RIYADH — Saudi Arabia maintained its first rank across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in terms of venture capital (VC) funding in 2024, witnessing a total VC deployment of SR2.8 billion ($750 million). This was revealed in the "2024 Emerging Markets Venture Capital Report", published by the venture data platform MAGNiTT on Wednesday. It revealed that this achievement underscores the remarkable development the Kingdom is experiencing across various economic and financial sectors, aligned with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 aimed at strengthening the national economy. According to the report, Saudi Arabia secured the highest share of total VC funding in the MENA region in 2024, comprising 40 percent of the total capital deployed in the region. The report also revealed that Saudi Arabia set a new record with 178 VC deals in the same year. This highlights the attractiveness of the Saudi market, boost its competitive environment, and solidifies the Kingdom's position as the largest economy in MENA. Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) CEO and board member Dr. Nabeel Koshak said in a press statement that the Kingdom's leading position in the VC scene in the region comes as a result of the many governmental initiatives launched to stimulate the VC and startups ecosystem within the Saudi Vision 2030 programs, and the development of the legislative and regulatory environment for the ecosystem, in addition to the emergence of active investors from the private sector as well as innovative entrepreneurs. "We are proud that SV''s strategy contributed to the development of the VC ecosystem in the Kingdom. We at SVC are committed to continuing to lead the development of the ecosystem by stimulating private investors to provide support for startups and SMEs to be capable of fast and high growth, leading to diversifying the national economy and achieving the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030," he added.
