Saudi Arabia’s venture capital scene continues to grow at an impressive clip as new deals and investments into Saudi companies – or by Saudi venture firms – builds on early growth so far in 2021.
Over the weekend, several new deals were announced. Saudi Arabian agriculture technology startup Red Sea Farms on Monday said it had raised $10 million which it would use to develop commercial scale farming facilities, and power the company’s expansion into the UAE, according to a report in Reuters. The two-plus year old company grows tomatoes in an environment-controlled, enclosed farm that primarily uses saltwater to cool greenhouses and irrigate crops.
Red Sea Farms aims to have between four to eight farming sites across six hectares in central and western Saudi Arabia and in Abu Dhabi, the company’s co-founder and CEO Ryan Lefers told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Arab News’ Frank Kane published an exclusive report that the Saudi-backed Vision Fund is “on the verge of its first big backing for a Saudi Arabian company,” a Saudi messaging app.
“We are on the cusp of making our first investment in a local company. It’s a local messaging company, and we’re very excited about it. It will be announced shortly over the next week or 10 days,” Misra said in a “Frankly Speaking” video interview published by Arab News, declining to give further details until the company involved makes its announcement. Misra added: “We wouldn’t have a Vision Fund today without the PIF or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, so there would be no SoftBank Vision Fund without their support.”
Outside of Saudi Arabia, a unit of Saudi Arabia’s massive Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced that it led a new financing round for OpenSooq.com, a Jordan-based online classifieds business that’s looking to triple its headcount across the Middle East, Bloomberg reports.
Per Bloomberg, the Saudi Jordanian Investment Fund, a $3 billion entity created by the Saudi wealth fund and a group of Jordanian banks, is backing OpenSooq along with existing investors iMENA Group and FJLabs — founded by Fabrice Grinda, who was an early investor in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. OpenSooq, whose biggest markets are Jordan and Saudi Arabia, said it raised $24 million.
Additionally, a newly launched Gulf-based startup called Opontia announced it had raised $20 million “to help it to finance acquisitions of e-commerce brands in the Middle East and Africa,” its chief executive said on Monday, per Reuters. The company, already operating in Saudi Arabia, will move forward with to buy e-commerce companies that it will then scale up across the region.
The flurry of announcements builds on a record first quarter for Saudi startups, which raised $76 million in the first quarter of 2021, a 137.5 percent increase on the previous quarter’s fundraising total of $32 million.
