Noha Gad 

Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem is witnessing dynamic growth, moving beyond its traditional focus on oil, energy, and large-scale infrastructure. With a youthful population eager to innovate and a government that supports business startups, the Kingdom has become a fertile environment for emerging businesses in specialized sectors that address local, regional, and global challenges. This expansion reflects a broader shift toward using technology and innovation to build new industries and create jobs.

The focus on specialized innovations is closely connected to the ambitious Saudi Vision 2030, which focuses on sustainability, economic diversification, and building a knowledge-based economy. This national blueprint aims to reduce reliance on oil revenues and prepare for future economic changes by nurturing startups that develop groundbreaking solutions in areas such as agriculture and desert farming, waste management, and urban infrastructure. These niche innovations will contribute directly to the Kingdom’s sustainability goals, promoting resource efficiency, environmental protection, and enhanced urban living conditions. 

In this feature, we will explore three vibrant and strategically important sectors where Saudi startups are gaining traction: desert farming, waste management, and urban mobility.

Desert Farming 

Agriculture in Saudi Arabia faces multiple challenges due to the Kingdom’s arid desert climate characterized by limited water resources, high temperatures, and sandy, nutrient-poor soils. These difficult conditions make food production dependent on imports a persistent issue, driving an urgent need for innovative agricultural technologies that can sustainably increase local food production while conserving scarce water resources. 

Several Saudi companies and startups are pioneering solutions in desert farming using advanced technologies, such as hydroponics, aeroponics, AI-powered irrigation, and soil enhancement, to optimize water usage, improve crop yields, and enable farming in harsh desert environments. 

   Key Players

        *Saudi Desert Control. As a leader in sustainable land transformation, the company uses the Liquid Natural Clay (LNC) technology to transform arid land into fertile soil within just seven hours by combining natural minerals and clays with water. This innovation contributes to improving water retention, boosting plant health and crop yields, and reducing operational costs by 30% for new farmland establishments.

        *Iyri (formerly RedSea). This sustainable AgriClimate Tech company targets advancing commercial farming for low to mid-tech farmers in hot climates. Its patented, proprietary technologies reduce water and energy consumption by up to 90%. Iyris’ award-winning technology, SecondSky, is deployed in multiple greenhouse coverings and shade nets to minimize the stress and impact of near-infrared heat radiation on plants while allowing the spectrum of light that plants need for photosynthesis. This revolutionary innovation helps deliver more resilient, productive, and profitable crops in regions where climate change and excessive heat limit sustainable, productive growth. Additionally, iryis has developed plant genetics via a novel hybridization process that has the potential to breed resiliency to salinity, heat, and drought across a broad range of crops, ensuring stress-resistant, dependable food production.

       *Arable. This startup specializes in custom hydroponic systems tailored for Saudi Arabia’s desert climate. It uses advanced hydroponic technology to cultivate premium vegetables and herbs that are fresher, tastier, and longer-lasting than imported alternatives, using less water and reducing environmental impact.

       *Saudi Arabian Hydroponic Company (Zarei). Based in Al-Khobar, Zarei specializes in modern techniques of cultivation without soil (hydroponics) and the establishment of agricultural greenhouses using sophisticated modern techniques. Hydroponics relies on water in a closed cycle, saving more than 90% of water consumption compared to traditional agriculture methods.

       *GreenMast. This Riyadh-based agri-business company aims to revolutionize the farming model in the GCC region, leveraging fully-controlled high-tech hydroponics greenhouses. It offers various services to transform the farming sector, including greenhouse management and consultancy.

Waste Management

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 focuses on transforming the Kingdom’s environmental practices, accelerating the circular economy, and setting global benchmarks in recycling and resource recovery. With aspirations to divert 85% of industrial waste from landfills by 2035, this national blueprint targets increasing municipal waste recycling rates through advanced technologies and integrated systems. The Kingdom’s sustainability goals also include accelerating the adoption of waste-to-energy solutions to reduce reliance on landfills and investing in infrastructure, partnerships, and innovations to support the circular economy.

A recent report released by the Mordor Intelligence stated that the waste management market in Saudi Arabia is expected to jump to $37.7 billion by 2030 from $25.8 billion in 2025, with a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.85%. the report also anticipated construction mega-projects, mandatory source segregation beginning in 2025, and carbon-credit eligibility for waste-to-energy facilities to increase the revenue base across collection, recycling, and recovery services after 2027.

Several Saudi companies and startups are driving innovation in the waste recycling sector to meet the Kingdom’s need for advanced and sustainable waste management solutions.

  Key Players

• Edama. As the organic waste recycling KAUST startup, Edama develops innovative organic waste recycling facilities to optimize the recovery and transformation of organic waste into innovative agricultural products.
• The Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC). SIRC was launched by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to develop, own, operate, and finance various activities across all waste types to establish recycling capacities in the Kingdom and build a circular economy for a sustainable future. It targets meeting the objectives of Vision 2030 and the revised Waste Management National Regulatory Framework through its subsidiary network, which includes:

              *Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Company (Yadoum), which focuses on developing progressive and sustainable solutions in the realm of municipal solid waste.

              *Akam Recycling Company for Environmental Services (Akam), a leading provider of environmental services and waste treatment activities. It plans to invest over SAR 160 million as part of its commitment to creating a sustainable future for the Kingdom.

              *Metal Recycling Company for Environmental Services (ELECTA), which focuses on managing the waste of electrical and electronic equipment, as well as metal scraps. 

              *Oil Management Company (Azyat), a pioneering provider of sustainable lubricant waste management solutions.

              *Medical Waste Treatment Company (Wazeen), a trailblazer in redefining how hazardous medical waste is managed and treated.

              *Global Environmental Management Services (REVIVA), a dedicated execution arm in the realm of industrial hazardous waste treatments.

Additionally, the public-private partnerships (PPPs) unlocked substantial investment toward collection, sorting, and waste-to-energy plants, ensuring scalable and bankable operations aligned with regulatory frameworks. Environmentally, these startups and initiatives significantly contribute to minimizing landfill dependency, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution.

Urban Mobility Innovations

Saudi Arabia is taking confident steps towards redefining its urban mobility landscape by embracing sustainable practices that align with the Vision 2030 framework, aiming to reduce its carbon footprint, enhance the quality of urban life, and create a more sustainable future for its growing population.

A cornerstone initiative in the Kingdom’s sustainability mobility agenda is the development of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure through building numerous EV charging stations across major cities to support the adoption of electric cars.

Saudi Arabia invested heavily in projects like the Riyadh Metro and Jeddah Metro to elevate public transportation networks. These projects are expected to reduce air pollution in urban areas.

To further advance sustainable mobility practices, Saudi Arabia adopted smart traffic management systems that utilize AI and big data analytics to optimize traffic flow, reduce congestion, and lower emissions. It also deployed autonomous vehicles to enhance mobility while minimizing environmental impact. These self-driving cars can operate more efficiently than human-driven cars, leading to reduced fuel consumption and lower emissions.

Moreover, the Kingdom integrated solar-powered buses and hybrid vehicles into the public transport fleet not only to decrease the carbon footprint but also to provide a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional fuels.

Finally, niche startups in Saudi Arabia are strategically vital for the Kingdom’s sustainable development and economic transformation. By pioneering innovative solutions in desert farming, waste management, and urban mobility, these startups directly address environmental challenges while supporting diversified economic growth in line with Vision 2030. As government support, venture capital, and regulatory reforms strengthen, the outlook for continued innovation in these sectors is highly promising, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional leader in sustainable entrepreneurship.

Ghada Ismail

Raising money for a startup is exciting. You pitch your idea, meet investors, and finally get the “yes” that can help your business grow. But once the celebration ends, you’ll see terms in the deal that protect investors if things don’t go as planned. That safety net is called downside protection.

What It Really Means

Downside protection is a promise that if your company loses value or struggles, investors won’t lose as much money. It’s common in startup deals everywhere, and it helps investors feel safer about putting in their cash. It refers to the legal mechanisms investors use to protect their money if a startup’s valuation falls or if the company fails to meet expectations. While it sounds investor-friendly, it’s also a standard part of venture deals worldwide. Understanding it is essential for founders who want to negotiate fair terms and avoid unpleasant surprises later.

How It Shows Up in Deals

1. Extra Shares When Value Drops
   Suppose you raised money when your company was worth $10 million, but later you can only raise money at $7 million. Early investors might get extra shares so their piece of the company doesn’t shrink.
2. Getting Paid First if Things End
   If the company is sold or closes, investors usually get their money back before founders or employees see anything. Some agreements even let them get back more than they put in.
3. Price Adjustments
   If you sell new shares at a lower price later, some deals let investors pay that lower price too, so they don’t overpay.

Why Investors Want It

Starting a company is risky, as most startups could just fail. Downside protection helps investors feel safer, which can make them more willing to invest in the first place.

What It Means for Founders

These protections can help you raise money, but they come with trade-offs:

• Your share may shrink if the company’s value drops.
• Future investors might hesitate if early investors have too many special rights.
• Morale can suffer if the company has to raise money at a lower value.

How to Protect Yourself

• Understand every term. Ask questions until you’re sure you know how it works.
• Negotiate fair rules. For example, ask for formulas that limit how many extra shares early investors can get.
• Get expert help. A lawyer or advisor who knows startup deals can spot problems quickly.

Wrapping Things Up…

Downside protection isn’t a trap; it’s a normal part of funding a startup. The key is to understand it before you sign. That way, you can give investors the confidence they need without giving away more of your company than you expect.

Noha Gad

The commerce landscape is undergoing a significant transformation in 2025, driven by rapid technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors. Traditional retail and e-commerce are evolving beyond simple online transactions into immersive, engaging, and socially connected experiences. This shift reflects the importance of integrating technology, social media, and sustainability principles into how consumers discover, interact with, and purchase products and services. Thus, new types of commerce have emerged to redefine the relationship between brands and customers, creating innovative avenues for engagement, personalization, and convenience.

One of the most notable trends shaping commerce today is the rise of social commerce that integrates shopping experiences seamlessly into social media platforms. This type of commerce allows brands to engage directly with audiences, showcase products in real time, and drive immediate sales, creating a highly interactive retail experience.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies also revolutionize how consumers shop online by offering immersive and interactive digital experiences. Virtual try-ons, 3D product visualizations, and fully virtual stores enable customers to make informed purchase decisions from the comfort of their homes. 

Additionally, sustainability-driven commerce is another critical and rapidly growing trend that reflects consumers’ increasing preference for eco-friendly, ethical, and transparent shopping practices. Brands that embed sustainability into their business models, from sourcing and packaging to circular economy initiatives, are gaining trust and loyalty in a market where environmental responsibility is no longer optional.

In this blog, we will discover more about key trends that reshape the commerce landscape and how these shifting paradigms highlight a future where commerce is not just transactional, but experiential, interactive, and responsible.

Social commerce 

This term refers to the integration of e-commerce features directly within social media platforms, allowing users to discover, engage with, and purchase products without leaving their favorite applications. This trend gained rapid popularity among consumers who increasingly rely on social networks not only for social interaction but also for product recommendations, reviews, and seamless shopping experiences. 

Social commerce is witnessing significant growth thanks to multiple features, such as shoppable posts, stories, and in-app checkout options that simplify purchasing. These features reduce friction by allowing users to buy products directly through social media feeds, eliminating the need to navigate to external websites. Also, the integration of chatbots and customer service tools within social platforms enhances personalized shopping assistance and builds customer trust.

This type of commerce has a great impact on the way consumers discover brands and makes shopping more interactive and community-driven. For brands, social commerce opens new channels for storytelling, customer feedback, and direct engagement, enabling more personalized marketing strategies that foster loyalty and repeat business.

Live commerce

Live commerce integrates live video streaming with real-time shopping, creating an interactive experience where brands and influencers showcase products directly to an engaged audience. This type leverages the excitement and immediacy of live broadcasts to drive instant purchasing decisions, transforming the traditional sales funnel into a dynamic, entertainment-driven event. 

One of live commerce’s main strengths is the ability to interact with viewers in real time via chat, polls, and question-and-answer sessions. This interaction builds trust, answers consumer questions instantly, and encourages spontaneous purchases by creating a sense of urgency with limited-time offers and exclusive promotions.

This type of commerce enables brands to demonstrate products in action, showcasing features, benefits, and use cases more vividly than traditional online listings. It also features deeper emotional connections with consumers, ultimately reducing product returns and helping consumers make informed decisions.

AR and VR commerce

AR and VR transform online shopping by creating interactive experiences that bridge the gap between physical and digital retail. These technologies enable consumers to visualize products in a realistic context, enhancing confidence in purchase decisions and reducing the sense of uncertainty that often comes with online shopping. One of the biggest challenges in online shopping is the inability to physically experience products before purchase. AR and VR address this by offering personalized shopping experiences tailored to individual preferences and environments.

Sustainability-Driven Commerce

As awareness of climate change and resource depletion grows, shoppers increasingly demand products that minimize harm to the planet and promote fair labor practices. This shift requires businesses to integrate sustainability into every aspect of their operations, from product design and sourcing to packaging and distribution.

Sustainability-driven commerce emphasizes ethical sourcing practices, ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions throughout the supply chain. Brands are adopting blockchain and other technologies to increase transparency and traceability, allowing consumers to verify the origins and lifecycle of products. This transparency fosters trust and accountability, essential for maintaining brand reputation in a socially aware market.

As we navigate the rapidly changing world of commerce in 2025, adaptability and innovation have become essential for businesses aiming to thrive. Today’s consumers expect more than just products; they seek experiences that resonate with their lifestyles, values, and desire for authenticity. This evolution forces brands to reimagine their strategies and focus on creating deeper connections through meaningful engagement, transparency, and responsiveness. As 2025 unfolds, the most successful retailers will be those that master this balance, leveraging technology to connect, entertain, and inspire, while championing sustainability to build lasting trust and loyalty.

Ghada Ismail

When business founders land their first big fundraise, it can feel like unlocking a new level. Suddenly, there’s real capital to hire staff, launch a product, scale marketing, or even set up a new office. But for many, that influx of cash brings its own danger: burn rate anxiety. They spend fast. Too fast. And often, they run out of runway long before meaningful milestones are reached.

This issue isn’t unique to Saudi Arabia; it’s part of the startup playbook globally, but local dynamics, incentives, and pressures make it especially acute in the Kingdom. As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with its Vision 2030 goals and builds out its tech ecosystem, understanding why many founders accelerate spending too quickly and how this behavior jeopardizes sustainability is vital.

The Investment Landscape

In the early 2020s, Saudi Arabia saw explosive growth in its startup funding ecosystem. According to MAGNiTT, the KSA venture capital landscape posted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 49% between 2020 and 2024. First half of 2025 data shows the momentum continuing: Saudi startups raised about $1.34 billion in H1 2025, contributing some 64% of the total capital flowing into startups across the MENA region

But this surge is not without turbulence. Total Saudi funding dropped sharply in 2024 to around $750 million, a decline of about 44% year-over-year. Investors are more risk-aware, interest rates are up globally, and cheap money is less abundant. Meanwhile, although deal count remains reasonably strong, the size and quality of many early-stage rounds suggest founders are getting just enough fuel but are burning it quickly.

In this setting, founders often feel they must prove growth fast to justify valuations and future rounds. Burn becomes the badge of ambition. But without discipline, ambition can overrun sustainability.

What Drives Impulsive Spending?

Why do many Saudi founders spend fast after their first meaningful raise? Below are several intersecting causes:

1. Pressure to Signal

Securing funding is a public statement. For many founders, especially first-timers, spending on optics—office, branding, public events—becomes a way to validate the raise in the eyes of peers, media, and potential future investors. Luxury offices, PR teams, flashy marketing campaigns: these all send a message that the startup is serious and “playing at a higher level.”

2. Expectations of Growth & Speed

Investors often reward fast growth: user acquisition, market entry, and scaling. Founders internalize that and think in terms of “go big or go home.” Even before product-market fit is fully validated, they chase expansion: hiring aggressively, expanding into new markets, or scaling marketing channels prematurely.

When the macro environment is still rich with investment capital, pressure builds to outpace competition rather than pace builds around fundamentals.

3. Weak Financial Planning & Inexperienced Teams

Many early-stage startups in Saudi Arabia are led by passionate technical or product founders, often with less exposure to finance, unit economics, or cash-flow modelling. Without senior finance leadership or rigorous financial discipline, projections are optimistic and buffers are small.

They may underestimate costs (salaries, infrastructure, marketing), overestimate revenue growth, and mispredict customer acquisition cost (CAC) vs. lifetime value (LTV). This disconnect leads to spending that looks reasonable in plan, but in reality is unsustainable.

4. Easy Access to Capital + Push for Scale

Part of the Vision 2030 strategy has been opening up capital pools; government funds, accelerators, and VC firms are more active, and international investors are watching Saudi startups closely. That access encourages founders to spend, expecting that more capital will always come.

Alongside this, there’s a bias toward scaling up: bigger teams, more features, broader geographic footprint. Sometimes, less attention is given to profitability or even consistency of revenue. The “growth at all costs” mindset kicks in, especially when valuations are rising and comparisons with peers matter.

5. External Economic Pressures

Global economic tailwinds (inflation, supply chain shocks, rising costs) hit startups hard. In Saudi Arabia, rising operational costs—office rent, recruiting expensive talent, marketing—can strain budgets. Also, when interest rates rise and investor risk aversion increases, the pricing of capital and access to follow-on funding become less certain.

Consequences of High Burn: Why the Anxiety is Justified

Why is this urgent? What happens when burn rate exceeds sustainable levels?

1. Runway Depletion & Forced Cost Cuts
   If spending burns through capital too quickly, companies hit a cliff: layoffs, pivoting away from strategic priorities, or scaling back product features. These sudden adjustments damage morale, user trust, and long-term trajectory.
2. Valuation Pressure and Down Rounds
   Over-spending without matched growth can lead to disappointing metrics at the next fundraise. If performance lags expectations (users, revenue, retention), investors may value the startup lower than its previous round, causing down rounds. These dilute founder equity and harm investor confidence.
3. Investor Fatigue & Reputation Risk
   If founders repeatedly overspend or fail to show progress, local investors may begin to demand more oversight, impose stricter terms, or shy away from first-time founders. For the broader ecosystem, bad stories reduce willingness among limited partners (LPs) to invest in early-stage funds or raise their standards, making life harder for all.

Case Study: TradeHub—Choosing Discipline Over Runway

When entrepreneur Ahmed Jaber launched TradeHub in late 2023, investor enthusiasm was immediate. The cross-border B2B marketplace raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding within just two months in a textbook early-stage win.

But funding didn’t translate into product-market fit. After a pivot to a SaaS sales-automation tool, Jaber and his team still couldn’t lock onto a model that customers truly needed. Despite having capital left in the bank, they made the rare decision to shut down the company and return remaining funds to investors.

Jaber later summed up the move: “Knowing when to stop is as important as knowing when to continue.”

For Saudi founders, the TradeHub story is a sharp counterpoint to the burn-rate spiral. Many startups, flush with first-round cash, rush into heavy hiring, marketing splurges, and premature scaling, only to find that revenue can’t keep pace. Jaber’s choice to preserve capital and reputation, rather than spend in hope of a breakthrough, illustrates that capital is a tool, not a trophy.

How Founders Can Shift to Balance

It’s not that spending is bad; it’s how and when you spend that counts. Here are some strategies Saudi founders can adopt to manage burn more intelligently.

A. Build Financial Discipline Early

• Hire or consult finance leadership early. A CFO or financial controller, even part-time or advisory, helps with realistic budgeting, forecasting, and monitoring cash flow.
• Scenario planning: run models for “best case,” “moderate case,” and “worst case” to see how burn looks under different growth assumptions (sales, retention, cost inflation).
• Focus on unit economics: customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), retention rates. If you have to spend $100 acquiring a user who gives $10 over their lifetime, growth through spending doesn’t scale well.

B. Stage Spending According to Milestones

• Prioritize capital allocation to high-leverage activities first: product development, core hiring (engineering, operations), modest marketing to validate channels.
• Delay expensive hires, extravagant offices, or wide regional expansion until product-market fit and stable revenue streams are proven.
• Let metrics (growth, retention, margins) guide the next spending round, not promises or projections alone.

C. Align with Investors on Realistic Metrics

• Be explicit in your pitch and early communications about what growth metrics matter vs which are vanity metrics.
• Set mutually agreed KPIs: monthly recurring revenue, churn, gross margin, profit vs. cost reductions, etc.
• Include milestones for fundraising rounds tied to performance (e.g., reaching X revenue, Y retention, or proof of unit economics), to ensure the next funding is obtained on solid footing.

D. Use Lean and Localized Strategies

• Use digital channels efficiently—invest in data to know which campaigns actually convert, where costs are sustainable.
• Wherever possible, outsource or use contractors/hybrid remote teams to avoid large fixed costs in early stages.
• Leverage local infrastructure and partnerships rather than immediately seeking costly global expansion.

E. Ecosystem Support and Shared Learning

• Founders can benefit from local incubators/accelerators that offer CFO-as-a-service or financial advisory, allowing even early-stage companies to access better financial practices without hiring full senior leadership.
• Build networks of peer founders to share lessons on what worked—and what drained runway.
• Investors can play a role: some are moving towards more hands-on support. If VCs insist on aggressive marketing spend or expansion, they share responsibility for the consequences.

Conclusion: From Burn Rate Anxiety to Sustainable Ambition

Saudi Arabia stands at a crossroads in its startup journey. The Kingdom has done much right: launching public funds, promoting entrepreneurship, building infrastructure, and attracting global capital. The momentum is there. But momentum isn’t everything. Without financial prudence, even well-funded startups risk burning out fast—losing talent, investor trust, and ultimately, potential.

Founders who learn to balance ambition with discipline—who spend with intent rather than spectacle—will likely emerge as the durable success stories. For Saudi Arabia’s tech ecosystem to deliver on its promise under Vision 2030, that shift—from burn to balance—must come sooner rather than later.

Noha Gad

The Saudi fintech sector is rapidly evolving, driven by the Saudi Vision 2030 agenda, which emphasizes digital transformation, financial inclusion, and economic diversification. With a tech-savvy young population and supportive regulatory reforms, Saudi Arabia has become a fertile ground for innovative fintech solutions that integrate technology with customer-centric services.

Among the pioneering players shaping this dynamic ecosystem is Madkhol, a Shariah-compliant fintech company specializing in financial planning and wealth management. Focused on expanding financial inclusion among younger generations, Madkhol offers innovative technology-based financial solutions with a commitment to financial wellness. 

In this interview, Sharikat Mubasher speaks with Saad Bin Atyan, Co-founder and CEO of Madkhol, to explore the company’s innovative approach, diverse product offerings, and future growth plans, as well as insights into its recently launched ‘Ratibi+’ program.

What are the key services that distinguish Madkhol from traditional fintech and investment companies in Saudi Arabia? 
Madkhol stands out by bridging fintech innovation with human-centered solutions. Unlike traditional players, we focus not only on investment returns but also on financial wellness and employee loyalty. Our services integrate robo-advisory, Sharia-compliant portfolios, and employee-focused products like Ratibi+, giving us a unique position at the intersection of wealth management and workforce engagement.

How does Madkhol utilize AI and robo-advisory solutions to empower investors in Saudi Arabia and beyond?
Our AI-powered robo-advisory analyzes market trends, personal preferences, and risk profiles to build tailored portfolios. This ensures that every investor, from a first-time saver to a high-net-worth client, receives guidance at scale. AI also enables us to automate rebalancing, forecast scenarios, and provide personalized insights in real time, making wealth management more inclusive and accessible.

Earlier this year, Madkhol raised $2.2 million in a seed round to develop its AI-powered solutions. What are the company’s plans to expand its product portfolio and market reach?

The seed round enabled us to accelerate the development of our AI-powered solutions and expand our product portfolio. Our focus is twofold: first, to strengthen Ratibi+ as the leading employee investment and loyalty program in Saudi Arabia, and second, to roll out advanced robo-advisory services for individuals and institutions across the region. Market-wise, we are targeting strategic partnerships with corporates, banks, and HR tech platforms to scale our reach.

Can you tell us more about the Ratibi+ program and how it benefits both employees and companies?
Ratibi+ is our flagship product designed to redefine employee compensation. It allows employees to save and invest directly from their salaries, while employers can offer matching contributions with vesting periods. For employees, this creates financial security and long-term growth; for companies, it reduces turnover, strengthens loyalty, and positions them as forward-thinking employers.

How do you see the role of AI in advancing wealth management and enhancing the investment environment? 
AI is transforming wealth management from a service for the few into a tool for the many. It enhances accuracy in portfolio design, ensures continuous monitoring, and democratizes access to financial insights. In the Saudi context, AI supports Vision 2030 by fostering a culture of savings and investment, ultimately creating a more resilient and inclusive financial ecosystem.

How did participating in Money 20/20 Middle East help Madkhol gain exposure to global fintech trends and innovations?
Money 20/20 Middle East gave us an invaluable platform to connect with global fintech leaders, discover cutting-edge trends, and showcase Ratibi+ on an international stage. It reinforced our belief that Saudi fintech can compete globally while addressing unique local needs.

In your opinion, how do events like Money 20/20 contribute to shaping the fintech ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and the wider region?
Events like Money 20/20 act as catalysts; they bring together investors, innovators, and regulators in one place. For Saudi Arabia and the region, this accelerates knowledge exchange, fosters partnerships, and highlights how fintech can play a key role in achieving Vision 2030’s economic diversification goals.

What are the biggest challenges facing fintech startups in Saudi Arabia, and how does Madkhol address these challenges? 
The main challenges are building trust, navigating regulation, and achieving scale. Madkhol addresses these by ensuring Sharia-compliant products, working closely with regulators, and focusing on partnerships with corporates and banks to reach mass adoption. Trust, compliance, and collaboration are the pillars of our approach.

Noha Gad

Modern commerce is witnessing a significant transformation triggered by rapid developments in technology. The traditional retail landscape, which was centered on physical stores and direct customer interactions, is evolving into a digitally interconnected ecosystem. This change was driven by emerging technologies that enhance how products are sold and redefine the overall customer experience and operational efficiency. 

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) emerged as key enablers that revolutionize each aspect of modern commerce. Businesses increasingly utilize cutting-edge tools to understand and anticipate customer needs, tailor offerings, and create more engaging shopping environments. AI-driven analytics allow retailers to handle vast amounts of data, providing insights that help optimize product assortments, pricing strategies, and personalized marketing.

On the other side, VR and AR fill the gap between digital and physical worlds, offering immersive and interactive experiences for customers, ultimately enhancing logistical operations by improving warehouse management, staff training, and real-time problem-solving.

As modern commerce continues to evolve, organizations embracing these technologies are well-positioned to meet rising consumer expectations and adapt to the fast-changing market landscape effectively. Thus, understanding the importance of this technological evolution is essential for businesses to remain competitive

How AI transforms modern commerce

AI has become a cornerstone of innovation in modern commerce, driving significant improvements across customer engagement, inventory management, and operational efficiency.

-Personalization and customer insights. AI uses machine learning algorithms to analyze customer data, such as browsing behavior, purchase history, and preferences. This enables businesses to deliver personalized product recommendations and marketing messages in real time, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting conversion rates.

-Inventory management and forecasting demand. AI models can optimize inventory levels by processing large datasets on sales trends, seasonality, and external market factors. This reduces risks of overstock or stockouts, cutting costs related to excess inventory and lost sales opportunities

-Customer experience enhancement.  AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide 24/7 customer support by handling routine inquiries, guiding shoppers through product selections, and resolving common issues quickly. This ultimately contributes to enhancing customer experience and reducing response time, thereby enabling human agents to focus on more complex problems. 

-Fraud detection. AI models detect unusual patterns and potential fraud in real time by analyzing transaction data and user behavior. This capability enhances the security of digital payments and protects both merchants and customers from cyber threats.   

Using VR and AR to enhance the shopping experience 

VR and AR are transforming the shopping experience as they create immersive environments that engage customers in ways traditional retail cannot. For instance, virtual stores and showrooms allow shoppers to explore products in a fully digital space without leaving their homes. Both innovations enable virtual product try-ons and demonstrations, especially valuable in sectors like fashion, furniture, and automotive.

Additionally, VR and AR are used for remote product training and retail staff education. Retailers can simulate real-world scenarios to train employees on product knowledge, customer interaction, and store layout without disrupting physical store operations. This method improves staff preparedness and service quality, directly benefiting the shopping experience.

These innovative technologies also fill the gap between physical and online retail, making shopping more interactive, engaging, and convenient in the modern commerce landscape. They enable interactive marketing campaigns and promotions that engage customers in innovative ways.

The integration of AI, VR, and AR technologies in modern commerce has a significant impact on supply chains and logistics as they can optimize inventory and deliveries, enhance warehouse and fulfilment efficiency, promote logistics planning, and improve risk management. 

Finally, these emerging technologies are fundamentally reshaping the landscape of modern commerce, creating opportunities for businesses to innovate and deliver exceptional customer experiences. 

Beyond customer interaction, they revolutionize the operational backbone of commerce by optimizing supply chains and logistics. AI-driven analytics improve forecasting and inventory control, AR guides warehouse staff to operate more efficiently, and VR simulations help plan resilient delivery routes and workflows. Together, these innovations not only reduce costs but also enhance speed, accuracy, and flexibility in meeting consumers’ growing demands.

Looking ahead, the continued convergence of AI, VR, and AR is expected to unlock more transformative possibilities that will redefine how people discover, interact with, and purchase products.

Ghada Ismail

Some startups appear to emerge almost overnight, moving from obscurity to market ubiquity with remarkable speed. This rapid ascent is rarely the result of chance. It is often the product of a deliberate strategy known as blitzscaling: a calculated decision to pursue extraordinary growth at an exceptional pace, accepting significant operational and financial risks in the process.

Blitzscaling can be likened to accelerating a high-performance vehicle before all of its components have been fully tested. When successful, the approach allows a company to secure market dominance before competitors can respond. When mismanaged, it exposes the organization to structural weaknesses that can derail progress just as quickly as it began.

What Is Blitzscaling?

The term was popularized by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chris Yeh in their book Blitzscaling. At its core, blitzscaling is the deliberate pursuit of massive, rapid growth, prioritizing speed over efficiency. The goal is to capture market share so quickly that competitors can’t catch up, even if it means high spending, operational chaos, or short-term losses. Startups that blitzscale often expand across new markets, hire aggressively, and spend heavily on marketing before perfecting processes or achieving profitability.

This approach is especially common in industries with network effects—where the value of the product grows as more people use it—such as marketplaces, social platforms, and fintech. Once a company reaches critical mass, it can become the default choice, making it hard for latecomers to compete.

Why Founders Consider Blitzscaling

For many founders and investors, the appeal is clear: become the first and biggest player before the rest of the market even realizes what’s happening. Blitzscaling can create powerful first-mover advantages. Customers and partners gravitate toward the market leader, talent is easier to recruit, and investors are eager to back a company that looks unstoppable.

In venture capital circles, momentum matters. A startup showing exponential user growth or market capture often finds it easier to raise follow-on funding at higher valuations, which in turn fuels even faster expansion.

Key Advantages

• Market dominance: Set industry standards and shape consumer habits.
• Network effects: More users bring more value, which draws even more users.
• Virtuous growth cycle: Users → talent → product improvements → more users.

Major Risks

• Extreme burn rate: Heavy spending demands constant fundraising.
• Operational chaos: Hiring too fast can dilute culture and weaken management.
• Regulatory and legal exposure: Rapid global expansion often outpaces compliance.
• Founder burnout: High pressure and nonstop growth can exhaust leadership teams.
• Product-market misfit: Scaling before perfecting the product can backfire.

Is Blitzscaling Right for Your Startup?

Blitzscaling only makes sense under specific conditions: a huge addressable market, strong network effects, abundant funding, and a product that already shows solid product-market fit. If those elements are missing, a more measured approach—sometimes called “smart scaling”—may be wiser.

Founders should weigh whether their market rewards speed above all else or whether careful, sustainable growth will ultimately create more value. In many cases, establishing operational discipline before hypergrowth can prevent costly missteps later.

Conclusion

Blitzscaling can turn startups into market leaders at lightning speed, but it is a high-stakes gamble. When the market is ready, the rewards are enormous: dominance, brand recognition, and the ability to set the rules of the game. Yet the same strategy can drain resources, strain teams, and end in failure if the fundamentals are weak.

For founders, the question isn’t just “Can we blitzscale?” but “Should we?” Careful assessment of market dynamics, funding prospects, and internal capacity can reveal whether chasing hypergrowth is a bold move or a dangerous sprint toward a cliff.

Ghada Ismail

Saudi Arabia’s fintech story reads like a tale of two kingdoms. In Riyadh and Jeddah, cash feels almost antique; it’s only a matter of phone taps, QR codes flash, and money moves in seconds. Yet a few hundred kilometers away, in Tabuk’s rugged northwest or Najran’s mountain valleys, daily commerce often sounds like the rustle of paper bills and the scratch of a pen across a ledger. The country’s financial future is unfolding at two different speeds.

It isn’t infrastructure that draws the line. Mobile penetration tops 95 percent, 5G towers rise even in sparsely populated stretches, and e-payments already dominate national retail transactions. The gap is more subtle: culture, trust, and the rhythms of rural life. Convincing a farmer in Al-Jawf to swap cash for code demands more than bandwidth; it calls for products that fit local habits, clear value that outweighs tradition, and a level of human connection that an app alone can’t supply.

Saudi Arabia has the digital highway; the challenge is building the entry points. Whether fintech can cross that last mile will determine if the Kingdom’s financial revolution remains an urban triumph or becomes a truly nationwide transformation.

Infrastructure: A Kingdom Already Wired

From an infrastructure perspective, Saudi Arabia is well-positioned. Internet penetration is extremely high (estimates are over 95%), mobile device ownership is widespread, and 4G/5G networks are expanding into previously marginal areas. These foundations matter: without reliable connectivity and devices, fintech is impossible. Already, electronic payments account for a large and growing share of retail transactions. The requisite backbone is largely in place.

Urban Comfort vs. Rural Reality

Still, real comfort with fintech is uneven. In Riyadh, merchants often expect digital payments; in remote towns, cash remains king. Limited bank branch presence in outlying areas means residents may need to travel far for physical banking. Older generations or those with less exposure to digital tools are often wary of apps because of perceived complexity, security risk, or distrust of unseen financial entities. Small businesses in remote regions may lack formal accounting or consistent electricity or internet service, undermining the good infrastructure in theory.

Simpler Fintech for Seniors: An Overlooked Opportunity

When designing fintech for broader inclusion, startups should think about older adults—not just young, tech-savvy users. For many seniors, a confusing interface or too many steps can be as big a barrier as a lack of connectivity. Startups that build apps designed with simplicity in mind—large readable text, simple menus, voice instructions, minimal jargon, offline support, and even human assistance options—could unlock fintech adoption among older generations in remote areas.

Such apps might include:

• Simplified banking apps with fewer screens and more guidance.
• “Lite” or basic versions of wallets that avoid overwhelming options.
• Remote or agent-assisted onboarding, so elders who are less comfortable with tech can get help.
• Voice or audio assistance in Arabic, possibly even local dialects.
• Clear, transparent fees so there is no distrust arising from surprise costs.

Some relevant observations:

• Al Rajhi Bank’s app is praised for being user-friendly and for continuous improvements. But it is still a general-purpose banking app, not specifically tailored to seniors.
• STC Pay and others provide digital wallets with simple features like QR payments, bill payments, etc. These features could serve seniors well if designed with accessibility in mind. But I saw no specific senior-oriented version. 
• In lists of “budgeting” or “open banking” apps, ease of use is often mentioned, but not specifically accommodations for low digital literacy or elderly users

This suggests a gap in the market: there is room for fintech startups in Saudi Arabia that explicitly build for the last mile of inclusion—older adults in remote towns. The right design could make a big difference in whether fintech isn’t just available, but also usable for all.

Vision 2030’s Digital Mandate

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, together with the Financial Sector Development Program and the national Fintech Strategy, explicitly aims to make financial services more inclusive. Regulatory reforms—such as digital-banking licenses, open banking, and upgraded payment systems—are meant to lower barriers for innovators. Central bank policies and government incentives are pushing toward universal access, financial literacy initiatives, and infrastructure investment. These provide an enabling environment for fintech expansion—but regulatory support alone does not ensure adoption.

Business Models Built for the Last Mile

For fintechs to succeed beyond major cities, they must adapt business models to the realities of rural and remote regions. One promising route is agent networks: local shops or service points that act as touchpoints for users who prefer or need human interaction. Another is partnering with telecom companies, which already have reach and existing trust in many small towns. Retail chains, post offices, or municipality kiosks could also serve as infrastructure hubs. Products may need to be cheaper, simpler, and require minimal digital literacy to use.

Winning Hearts, Not Just Downloads

Building adoption is as much a question of trust and culture as tech and regulation. Transparent pricing, clear value, local language support, and human customer service are essential. For someone who has never used a fintech app, a failed transaction or confusing fee can be discouraging. Financial education programs tailored for rural communities, delivered through trusted local groups, can help. Even hybrid models—digital onboarding followed by in-person support—may work better than fully remote approaches in many small towns.

The Credit Gap: Data as Collateral

One area where fintech can make a big difference is credit access. Many small business owners outside big cities lack formal financial histories or audited accounts. Traditional lenders often reject their loan applications. Fintechs that use alternative data—mobile money flows, POS history, utility payments—can build credit profiles and offer small, short-term business loans or inventory financing. That could unlock productivity in sectors like agriculture, small retail, regional logistics, and crafts.

Public–Private Partnerships in Action

There are clear roles for both the state and private sector. Government subsidies or guarantees can de-risk fintech pilot projects in areas where margins are thin. Regulators can provide frameworks that balance innovation with consumer protection, especially for users less experienced with financial services. Banks with branch networks can collaborate with fintech startups to extend service reach. Telecommunications companies can help with distribution and customer chains. Examples include STC (Saudi Telecom Company), Mobily, and Zain.

The idea is that these companies already have:

• Extensive physical presence through stores and service centers, even in remote towns.
• Trusted customer relationships with millions of subscribers.
• Existing billing and payment systems that can be integrated with fintech services.

Because of this reach, telecom companies can help distribute fintech products, handle customer sign-ups or cash-in/cash-out services, and support outreach in areas where banks or fintech startups have little presence.

Operations on the Ground

Fintech’s promise often runs into operational hurdles. Reliable power and internet are not uniformly guaranteed in remote areas. Cash-in and cash-out logistics are tricky: even if payments are done digitally, someone often needs to handle cash for daily expenses. Merchant acceptance is uneven, especially among small stores with thin margins. Fintech systems need to integrate smoothly with existing business workflows—if reconciliation is difficult, or if the app doesn’t handle local languages or dialects, adoption drops.

Measuring Real Impact

Success should be measured with more than download counts or the number of transactions. Key metrics include how fintech reduces time and cost for small businesses, increases savings or access to credit, reduces reliance on informal systems, improves incomes, and raises financial inclusion. Pilot programs should track outcomes over months or years, comparing communities with and without these services, and gather feedback to refine products.

From Connectivity to Inclusion

In the end, fintech in Saudi Arabia has moved closer than ever to being able to serve the Kingdom fully, from Tabuk to Najran. The infrastructure, regulation, and technology are largely in place. But for fintech to truly reach remote regions, providers must adapt: offering services in culturally relevant ways, building trust through human touchpoints, designing affordable and useful products, and partnering with existing local networks.

If they succeed, the result won’t just be more people using fintech apps; it will be a more inclusive economy in which rural and remote areas share more fully in the gains of digital finance. Vision 2030’s promise is big; now the test is whether fintech can land softly and stick across every valley, desert, and mountain of the Kingdom.

Kholoud Hussein 

In today’s rapidly transforming digital economy, artificial intelligence has emerged as both a disruptor and an enabler, redefining how industries operate and compete. Nowhere is this transformation more visible than in the financial services sector, where AI is powering new models of efficiency, personalization, and compliance. With global investment in AI accelerating, and financial institutions seeking tools that balance innovation with trust, the conversation around AI’s role has never been more critical.

Against this backdrop, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a global hub for AI and digital transformation under Vision 2030, investing billions to cultivate expertise, infrastructure, and sustainable innovation. The Kingdom’s ambitious agenda has created fertile ground for technology leaders to collaborate with regulators, enterprises, and entrepreneurs in building a robust digital economy.

It is in this context that Sharikat Mubasher sat down exclusively with Tomas Skoumal, Chairman & Co-founder of Dyna.Ai, to discuss how the company’s Agentic AI Suite and enterprise solutions are reshaping the financial landscape. In this interview, Skoumal outlines Dyna.Ai’s competitive edge, the challenges it helps financial institutions overcome, and the company’s role in supporting Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a regional AI powerhouse.

Dyna.Ai positions itself as a leader in AI-as-a-Service, with solutions already reshaping finance and beyond. How do you define your unique edge in such a competitive and fast-moving AI market?

Our edge is the ability to combine deep financial services experience with modern AI solutions that are enterprise-ready and built for measurable business outcomes. In the financial services sector, technology adoption isn’t about deploying the most recent innovation, but it’s about delivering results such as improving customer engagement, reducing operational risk, and generating new revenue streams.

Our flagship Agentic AI Suite and our Enterprise Solutions Suite for financial services provide multi-modal, multi-channel engagement with 95%+ accuracy and sub-200 millisecond response times. Products like VoiceGPT and AvatarGPT power AI employees that enable our customers to scale hyper-personalization, multilingual support, and real-time interactions in banking and insurance workflows. It is this combination of advanced platform capabilities and practical industry integration, underpinned by industry-leading security, that sets us apart.

AI is becoming central to financial services worldwide. From your perspective, what specific challenges in banking and fintech is Dyna.Ai solving most effectively today?

Banks and fintechs are being tested across a few major priorities: personalizing customer services at scale, managing risk in real time, and remaining compliant within complex regulatory environments. Our AI copilots and digital agents redefine personalized engagement, while other enterprise solutions like E-KYC solutions address the core needs of Saudi Arabia’s $39.9 billion fintech market, which is projected to reach $125 billion by 2034.

With 75% of Saudi financial transactions already digital and job postings in AI growing 54% annually, our Agent Studio enables institutions not only to deploy AI but to train their own AI teams and build long-term capabilities. These solutions help financial institutions stay ahead of customer expectations while enhancing trust, compliance, and efficiency.

Your expertise spans advanced AI models, human-AI interaction, and big data analytics. How are you combining these capabilities to deliver solutions that are both cutting-edge and practical for clients?

We see the future of finance requiring systems that can communicate with human fluency and operate with the precision of advanced data analytics. Our approach integrates commercial LLMs with our proprietary Dyna LLM through the Agent Studio platform, giving banks the flexibility to meet local regulatory requirements while setting new global standards. Our suite of highly tailored Agentic AI products, with culturally adapted capabilities, allows for intuitive engagement in culturally relevant ways. Add to this data-rich applications like fraud prevention and AI-driven decision engines, and the result is a suite of tools that are cutting-edge yet embedded in clear business cases such as Shariah-compliant products, compliance monitoring, and customer service.

Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in AI and digital transformation under Vision 2030. How do you see Dyna.Ai contributing to this national agenda, and what opportunities excite you most in the Kingdom?

Saudi Arabia plans to train 20,000 AI specialists by 2030 and has pledged $20 billion in AI investments. With 66 of Vision 2030’s 96 goals tied to data and AI, this is one of the world’s most ambitious transformations. Dyna.Ai directly supports these efforts through our Agentic AI Suite, including Agent Studio, VoiceGPT, and AvatarGPT. Our Saudi office and growing local team reflect our commitment to long-term capability building. As we grow our partnerships across industries, including banking, fintechs, government, telecommunications, etc, we are excited to provide enterprise-ready tools that not only scale operations but also build indigenous AI expertise, ultimately positioning Saudi Arabia as a regional AI hub.

The global debate around AI often touches on trust, ethics, and transparency. How is Dyna.Ai addressing these concerns to ensure clients can scale AI responsibly?

Responsible AI is fundamental to our mission. From the start, we designed the Agentic AI Suite with guardrails such as transparency, explainability, and compliance monitoring. Governance features allow clients to understand, audit, and control how AI-driven decisions are made, whether in lending, fraud detection, or customer engagement. For example, our AI employee products provide explainable interactions in Arabic and other languages. We work closely with regulators to ensure our solutions meet both global and Saudi standards. This commitment builds the trust needed for sustainable scaling across the financial services ecosystem.

As you participate in Money 20/20 Saudi Arabia, what do you hope to achieve from this gathering of global financial leaders, and how does it align with your growth ambitions in the region?

Money20/20 allows us to show, not just tell. Through live demonstrations of the Agentic AI Suite, including real-time Arabic engagements, we want financial leaders to witness the business impact of AI in action. With Saudi fintech projected to reach $125 billion by 2034 and AI expected to add $320 billion to the MENA economy by 2030, we see this event as a chance to build strategic partnerships that align with the Kingdom’s economic trajectory. Our presence at the event is about reinforcing our commitment to Vision 2030 and partnering with Saudi banks, insurers, and fintechs to innovate at scale.

As Tomas Skoumal highlights, Dyna.Ai is not just deploying advanced technology but building trust and long-term capability in financial services. Through its Agentic AI Suite, the company is enabling hyper-personalized engagement, compliance-driven innovation, and scalable digital solutions that align closely with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. With its growing local presence and commitment to responsible AI, Dyna.Ai positions itself as a strategic partner in turning the Kingdom’s AI ambitions into reality.

Ghada Ismail

In startups, the original idea is rarely the winning one. Markets shift, customer needs evolve, and sometimes the product simply doesn’t click. The difference between failure and breakthrough often comes down to one thing: the ability to pivot.

A pivot isn’t about giving up. It’s about adjusting course to find what truly works. For founders, especially in fast-growing ecosystems like Saudi Arabia, knowing when and how to pivot can turn setbacks into opportunities and keep a startup alive long enough to thrive.

What Is a Pivot?

A pivot is not about tearing everything down and starting from scratch. It’s about keeping the vision intact while changing the route to get there. Think of it as a course correction rather than a restart.

Instagram is a classic example. Before becoming the photo-sharing giant we know today, it was a clunky app called Burbn that let users check into locations. The team noticed that people loved the photo feature more than anything else and decided to pivot around it. The rest is history.

When Should Startups Pivot?

The decision to pivot isn’t easy. Founders often wrestle with sunk costs and pride. But the market doesn’t lie. Common signals that it might be time include:

• No traction despite strong execution: The product works, but users aren’t sticking around.
• Customer behavior doesn’t match expectations: Feedback points to a different problem or need than originally targeted.
• High acquisition costs with low retention: You’re paying heavily to bring people in, but they don’t stay.
• Competitors gaining ground: A rival is growing faster with a different approach, forcing you to reconsider your model.

Listening carefully to customers and tracking metrics honestly will often reveal whether you’re on the wrong track.

Different Types of Pivots

Not all pivots look the same. Some involve small tweaks, others a major shift. A few common ones are:

• Product pivot: Focusing on one feature that resonates and dropping the rest.
• Market pivot: Targeting a new customer segment or geography.
• Revenue model pivot: Changing how you monetize—say, from subscriptions to transaction fees.
• Channel pivot: Finding new ways to reach customers, such as moving from offline distribution to digital-first.

Each requires discipline and clear communication with stakeholders, especially investors and employees.

How to Pivot Without Losing Focus

A pivot can feel like a setback if not framed well. But handled correctly, it can re-energize a startup. A few principles help:

• Protect the vision: Stay clear on the “why,” even if the “how” changes.
• Test before leaping: Run small experiments to validate the new direction before committing fully.
• Be transparent: Keep investors, team members, and early customers informed. Trust is easier to maintain when you bring people along for the ride.
• Maintain morale: Remind your team that adaptability is strength, not weakness.

Wrapping Things Up…

Startups don’t succeed by sticking rigidly to their first idea. They succeed by learning, adapting, and sometimes changing direction altogether. Pivoting isn’t a mark of failure—it’s often the very thing that unlocks growth.

For founders, the key is to treat pivoting not as a last resort but as part of the entrepreneurial journey. Because in the end, the startup that survives is the 

Kholoud Hussein 

In the evolving landscape of entrepreneurship, new models continue to emerge that challenge traditional methods of building companies. Among these, the concept of the venture builder—sometimes referred to as a startup studio, company builder, or venture studio—has gained significant traction. This model does not simply support startups; it creates them from the ground up, offering a systematic and professionalized approach to innovation. To understand how venture builders are shaping the future of startups, it is important to define what they are, how they operate, and why they have become a critical part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

What Is a Venture Builder?

At its core, a venture builder is an organization dedicated to systematically creating new startups. Unlike accelerators or incubators, which primarily support external founders, venture builders conceive, launch, and scale companies internally. They start with ideas generated within the studio, validate those ideas, and assemble founding teams to execute them. The venture builder typically provides shared resources such as technical expertise, legal and financial support, HR, marketing, and office infrastructure.

The key distinction is that venture builders are not passive supporters but active co-founders of the startups they produce. They hold equity, share the risks, and are deeply involved in the strategic and operational aspects of each venture.

How Do Venture Builders Operate?

The venture builder model follows a structured process that often includes:

• Ideation and Validation: The studio generates multiple business ideas, then rigorously tests them for market potential, scalability, and alignment with macro trends.
• Team Formation: Once validated, the venture builder recruits or appoints entrepreneurs-in-residence, technical experts, and business leaders to form the founding team.
• Resource Allocation: Unlike a standalone startup that begins with limited means, the new venture benefits from shared services—legal, finance, HR, branding—that reduce overhead and accelerate execution.
• Seed Funding: Venture builders typically provide the initial capital to kickstart operations, giving startups the momentum needed to reach product-market fit.
• Scale and Spin-Off: Once the company gains traction, it may raise external funding, often with the backing and credibility of the venture builder.

This systematic approach significantly de-risks early-stage entrepreneurship by testing ideas before making large-scale commitments and ensuring professional execution from the outset.

Venture Builders and Startups: The Relationship

The relationship between venture builders and startups is symbiotic. Startups gain access to resources, expertise, and capital that would otherwise be out of reach. Venture builders, on the other hand, benefit from diversified portfolios of ventures, increasing their chances of producing a successful company.

For founders, joining a venture builder can mean reduced autonomy compared to starting independently, but it also means reduced risk, greater support, and a higher likelihood of success. For investors, venture builders serve as deal flow engines, systematically generating startups that are vetted, structured, and investment-ready.

Why Venture Builders Are Becoming More Relevant

Several trends explain the rise of venture builders globally:

• High Failure Rates of Startups: With most startups failing in their first few years, venture builders offer a model to improve survival rates.
• Need for Speed: In fast-changing markets, venture builders accelerate the path from idea to market-ready business.
• Capital Efficiency: Shared resources lower costs and reduce duplication across ventures.
• Alignment with Corporate Innovation: Many corporations are launching internal venture builders to diversify revenue streams and stay ahead of disruption.

The Future of Venture Builders in the Startup Ecosystem

Venture builders represent a new paradigm where entrepreneurship is less about individual heroics and more about structured, professional execution. They are particularly relevant in emerging markets like the Middle East and North Africa, where ecosystems are still developing and where access to resources and mentorship can make or break a startup.

By blending creativity with discipline, venture builders are redefining how startups are born. They offer a hybrid model that balances innovation with risk management, creating companies that are not just ideas with funding, but fully operational businesses with infrastructure, teams, and strategic roadmaps.

Finally, a venture builder is more than a support mechanism—it is a startup factory that systematically transforms ideas into companies. Its relationship with startups is one of co-creation, shared risk, and mutual benefit. In a world where agility, capital efficiency, and execution speed are paramount, venture builders are poised to play an increasingly pivotal role in shaping the future of entrepreneurship.

Noha Gad

Digital wallets have become central to the way consumers conduct payments and manage their finances, offering convenience and seamless digital transactions. Their widespread adoption in retail, banking, and peer-to-peer transfers has made them a preferred alternative to cash and physical cards. 

These wallets handle increasing volumes of sensitive financial data; thus, robust security measures cannot be overstated. Traditional password protections alone are no longer sufficient to combat sophisticated cyber threats and fraud schemes targeting these platforms.  

Emerging security technologies, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), decentralized identity (DID) solutions, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and tokenization, are addressing these demands by introducing multi-layered protection methods.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

The MFA technology significantly enhances digital wallet security by requiring users to verify their identity through multiple independent factors before granting access. Common MFA methods in digital wallets include one-time passwords (OTPs) sent via SMS or email, biometric verification through fingerprint or facial scans, and hardware tokens that generate secure codes. This layered approach makes unauthorized access much more difficult for attackers.

Another type of factor used is certificate-based authentication, which relies on a digital certificate, also called a soft token, to identify a user, machine, or device before granting access. Most enterprise solutions already support certificate-based authentication, and many wallets, such as those by Google Pay and Apple Pay, deploy this in coordination with traditional methods such as a username and password/PIN. 

Although the integration of the MFA reduces fraud rates and unauthorized account access, challenges remain in ensuring universal adoption and maintaining user convenience without compromising security. As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, MFA represents a foundational barrier that protects users’ financial assets and sensitive information from theft and compromise. Its continued evolution and adoption will remain critical to maintaining trust in digital payment ecosystems.

Decentralized identity (DID) solutions

A decentralized Identifier (DID) is a unique identifier that can be issued by a decentralized platform and acts as proof of ownership of a digital identity. DID solutions use cryptography and distributed systems, often blockchain technology, to give individuals total control over their digital ID, which is seen as a more tamper-resistant and privacy-preserving method. 

Unlike traditional identity systems that rely on centralized authorities to issue and manage identities, decentralized identity empowers users to create, control, and manage their own digital identities without depending on any single entity. This shift reduces vulnerabilities inherent in centralized databases, which are prime targets for cyberattacks and data breaches. 

This modern approach enables individuals to have full ownership and control over their personal data, allowing them to decide what information to disclose, to whom, and for how long. For digital wallets, DID integration means users can authenticate themselves and verify transactions without exposing unnecessary personal or sensitive data, thereby reducing the attack surface and building user trust by preventing mass data leaks.

AI & ML in fraud detection

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) play a pivotal role in advancing fraud detection capabilities within digital wallets as they analyze vast amounts of transactional data in real time and identify patterns and behaviors that deviate from normal usage. AI and ML algorithms can adapt to evolving fraud tactics, enabling proactive detection and prevention before fraudulent transactions are completed.

AI-driven systems harness advanced techniques such as anomaly detection, risk scoring, and predictive modeling to assess each transaction's legitimacy. This dynamic assessment improves the accuracy of fraud detection compared to static rule-based systems that may either miss complex fraud schemes or generate excessive false alarms.

Meanwhile, ML models in digital wallets leverage user behavior analytics, tracking factors like device usage, login patterns, and payment frequency to establish individualized risk profiles that distinguish genuine users from potential fraudsters more effectively, ultimately minimizing disruptions caused by unnecessary transaction denials. 

Integrating AL and ML technologies into digital wallets not only minimizes fraud losses but also promotes operational efficiency by automating risk management processes. These technologies are expected to offer more advanced defenses, including real-time threat hunting and adaptive authentication that dynamically adjusts security measures based on assessed risk levels.

Tokenization 

This technology is crucial for securing digital wallet transactions as it replaces sensitive payment information with unique, non-sensitive identifiers called tokens, which carry the necessary transaction data without exposing actual card numbers or bank details during payment processing. 

Unlike traditional encryption methods, tokenization stores actual account information in highly secure token vaults, isolated from merchants and payment processors.

Digital wallet providers have widely adopted tokenization to comply with stringent security standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), enhancing consumer confidence and regulatory compliance. 

Along with protecting sensitive information, tokenization creates opportunities for innovative payment experiences, standing as a foundational security element that ensures transactions remain secure, seamless, and user-friendly.

Saudi Arabia has been significantly integrating emerging technologies to enhance the security of digital wallets, in line with Vision 2030’s goal of promoting a cashless society and digital economy. The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) is a key contributor to this transformation, starting from regulating digital payment providers under comprehensive frameworks to creating an enabling environment for digital wallets to adopt advanced security technologies.

The Kingdom is actively incorporating AI and ML into the national fintech ecosystem to enhance transaction monitoring, fraud detection, and risk assessment, thereby increasing transparency and accountability while ensuring a secure cashless transaction environment.

Along with technology adoption, Saudi Arabia backs fintech innovation through significant investments supported by government entities and partnerships with regulatory bodies, aiming to stimulate the development and market reach of advanced digital wallet solutions incorporating MFA, AI, DIDs, and tokenization.

Finally, digital wallets continue to transform payments by merging convenience with cutting-edge security technologies to protect user data and ensure transaction integrity. These technologies provide a multi-layered defense framework that ensures digital wallets remain secure, seamless, and trustworthy in an increasingly digital financial environment. The integration of these multi-layered protections will definitely establish a strong foundation for sustainable digital finance growth, while prioritizing security innovation. 

Ghada Ismail

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to reshape economies and societies in ways once unimaginable. For Saudi Arabia, it is also a tool to diversify its economy, boost productivity, and advance global competitiveness. Yet alongside opportunity comes risk, represented in bias, misinformation, privacy concerns, and job displacement. Building ethical AI is not optional; it is essential. The Kingdom is uniquely positioned to balance regulation, innovation, and responsibility as it pursues this AI-driven future.

A Rapidly Growing AI Ecosystem

Since its establishment by royal decree in 2019, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) has been at the center of the Kingdom’s AI strategy. Its National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI), launched in 2020, set ambitious targets: ranking among the world’s top 15 AI nations by 2030, training 20,000 specialists, attracting SAR 75 billion in investment, supporting 300 startups, and driving scientific output.

Progress is already visible. SDAIA has forged partnerships with global players like Accenture to build national cloud infrastructure, IBM for energy and sustainability AI, and Google for earth observation and environmental protection. Saudi Arabia now ranks first worldwide for open data availability, hosting more than 11,000 datasets from nearly 300 entities. SDAIA’s environmental AI projects, such as the Smart Planet Program, predict vegetation changes with more than 90% accuracy, supporting sustainable planning.

The impact is tangible: over SAR 50 billion (~$13 billion) in cost savings across government operations, from the DEEM cloud platform to AI-assisted Hajj crowd management and the popular Tawakkalna app. AI is no longer abstract—it is woven into the daily lives of citizens and the functioning of the state.

Why Ethics Must Come First

With AI permeating sensitive domains like healthcare, mobility, and even Hajj safety, trust is the foundation of Saudi Arabia’s AI journey. Without safeguards, algorithms can entrench bias, erode privacy, or undermine fairness. Aligning AI with Vision 2030’s goals—social equity, inclusion, and quality public services—requires more than innovation. It requires ethics to be at the core of every deployment.

Governance and Guardrails

Saudi Arabia’s regulatory approach mixes centralized oversight with room for innovation. SDAIA, together with the National Data Management Office (NDMO), enforces data classification and ethical policies, balancing openness with security.

Beyond rules, SDAIA promotes dialogue through summits like DeepFest at LEAP 2025, where regulators, innovators, and academics engage on transparency, human-centric design, and responsible regulation. This positions the Kingdom not just as a user of AI but as a thought leader in its governance.

Innovation with a Cultural Core

Startups are embedding ethics into their products from the outset, supported by SDAIA’s regulatory sandboxes that allow real-world testing without stifling creativity.

One striking example is HUMAIN Chat, a chatbot powered by the locally built ALLaM-34B language model. Developed by a PIF-backed firm in collaboration with SDAIA, HUMAIN Chat is Arabic-first, supporting regional dialects while also functioning seamlessly in English. Unlike global tools, it integrates Islamic values and cultural heritage, ensuring its outputs resonate with local norms. Trained on proprietary Saudi datasets, it combines linguistic precision, cultural fidelity, and strong safety benchmarks—all hosted entirely within the Kingdom to guarantee data sovereignty.

From an ethical lens, HUMAIN and ALLaM represent an effort to define AI through local values, not imported defaults. By addressing bias, protecting user data, and embedding cultural authenticity, they show how responsible AI can reflect societal identity as much as technical standards.

To reinforce this ecosystem, SDAIA also certifies startups as ethical AI providers. Its accreditation framework awards annual “incentive tags”—from Conscious to Pioneer—that track a company’s maturity in embedding safeguards. These certifications turn abstract ethical principles into measurable progress, rewarding transparency and building public trust.

Responsibility Through People and Skills

Technology is only half the story; people complete it. Saudi universities are cultivating AI talent attuned to fairness and transparency. At King Saud University, Latifa Al-Abdulkarim, a rising leader in explainable AI and ethics, exemplifies this values-driven scholarship.

Meanwhile, SDAIA is widening access to AI careers. Its Elevate program, launched with Google Cloud, aims to train 25,000 women in AI over five years, with the first phase already reaching 1,000 women from 28 countries. Complementary programs at SDAIA Academy have certified nearly 2,000 more women in data and AI, embedding diversity and inclusivity into the Kingdom’s AI workforce.

Cultural and Religious Anchors

What sets Saudi Arabia apart is its decision to ground AI ethics not just in global norms, but also in Islamic values—justice, accountability, and transparency. This alignment enhances legitimacy and encourages societal acceptance, offering a model of ethics that could resonate across the Muslim world.

The Roadblocks Ahead

The momentum is strong, but challenges remain:

• Pace vs. oversight: Regulation must keep up with rapid innovation.
• Rules vs. enforcement: Without audits and accountability, standards risk being symbolic.
• Imported bias: Foreign algorithms, if unadapted, can embed cultural misalignment.
• Public trust: Ethical lapses in sensitive areas could erode confidence quickly.

Meeting these challenges will require continuous vigilance, independent auditing, and culturally sensitive design.

A Chance at Global Leadership

Saudi Arabia is not just participating in the global AI race; it is also shaping the conversation. Hosting platforms like GAIN and DeepFest, deploying culturally aligned AI models, and building regulatory infrastructure give the Kingdom a chance to lead by example. If it codifies regional standards and shares its framework internationally, Saudi Arabia could become the ethical AI hub of the Middle East, influencing emerging economies worldwide.

Conclusion: Ethics as an Accelerator

Far from slowing progress, ethical AI can accelerate it, ensuring that innovation unfolds responsibly, inclusively, and with social good at its heart. Saudi Arabia now has the foundations: governance, infrastructure, talent, and cultural legitimacy. The test will be sustaining enforcement, broadening public education, and adapting foreign technologies to local values. If successful, the Kingdom won’t simply join the AI elite; it could rather help define what responsible, values-driven AI looks like in the 21st century.

Ghada Ismail 

Open banking is emerging as a key force in reshaping financial services across the Middle East, moving beyond regulation to become an enabler of innovation. At the forefront of this shift is Spare, a Saudi-headquartered fintech, offering account-to-account payments that are faster, more secure, and more cost-efficient than traditional card networks.

With a mission to democratize access to financial infrastructure, Spare is building seamless rails for enterprises, SMEs, and fintechs, unlocking new use cases powered by instant settlements and real-time data. By working closely with regulators and businesses, the company is helping to address adoption challenges while setting the foundation for open banking to transform industries across the region.

In this interview, we explore how Spare is driving this change, what sets its model apart, and where open banking in the Middle East is headed next.

Can you walk us through Spare’s mission and how you’re redefining open banking payments in the GCC and MENA?

Spare’s mission is to democratise access to financial infrastructure to enable growth for innovative companies that want to build world-class products for their customers using a secure, seamless, and transparent connectivity that is compliant with regulatory guidelines. We’re redefining Open Banking by making payments more accessible for businesses of all sizes, giving them access to rails that are cheaper, more secure, and above all, faster. Open Banking payments will be a game changer, as they allow businesses to access liquidity far quicker than traditional legacy systems, enabling them to grow and operate more efficiently.

How does Spare differentiate itself from traditional payment gateways, and what value does your open banking model bring to fintech and enterprise customers?

At Spare, we connect directly to banks. When it comes to payments, we move money directly from account to account, avoiding intermediaries such as card networks, which means faster settlement and lower fees. For fintechs and enterprises, we unlock real-time payments, better margins, and new customer experiences with use cases such as easy-to-set-up recurring payments and refunds. This marks a significant improvement for many businesses, particularly SMEs. Lower transaction fees combined with instant settlement not only reduce costs but also enhance financial transparency and cash flow visibility.

How does Spare ensure regulatory compliance and data security in different markets, including Saudi Arabia?

At Spare, we work closely with regulators in each market and follow local licensing frameworks. On security, all customer data is encrypted, and we meet banking-grade standards for authentication and access. In Saudi Arabia, we comply with SAMA regulations, and all our data centers are based in the kingdom. In addition, in the UAE, we received an In Principle Approval, allowing us to conduct Open Finance activities under CBUAE’s regulated framework.
 

Which fields—like SME payments, lending platforms, or BNPL—are responding most to your open banking tools in the region?

We see strong pull from SMEs who need cheaper, faster collections, and from BNPL and lending players who rely on instant account verification and payouts.  There is also significant interest from lenders and microfinance companies in the rich banking data and credit risk assessment tools we provide.
 

What have been some of the biggest friction points businesses face when adopting open banking payments, and how does Spare help overcome them?

 Many businesses are concerned about customer adoption and the complexity of bank integrations. We solve this with a simple API and a user flow that feels as easy as card checkout.  We also support our partners with creating simple bank integration journeys and with educational material and content that they can equip their teams to educate customers and build trust.  Moreover, we believe the first wave of Open Banking payments adoption will come from the B2B space. Open banking offers powerful capabilities that directly address B2B needs, such as invoice payments, bulk disbursements, and recurring transactions. As with any new payment scheme introduced to consumers, widespread adoption will take time, but the foundation being built today will unlock significant efficiencies for businesses tomorrow.

What’s your roadmap for geographic expansion?
We’re focused on deepening our footprint in the region first - we’re headquartered in KSA, licensed in Bahrain, and recently received our IPA in the UAE. We’re also working on Kuwait and Oman, as they have recently released their open banking frameworks.
 

As open banking matures in the Middle East, what additional services or products is Spare exploring next?

Open banking in the region is still at its starting stages, so there’s much more to come. We’re looking at value-added services on top of payments: smarter payouts, recurring billing, data-driven credit, and insights that help with underwriting and personalized offers. Open finance is also on the horizon, and that’s an exciting next step.
 

What do you believe is the biggest misconception about open banking in the MENA region, and how is Spare helping shift that perception?

A big misconception is that open banking is only for banks and fintechs. In reality, it can transform many industries. E-commerce, healthcare, and real estate can all benefit from instant access to financial data and customer insights. At Spare, we show businesses that open banking is a foundation for innovation across the economy, not just financial services.

Noha Gad

In today’s world, the way people manage money and investments not only impacts financial returns but also has profound effects on the environment and society. Sustainable finance is an approach that recognizes this connection by integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards into financial decisions. 

The ESG standards offer a framework for evaluating how companies and investments perform in these critical areas: environmental responsibility, social impact, and governance transparency. They help investors understand the broader risks and opportunities that traditional financial metrics might miss.

Sustainable finance plays a pivotal role in advancing ESG principles by directing capital toward initiatives that promote long-term sustainability and responsible growth. This approach is crucial for addressing global challenges, notably climate change and social inequality.

Green finance, which is a key component of sustainable finance, focuses specifically on funding environmentally beneficial projects, including investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution control, water management, and biodiversity preservation. Instruments such as green bonds and sustainability-linked loans are common tools used to mobilize capital for these purposes.

Ultimately, sustainable and green finance aim to rebuild financial systems to serve society and the planet in a better way, directing investments into activities that align with sustainability goals and support the transition to a low-carbon, equitable economy.

How does sustainable and green finance support 3?

Integrating ESG criteria into investment and financing decisions ensures that the capital is allocated to projects and companies that demonstrate responsible practices aligned with ESG principles. This integration helps drive positive environmental outcomes, social inclusion, and transparent governance. For instance, green finance channels funds into renewable energy, energy efficiency, and ecosystem conservation projects that directly address the environmental goals of ESG.

Financial instruments like green bonds and ESG-linked loans were designed to link funding conditions to ESG performance, incentivizing companies to improve their sustainability practices.

Benefits of integrating sustainable finance with ESG standards

Integrating sustainable finance with ESG standards brings significant benefits to businesses, investors, and society. This includes: 

*Lower operational costs and improved efficiency.

*Enhanced risk management.

*High stock market performance.

*Strong employee engagement.

*Improved brand reputation.

*Compliance with regulations.

Although the integration of sustainable finance into ESG standards offers various advantages, it faces different challenges, notably:

• Changing regulatory landscape: Financial institutions face a rapidly shifting regulatory environment with new rules emerging globally. Navigating these evolving requirements demands agility and continuous adaptation.
• Risk of greenwashing: misleading sustainability claims, known as greenwashing, impose major challenges that affect transparency and lead to mislabeling of funds as sustainable without sufficient backing.
• Fragmented standards: The absence of globally accepted ESG and green finance standards creates confusion and complicates compliance.
• High compliance costs: Meeting enhanced ESG disclosure requirements can be expensive and resource-intensive, particularly for smaller firms.
• Data quality and transparency issues: Reliable and standardized ESG data remain rare. This makes it difficult for investors to assess sustainability credibly.

Sustainable and green finance are expected to witness significant growth in the future, triggered by evolving regulatory frameworks and innovation. The global sustainable finance market is projected to expand rapidly, with assets under management (AUM) anticipated to rise substantially in the next few years. This growth will be triggered by increasing investor demand for ESG-aligned products and the widespread awareness of the importance of integrating sustainability for long-term financial performance and risk management.

Innovative financial instruments, such as sustainability-linked loans, green bonds, climate-linked derivatives, and voluntary carbon credits, are emerging to realize various sustainability goals. Technology is playing a transformative role, with advances in artificial intelligence and blockchain enhancing transparency, data accuracy, and efficiency in ESG reporting and sustainable asset issuance.

Overall, the sustainable finance ecosystem is expected to become more advanced and integrated, driving a global transition toward a resilient, low-carbon, and equitable economy. Strategic adaptation to these trends will be pivotal for investors, companies, and policymakers aiming to capitalize on opportunities while addressing pressing environmental and social challenges.

Kholoud Hussein 

New playbook

Venture capital in Saudi Arabia is being fundamentally rewired by artificial intelligence. What once was a search for disruptive apps and platforms is now a race to fund companies that can build and defend algorithmic moats. Investors are no longer content with “AI-enabled” features bolted onto legacy models; they are chasing startups whose entire business logic is inseparable from data and AI. This shift is already visible in the numbers: according to MAGNiTT, Saudi Arabia attracted $860 million in venture funding in the first half of 2025, a 116% year-on-year jump, with deal counts up 31%. For the first time, Saudi matched the UAE as the region’s top investment destination during a half-year period. That momentum stands out against a global backdrop of caution in venture capital, underscoring that Saudi’s bet on AI-first entrepreneurship is not a marginal play—it is becoming central to the Kingdom’s economic diversification strategy.

Government policy has been crucial in shaping this trajectory. At LEAP 2025, Riyadh announced $14.9 billion worth of AI-related investments, ranging from hyperscale data centers to startup support funds. As Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha remarked at the event, “Our goal is not just to adopt AI technologies, but to produce them, to export solutions from Saudi Arabia to the world.” He highlighted that the local digital workforce had grown from 150,000 in 2021 to 381,000 in 2024, reflecting how the Kingdom has quickly built a foundation of talent that AI startups can tap into. This expansion in skills gives confidence to investors that early-stage ventures can scale without relying entirely on imported expertise.

Data over markets

Artificial intelligence has altered the very metrics that Saudi venture capitalists use to evaluate opportunities. Instead of relying on traditional total addressable market (TAM) models, investors are now considering what some describe as the “trainable addressable market.” This perspective asks: given Saudi regulations, data residency rules, and ethical frameworks, how much usable data can a startup access, label, and train on? The size of that trainable set directly affects how far a company’s model can improve and thus how much value it can capture.

Business owners in fintech, healthtech, and logistics confirm this shift. A Riyadh-based founder in digital health explained, “When we speak with VCs now, they don’t just ask how many clinics or patients we could serve. They ask how many hours of labeled diagnostic data we own, what our annotation process looks like, and how quickly our model improves with new inputs.” This level of technical due diligence signals that capital allocators in the Kingdom are now fluent in the economics of training data and algorithmic scaling.

This reframing also affects the startup lifecycle. A company that secures proprietary datasets through government partnerships, industry consortia, or user acquisition strategies becomes disproportionately attractive to investors, even at the seed stage. In Saudi Arabia, where public-private partnerships are a policy priority, startups that align with government initiatives—whether in smart cities, healthcare digitization, or financial inclusion—often gain preferential access to unique data streams. That, in turn, enhances their valuation and ability to secure follow-on capital.

Infra edge

Saudi Arabia’s decision to invest directly in AI infrastructure is perhaps the most consequential development for both startups and venture investors. In May 2025, the Kingdom launched Humain, a national AI company backed by the Public Investment Fund, with a mandate to develop domestic compute, models, and data-center capacity. Media reports indicate that Nvidia has committed 18,000 Blackwell chips to the project, with the first 100-megawatt data centers in Riyadh and Dammam expected to come online in 2026.

This matters for startups because compute scarcity has been one of the greatest bottlenecks globally. Access to high-performance GPUs in markets like the U.S. and Europe is constrained and expensive, and Saudi entrepreneurs often struggle to secure capacity at reasonable costs. By hosting this infrastructure locally, the Kingdom is effectively subsidizing the next wave of AI startups. As one venture capitalist in Riyadh noted, “When a founder can train models inside the Kingdom, on Saudi data, at predictable costs, it fundamentally changes the investment case. You reduce execution risk, regulatory risk, and margin pressure at once.”

Regulators, too, view local compute as essential. Sensitive sectors such as finance and healthcare require data to remain within Saudi borders. Having world-class capacity available in Riyadh allows startups to deploy solutions for banks, hospitals, and ministries without running afoul of compliance rules. This alignment between infrastructure and regulation is why many VCs now speak of compute availability as a national “comparative advantage.”

Startups lead

Saudi startups are not waiting for the infrastructure to mature; they are already showing how AI-native strategies can produce growth. Mozn, headquartered in Riyadh, began as a fintech analytics firm but has evolved into a leader in AI-driven fraud prevention. At LEAP 2025, Mozn unveiled new modules for agentic AI in financial crime prevention, expanding its offerings beyond traditional AML into real-time fraud detection. Partnering with banks like D360, Mozn has become an example of how Saudi startups can build for regulated industries and then scale regionally.

Another standout is Quant, which applies AI to big data problems across sectors, including retail, real estate, and government services. By tailoring models to Arabic and regional contexts, Quant provides insights that global platforms often overlook. As one retail client explained, “Quant’s AI models understand local consumer behavior in a way no off-the-shelf product can. That’s why we can optimize inventory and pricing with confidence.”

Beyond these, companies like Unifonic, Lean Technologies, Foodics, and Sary are integrating AI deeper into their platforms. Whether in customer engagement, financial connectivity, restaurant demand forecasting, or procurement optimization, these startups are weaving machine learning into core workflows, turning AI into an essential rather than optional feature. For VCs, such integration signals resilience: when AI drives the core economics of a business, customer stickiness and margins improve.

Policy and trust

While Saudi Arabia is moving fast, officials emphasize the importance of responsible adoption. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi, president of the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), has often stated that AI is not merely a technology but a “societal transformation.” Speaking at global forums, he pointed to pilot programs in water management and emissions reduction where AI delivered measurable sustainability gains, stressing that these successes must go hand-in-hand with ethical safeguards.

SDAIA’s launch of the National AI Readiness Index reflects this balance. By benchmarking government agencies on their ability to adopt AI responsibly, the state creates predictable demand pipelines for startups. For venture capitalists, this offers greater visibility: they can track which ministries are ready to procure AI solutions, in what domains, and on what timelines. This reduces uncertainty in sales cycles, a key concern for investors underwriting enterprise-focused startups.

VC craft shifts

The practice of venture capital itself is adapting. Technical diligence now includes model governance, data provenance, evaluation metrics, and cost-per-inference calculations. As one Saudi GP put it, “It’s not enough for a founder to show traction in users or revenues. We want to see model cards, red-teaming schedules, and evidence that the AI pipeline is production-ready.”

Portfolio construction is also changing. Many Saudi investors are adopting a barbell strategy—allocating to infrastructure plays like MLOps and inference orchestration on one end, and regulated application-layer companies on the other. The middle ground—generic AI platforms with weak moats—is less attractive unless the distribution advantage is overwhelming.

Perhaps most interesting is the rise of operator-led angel syndicates. Former Careem executives, now veterans of scaling tech across the region, are active in early-stage AI rounds. Their practical knowledge of distribution, compliance, and procurement is proving invaluable for young founders. This layer of operator capital shortens go-to-market timelines and reassures institutional investors.

Fintech lens

Fintech provides a clear example of how AI is reshaping venture logic in Saudi Arabia. Fraud prevention, AML, and sanctions screening are high-stakes accuracy problems that demand both speed and compliance. Mozn’s agentic AI solutions, launched in 2025, show how Saudi startups can deliver measurable results. Banks report lower false positives and faster processing times, directly improving ROI. For VCs, this kind of quantifiable impact justifies larger checks at higher valuations.

Events like Money 20/20 Middle East in Riyadh amplify the effect by bringing together regulators, banks, and startups. Vendors showcasing AI compliance tools that are tailored for Arabic and Saudi hosting requirements gain an immediate edge in procurement cycles. For investors, this is evidence that the ecosystem has reached a level of maturity where global capital and local demand intersect.

Bottlenecks

Despite the optimism, challenges remain. Compute costs, talent shortages, and capital efficiency are recurring concerns. Yet Saudi Arabia is actively addressing all three. Humain’s compute buildout and Nvidia’s chip shipments promise to ease capacity constraints. On the talent side, the government has grown the digital workforce by more than 2.5 times in three years, reaching 381,000 professionals. Special visa schemes also attract senior ML engineers from abroad.

Capital, meanwhile, is increasingly strategic. Sovereign-linked vehicles and corporate venture arms from banks, telcos, and industrial groups are investing in AI startups, not just for returns but to acquire capabilities. This dual role as both customer and investor reduces risk for VCs and accelerates time-to-revenue for startups.

Founder edge

For founders, the message is clear: competitive advantage in Saudi AI will belong to those who own unique Arabic data, can ship production-grade models with regulatory compliance built in, and exploit domestic compute to reduce latency and costs. These are the traits that shift a startup from being “AI-enabled” to “AI-essential.” Investors recognize this and are rewarding such companies with premium valuations and substantial follow-on commitments.

Risk priced

Risks are not ignored. Model brittleness, evaluation challenges in Arabic dialects, and global talent shortages are real. But local infrastructure, policy transparency, and concentrated demand all reduce the severity of these risks. Compared to global peers, Saudi AI startups are less likely to be binary bets and more likely to become durable, ROI-driven businesses.

Next 24 months

Looking ahead, three themes dominate Saudi venture theses:

1. Arabic-first enterprise copilots in finance, logistics, and government workflows.
2. AI safety and trust tools, including monitoring, red-teaming, and security solutions.
3. AI and Industry 4.0 converge in Saudi industrial corridors, particularly as new data centers connect to edge infrastructure.

To conclude, Saudi Arabia’s venture market is not merely experimenting with AI; it is being rebuilt around it. With record-breaking VC inflows, policy-backed AI investments, and domestic compute capacity on the horizon, the Kingdom is setting the stage for compounding innovation. As Al-Ghamdi of SDAIA recently said, “AI is not just about technology—it is about shaping the future of our society and economy.” For investors, that future is already investable. For founders, the edge will belong to those who turn Saudi Arabia’s unique data, infrastructure, and policy alignment into globally relevant AI products.