Wa’ed allocates up to SR6.9m in new seed grants and VC funds during Riyadh roadshow

Wa’ed allocates up to SR6.9m in new seed grants and VC funds during Riyadh roadshow

RIYADH — Wa’ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, has dedicated a total financial aid of SR6.9 million to three Saudi-based startups, as the centre concludes its fourth roadshow stop in Riyadh after successfully completing its three previous stops in Jubail, Yanbu, and Jeddah over the last two months. The investment was divided between two seed-stage grants to be deployed after completing a final onboarding process and a single venture capital investment in a Saudi-based company. This reflects the unwavering commitment that Wa’ed has been upholding throughout the roadshow to fuel the development of the local startup ecosystem. Organized in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at), the event featured three of the most promising startup sectors in the Saudi entrepreneurial space — E-commerce, Cyber Security, and Healthtech — and saw participation from a number of innovative Saudi entrepreneurs. As with previous roadshow events, the awards were presented after the Wa’ed team conducted a short follow-on voting round to reach a unanimous decision on the qualified startups. The votes took into consideration the founding team’s experience, the addressable market opportunity, and the overall product competitiveness in the Kingdom. “We’ve seen how the COVID-19 pandemic pushed all three sectors,