Startups In Saudi Arabia And How They Broke Their Funding Record With $67 Million In 2019 Alone

Saudi Arabia is one of the Middle Eastern region’s most rapidly evolving startup and venture capital investment breeding grounds and last year, the Kingdom broke its record of the amount of funding and investments its startups received in 2019 alone. In 2015, Saudi startups received around $60 million in funding, and saw a 35% increase in 2018, bringing the total amount of startup funding to $67 million in 2019.

Saudi Arabia saw a record number of startup investments and total funding in 2019 according to MAGNiTT’s 2019 #SaudiArabia Venture Capital Snapshot.@MAGNITT pic.twitter.com/DOd0Mwejb3

— New KSA Economics (@Enuksaeconomics) January 29, 2020

As part of Vision 2030’s key objectives that push for a boost on entrepreneurship and innovation, KSA witnessed a spectacular boost in its startup scene. As reported by MAGNiTT in their recent report entitled “2019 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Snapshot", the Kingdom saw a 92% startup growth rate in 2019, which led to an increase of funding and investment and earned Saudi Arabia the 3^rd place after UAE and Egypt in the ranking of startup investment in the MENA region.

"Usually, these initiatives take time to come to fruition, but we have already seen their impact on the ecosystem in the country and the wider MENA region," said MAGNiTT's founder & CEO Philip Bahoshy.

Our MAGNiTT 2019 KSA Venture Snapshot is out!
Download English: https://t.co/1sTSF5pVvb
Download Arabic: https://t.co/LEiQPnWKN2
A record year of investments in KSA startups. I recently visited Riyadh and it is amazing to see the activity in the kingdom. Thoughts below:

— Philip Bahoshy (@pbahoshy) January 31, 2020

The Kingdom has also contributed to its own startup community via programs such as the Misk 500 MENA Accelerator and Misk Growth Accelerator, which was launched by Misk Innovation in a bid to promote local investment – counting for 32% of the investments vested into Saudi Arabia’s startups. Last year saw 565 startup investments made, with a value of $704 million and almost half of the investors were Saudi nationals with the most active investments.