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.
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