Tuesday, 07 Feb 2023, 12:00

F6 Ventures announces the first close of the “Startup Seed Fund” in Saudi Arabia, with the participation of the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), subsidiary of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Bank, one of the development banks affiliated with the National Development Fund, and the “Jada” Fund of Funds, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The fund enables startups to receive follow-on funding up to SAR 2.4 million, and the support and training programs provided by the program for select companies.

The Startup Seed Fund is a SAR 75 million fund dedicated to investing in early-stage startups operating in the technology and innovation sectors within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The fund will adopt a highly diversified, systematic investment plan that aims to reduce the risks faced by venture capital and reduce the administrative and legal costs incurred by early-stage startups.

The fund aims to develop the capabilities of more than 180 entrepreneurs, create more than 6,000 jobs in the private sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and enable Saudi companies to expand in the region. This will contribute to completing the structural transformation that the Kingdom aspires to by increasing the share of the digital economy in GDP and enhancing the contribution of the non-oil private sector.

The first cycle of the seed program has successfully started in Riyadh, investing in 10 innovative Saudi startups, with an investment value exceeding SAR 500,000 per startup. Selected startups, operating in SaaS, FinTech, e-Commerce, and EdTech, also received a 4-month entrepreneurship training program that focused on several commercial, administrative, financial, and legal axes.

F6 Ventures continues to support Saudi entrepreneurs, and we are accepting applications for the second cycle of the program.