Saudi Arabia’s Venture Capital Investments Achieve 770% Growth

A recent Saudi report revealed that the Kingdom’s venture capital investments achieved a growth of 770 percent, reaching a record-high of SAR 2 billion $548 million, up from SAR 236 million in 2018.

The Saudi Venture Capital Impact report also showed that the number of investors in Saudi startups rose by 192 percent, reaching 76 in 2021, up from 26 three years earlier.

The number of venture capital deals in Saudi startups also grew by 148 percent, to a new high of 139 deals, as compared to 56 VC deals in 2018.

The impact report showed that the strategy adopted by the Saudi Venture Capital Company succeeded over the past three years in increasing the number of investors in Saudi startups, encouraging existing and new financial companies to establish venture capital funds and contributing to closing the funding gap in investment rounds.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is witnessing an unprecedented growth in the quality and quantity in the deal flow of startups,” said Dr. Nabeel Koshak, CEO of Saudi Venture Capital (SVC).

“This is a result of the emergence of many innovative entrepreneurs, VCs, and angel investor groups, in addition to the availability of an advanced regulatory and legislative environment backed by effective government programs,” he added.

The Saudi Venture Capital Company is a government-owned firm, which was established in 2018 by the Monshaat Authority within the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP) to stimulate venture investments by investing SAR 2.8 billion ($750 million).

The report noted that the total committed investments of SVC amounted to SAR 1.2 billion, while the total committed investments including partners is estimated at SAR 6.5 billion.