Saudi startups raise $76m in the first 3 months of 2021

Saudi startups raised $76 million in the first quarter of 2021, a 137.5 percent increase on the previous quarter’s fundraising total of $32 million. Entrepreneurship platform Wamda said that $396 million was raised from 125 deals in the Middle East and North Africa in the first quarter of 2021.

The UAE was the biggest market with 38 deals worth $256 million, while Egypt had 34 deals worth $22 million, and Saudi Arabia had 28 deals worth $76 million.

March boasted 43 deals worth $170 million, with agritech posting as the biggest sector with $50 million, followed by logistics ($37.5 million), food tech ($30.2 million), fintech ($26.5 million), mobility (10 million), and e-commerce ($8 million).

In the Kingdom, the number and value of deals increased dramatically quarter-on-quarter, rising 137 percent from the 13 deals worth $32 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Triska Hamid, editorial director of Wamda said: “The government’s push toward entrepreneurship is evident in the number of startups that have emerged in Saudi Arabia over the past few years. We are seeing more deal flow in the country and larger ticket sizes.” Last year, Saudi Arabia recorded a 35 percent year-on-year increase in the number of investment deals in the technology startup sector. A study by data research platform Magnitt found that the Kingdom accounted for 18 percent of the 496 investment deals across the Middle East and North Africa last year. Amal Dokhan, one of the Kingdom’s first female venture capitalists (VCs) and a partner at Californian venture capital firm 500 Startups, is confident that the Saudi market will continue to grow in 2021.