company is agreed to be worth in a funding round.; Pre-money is the value before the investment lands, post-money is after. An inflated early valuation makes your next round harder, not easier.
SAFE / convertible note: Money now, shares later — the price is set at the next proper round.; Lets you raise quickly without arguing about valuation today. Read the discount and cap terms carefully.
Non-dilutive funding: Money that does not cost you ownership: grants, subsidies, interest-free financing.; Always exhaust this first. Tamkeen support and Hope Fund financing are non-dilutive.
Term sheet: A short document setting out the main terms of an investment before the legal contracts.; Mostly non-binding, but it anchors everything that follows. Negotiate here, not later.
Due diligence: The investor's background check on your company.; Financials, contracts, IP, legal structure. Prepared founders close weeks faster.
Data room: A shared folder holding every document an investor will ask for.; Build it before you start pitching. Slow document delivery reads as disorganisation.
Tranche: One instalment of a larger approved amount.; Most Bahrain programmes release money in stages tied to milestones. Never plan as if you get it all at once.
Runway: How many months you can operate before the money runs out.; Cash divided by monthly burn. Start raising when you have at least six months left.
Burn rate: How much cash you spend each month, net of income.; The single number every investor and financing committee checks first.
Traction: Evidence that people actually want what you built.; Users, revenue, retention, signed contracts. A deck without traction is an opinion.
Unit economics: What you earn and what you spend per single customer or sale.; If one sale loses money, growth makes things worse. Know this cold before you pitch.
CAC and LTV: Cost to acquire a customer, and total profit that customer brings over time.; Investors want LTV comfortably above CAC, and payback within a sensible number of months.
MVP: The simplest version of your product that a real customer can use.; Most Bahrain programmes want to see one before they commit money.
CR (Commercial Registration): Your official business licence issued through Sijilat.; Almost nothing here is possible without an active CR in the right activity code.
Sijilat: The government portal where commercial registrations are created and managed.; Where your CR lives. Keep activities and address current — programmes check.
LMRA: The Labour Market Regulatory Authority, which handles work permits.; Compliance issues here can block Tamkeen support entirely.
GOSI: Social insurance registration for your employees. Now officially the Social Insurance Organization (SIO), but still widely called GOSI.; Required for wage support programmes and checked during eligibility screening.
Bahrainisation: The required ratio of Bahraini nationals in your workforce.; Affects permits and support eligibility. Plan hiring around it from day one.
Co-funding: Support that pays a percentage of a cost while you pay the rest.; How most Tamkeen support works. You need your own share of the cash available first.
Bridge round: A small raise to reach the next milestone or bigger round.; Common when a programme's disbursement is slower than your burn.
Exit: When investors turn their shares into cash — acquisition or sale.; Equity investors need a plausible exit story. Lenders and grant bodies do not.