According to the MENA Venture Report 2017 by MENAbytes, Saudi startups had raised ~$28 million in 8 deals. These numbers did not take into account those deals that were not made public but after the report was published, some VCs reached out to us and shared details about their investments in 2017. Because of receiving those details and the data we have been tracking ourselves, we are able to put together this list of the best-funded startups in Saudi.
The biggest visible trend in these investments is that almost all the investments are made by Saudi investors. Apart from Uturn that had received investment from Lebanese VC Leap Venture and Endeavor Catalyst, and Foodics that has 500 Startups among their investors (who co-invested along with Saudi VCs), all the startups raised investments from Saudi-based VCs.
Another trend is the domination of Wa’ed (Saudi Aramco Ventures). They’ve invested in six out of these ten startups.
You may also want to check out our previous posts about the best-funded startups in Egypt & UAE. They were published last year so not very updated information but would still give you a good idea.
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- Marham raises $1 million seed to grow into a healthcare superapp for Pakistan - August 3, 2021
