4 Takeaways For Startups Seeking Success In Saudi Arabia

As Saudi Arabia marks its 95th National Day on September 23 this year, the country isn’t just celebrating its heritage—it’s also showcasing its growing weight as a core engine driving the MENA’s startup economy.  

The celebration comes just days after milestone investments have demonstrated that the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem is on track to become a key hub in the region. From proptech HALA’s US$157 million Series B round (which has been billed as one of the largest fintech Series B rounds in the region), to fintech Tamara’s asset-backed facility of up to $2.4 billion from heavyweight American financial entities like Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Apollo, the evidence that the Kingdom is becoming a hub for innovative enterprises is only growing.  

The proof lies in the numbers. While much of the region saw a slowdown in funding last month, Saudi Arabia surged ahead, cementing its role as a leading hub for entrepreneurial capital and talent—a trajectory firmly aligned with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy beyond oil and become a global center for innovation. According to Wamda's 2025 Investments in MENA Report, startups in the Kingdom attracted $166 million across 19 deals in August 2025, nearly half of all capital raised in the region, with industries like proptech, contech, fintech, and gaming garnering the most funds. 

Saudi Arabia’s dominance in regional funding isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a deliberate strategy anchored in Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s sweeping blueprint to diversify the economy and foster a world-class innovation ecosystem. Critically, one of the key drivers of Saudi Arabia’s startup momentum is deliberate state-led investment and policy design, with the government steadily building the financial and regulatory backbone that gives founders room to grow and investors the confidence to commit. 

Underpinning it all is a dense support infrastructure, which includes accelerators, financial institutions, universities, research hubs, and venture capital firms backing founders. It’s also supported by institutions such as the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Monsha’at (the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority), the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), and the National Technology Development Program (NTDP), to name just a few, all of which are providing capital, regulatory support, and growth pathways to startups. This support is ensuring that Saudi startups—and first movers relocating to the Kingdom—are not only well-capitalized, but also strategically positioned to grow the sectors of the future. 

So, what does it take for a fledgling business to thrive in Saudi Arabia? Here are four insights that we’ve gleaned from interviews Inc. Arabia has conducted over the last couple of months:  

1. Unlock Vision 2030 

Motaz Abuonq is the founder and CEO of Value Makers Studio (VMS), the KSA-based venture builder that invests in Saudi startups as well as startups looking to expand into Saudi Arabia. Having helmed the studio's operations for two years now, he drives its investment thesis, which rests on three pillars: data-driven scalability, societal impact, and alignment with Saudi Vision 2030. “Saudi Arabia is at the cusp of transformation across multiple industries—especially F&B, health tech, tourism and culture, logistics, fintech, and sustainable technologies," he told Inc. Arabia in an interview. "Vision 2030 has unlocked unprecedented opportunities in these sectors, not only by creating regulatory openness but by actively stimulating demand." According to Abuonq, such opportunities are paving the way for startups to play a unique role in the Saudi economy. “Startups will play a pivotal role as catalysts of change: they are more agile, willing to experiment, and capable of integrating global best practices into local contexts," he explained. "Whether it’s building the next digital operating system for restaurants, creating platforms that make mental health accessible, or reimagining tourism experiences through tech, startups are uniquely positioned to bridge gaps quickly.” 

2. Be In It To Win It  

Annabelle Mander, Executive Vice President at Saudi Arabia’s biggest event organizer Tahaluf, told Inc. Arabia that if a company is to make it big in the Kingdom, then they need to establish a solid local footprint. “If you want to win Saudi Arabia, you need to be active in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “You need to be looking at setting up an office here, potentially having your head office here for the Middle East, and you need to be engaging with the community and the right ecosystem…You need to engage with the regulators, you need to understand the government here, and you need to be constantly looking to ensure that you're stepping forward in the right way. The opportunity is massive, but you have to be in it to win it.” 

3. Maintain Your Competitive Edge  

As the General Manager for Saudi Arabia at global chauffeur service Blacklane, Adib Samara told Inc. Arabia that success in the Kingdom is dependent on how quickly one can keep up with the rapid pace of change in the market. “Saudi Arabia is constantly evolving, and so, for us, it means we will need to be constantly evolving,” he said. “And in order to do that, I think we need to focus on the foundations." And those foundations, he told us, entail establishing a high benchmark for the company’s services, all while building the right team and infrastructure to allow companies to evolve in tandem with the ecosystem. As for his advice to others looking to succeed in the Kingdom, he said, “Be consistent. Never let success lead to complacency. Business leaders should hold themselves to a high standard, but also challenge themselves to constantly evolve. You know, innovation is a mindset, not a moment. Going the extra mile is not about a milestone that you reach in a journey, and then you forget about it. If you want to go the extra mile, you need to keep walking. And so, as business leaders, we need to keep walking. We need to keep moving. We can’t get complacent. We can’t get static. We need to constantly evolve. And that’s really the message I would give other business leaders: stay hungry, stay humble, and keep moving, and keep going the extra mile.” 

4. The Scale Advantage 

Mike Champion, co-founder and CEO of Saudi Arabia’s biggest event organizer Tahaluf, is perhaps one of the most expert voices on doing business in the Kingdom, given that he has, through his enterprise, organized some of the biggest events taking place in the Kingdom today. These include record-breaking events such as LEAP, Cityscape, and Money20/20 Middle East, all of which have drawn unprecedented attendance from across the world. On the sidelines of LEAP 2025, Champion told Inc. Arabia that the success that Tahaluf has realized was because it had its operations rooted in the Kingdom, adding that few, if any, countries offer the potential to scale that Saudi does. “If I were doing these events in most other markets in the world, in probably all other markets in the world, they wouldn’t be half the size that they are now, and we probably wouldn’t have any more than 10 percent of the government support and participation,” he said. “Frankly, this is where business is happening right now. You can’t scale events, you can’t scale businesses, you can’t create massive scale and growth anywhere in the world like you can in Saudi.”