Saudi Arabia’s nascent venture capital scene is beginning to roar to life, tallying a threefold year-on-year increase in venture capital investments in the first half of 2022, according to a report on the sector by Magnitt.
Saudi Arabia’s venture capital market saw a record funding of $548 million, dwarfing the funding amount for H1 2021 of $170 million in investments – and surpassing the total amount raised in all of 2021. A record number of 88 investors backed Saudi-based startups during the period.
The total investments for the first half of the year saw the Saudi Arabia create new yearly, half-yearly, and quarterly records in startup funding.
The funding surge in the first half of this year continued a positive trend for Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom’s record H1 2022 figure marks 3 consecutive half-year periods of growth in VC funding.
The Kingdom advanced to second place among the MENA countries in terms of the number of deals, with 79 deals, observing a 36 percent growth compared to the first half of 2021.
Magnitt’s report found that the leading sector for venture investments, in terms of the number of investments, in Saudi Arabia was into the Fintech sector. The food and beverage sector raised the most amount of funding, after the Kingdom’s second-ever mega-round over $100 million. Transportation, e-commerce, and IT solutions placed third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Magnitt is a product and service from Saudi Arabia’s SVC. Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) is a Government VC with $1 billion AUM established in 2018 by Monshaat as part of the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP).
