Saudi gaming studio Lobah has raised $12 million from the Social Development Bank (SDB), the bank announced during Leap 2025 in Riyadh. The funding is part of SDB’s expanded support for the gaming and esports sector, aimed at advancing Saudi Arabia’s National Gaming and Esports Strategy.
Lobah, according to its website, was formed by combining a company with 20 years of experience in mobile social gaming across the Middle East with MAU Games, a Saudi gaming studio with over 14 years of expertise. The studio is led by co-founder Eisa Atawi, who established MAU Games more than a decade ago.
The studio launched Lobah Play in January, a platform designed to help game developers publish, network, and monetize their games. Its first release, Habhab, a casual fruit-merge game, is already available on the platform. The studio is also developing new titles, including Kingdom of Letters, a trivia game inspired by the 90s TV show حروف, and Jackaroo, a strategy board game involving marbles and cards.
It seems that all of the studio’s future games will only be available through its own platform.
At the same event, The Social Development Bank also announced several other major initiatives, including increasing its overall gaming portfolio to $122 million, providing $6.7 million for Virtual Reality Solutions Company, and boosting its technology financing portfolio to SAR 898 million. The bank also revealed strategic partnerships with Microsoft to utilize Azure cloud computing and AI capabilities, and with Informatica for enhanced data management and governance solutions.
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