Saudi Arabia discloses investment in dozens of VCs

Saudi Arabia discloses investment in dozens of VCs

The assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 chilled Saudi Arabia’s attempts to be a major tech player. Allegations that Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents on the order of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman led many tech companies to downplay investments from the country, if not publicly distance themselves from it.

Yet a disclosure on the website of Sanabil Investments, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, shows that Saudi money is going back into the tech sector.

The webpage lists some of Sanabil Investments’ portfolio, including 18 startups, primarily based in Europe and the U.S., and almost 40 venture and growth funds, including Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Global and General Atlantic. The website does not disclose the size of Sanabil’s positions, nor if there are other investments not displayed on the page. It is also not immediately clear when the page was uploaded, but the earliest snapshot from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is from Monday.

Venture capital firms kept quiet about their placement on Sanabil’s website, either not responding to of declining requests for comment from The Information, which first reported the new Saudi disclosures. Only one firm, Village Global, responded, telling The Information that “we