Saudi Arabia Leads MENA in VC Investments in 2024

Saudi Arabia continued to lead the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in terms of the value of venture capital investment, for the second year in a row, as it acquired 40% of the total venture capital (VC) investment worth $750 million in 2024, followed by the UAE with $613 million last year.

However, the UAE topped with 188 deals valued around $637 million and Egypt was ranked third with 78 deals valued $329 million.

According to venture data platform MAGNiTT, a comprehensive platform that offers advanced, tailored solutions to Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC), Saudi Arabia has been ranked first among all sectors with about $247 million, as the sector contributed 33% of the total value of venture capital investment, driven by the $130 million basket deal. The fintech sector came in second place with about $182 million.

VC deals reached 178 deals, up 16% y-o-y, driven by increased early-stage activity. Saudi Arabia witnessed a strong and continuous participation of investors during the year, with 135 investors supporting Saudi start-ups, an increase of 6% over 2023.

Saudi Arabia’s top five sectors in terms of VC value in 2024 are e-commerce/retail ($247 million), fintech ($182 million), transport and logistics ($64 million), IT solutions ($54 million) and enterprise software ($34 million).

SVC Investments

The total investments of the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) since its establishment in 2018, amounted to $1 billion, while the number of funds in which it invested amounted to 54, and the in the investments in start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were more than 800 companies.

A recent report by SVC showed that the total investments across all sectors amounted to $1 billion, while the total impact of committed investments, including partners’ commitments, was estimated at around $4.83 billion.

The start-ups and SMEs covering several sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, education technology, transportation and logistics services, reflected the development of Kingdom’s various economic and financial sectors.

The report also said that the merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in Saudi Arabia totalled seven in 2024, equal to the deals recorded in the previous two years.