Saudi Arabia's Most-Funded Startups

The startups on our annual 50 Most-Funded Startups In The Middle East list have to have raised at least $5 million in total funding from external investors, excluding founders' shares and loans. In 2020, the U.A.E. had the most active startup ecosystem, but Saudi Arabia came in second with seven startups headquartered there. 1 Nana

Founders: Sami Alhelwah, Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Bakr Elsherif, Ahmed Alsamani e-Grocery marketplace platform

Funding: $28.9 million Investors: MEVP, STV, Saudi Venture Capital Company, Watar Partners, Wamda Capital, others.

Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Established in: 2016 Since its launch in 2016, Nana has established itself as a leading e-grocery marketplace in Saudi Arabia, serving 14 cities across the kingdom. According to the company, it has tripled its turnover over the past year, as well as partnered with major supermarkets such as Carrefour, Panda, Spar, Farm Superstores and Manuel. In 2020, Nana raised $18 million to further expand across Saudi Arabia and internationally. It aims to deliver 100,000 orders every month to Saudi-based buyers by the end of 2020. Co-founder Sami Alhelwah previously co-founded Sadeem, a cloud management solutions company.

2 PayTabs

Founder: Abdulaziz Al Jouf

Payments solutions provider

Funding: $26 million

Investors: Saudi Aramco, Other private investors Headquarters: Saudi Arabia Established in: 2014 PayTabs specializes in B2B payments solutions and has so far processed transactions in 168 currencies across 49 industries, according to the company. Having secured a funding round of $20 million in 2017, PayTabs has focused on expanding across the MENA region, Southeast Asia, and several countries within Africa and Europe. It has offices in the U.A.E. and a presence in India, the Philippines and Bahrain. In 2019, the company set up operations in Egypt for the first time. It plans to launch its third product, PayTabs Switch, this year.