Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Saudi Arabia emerged as a digital powerhouse owing to its strategic investments in the research and development (R&D) sector, supportive policies, and a thriving startup ecosystem, Houssem Jemili, Partner at Bain and Co., stated.

The presence of global tech giants in Saudi Arabia underscores the growth of the technology and innovation landscape in the Kingdom, Jemili said in an interview with Arab News.

He noted that such tech giants provide the necessary infrastructure that startups and entrepreneurs need to succeed in the Kingdom.

“They provide a world-class physical and digital infrastructure, like software labs and production studios, and even cloud credits to enable innovation at scale. Such advanced offering helps startups accelerate their ideas from early-stage to large-scale commercialization,” Jemili elaborated.

He added that the Kingdom has one of the highest technology spends in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, backed by a mature and diverse set of funding partners, government entities and programs, large investment funds, and venture capitalists that provide access to both direct and indirect funding to startups and entrepreneurs.

Highlighting the Kingdom’s efforts to foster innovation extend to the regulatory realm, Jemili affirmed that the flow of and access to incentives helped the Kingdom drive its innovation landscape.

He further noted that the Kingdom has a rapidly evolving business environment that needs a structured regulatory system that is mature, growth-driven, and easy to navigate.