Saudi startups raise $3 mln in Q2 under Badir progam

Technology start-ups incubated by the Badir program, an initiative of the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, raised SAR 11.660 million ($3.110 million) in the second quarter of 2018, up by 7.66 percent year-on-year, from SAR 10.830 million ($2.888 million).

Individual investors were the most active in terms of funding size, having invested SAR 7.450 million ($1.987 million) into the Kingdom’s startups across four deals in Q2.

Venture capital firms followed with two deals reaching a total of SAR 1.40 million ($373,000), while the funding of the private sector companies reached to SAR 2.8 million ($747,000) through one funding deal.

The volume of loans, however, did not exceeded SAR 10,000 ($2,666), Badir Program said in a statement.

Total funding has risen to SAR 150.951 million ($40.253 million) since the establishment of the Badir program in 2008 until the end of June 2018.

Meanwhile, the program revealed that the individual investors have the biggest stake in Badir incubated start-ups since its inception at SAR 60.9 million ($16.256 million), representing 40 percent of the total funding.

Venture capital firms came in second with financial support to such companies at SAR 49.03 million ($13.074 million), corresponding to 32 percent of the total.

Funding from the private sector companies reached to SAR 32.842 million ($8.758 million), equivalent to 22 percent of the total, while funding by the governmental institutions reached SAR 7.057 million ($1.881 million).  

The number of technical start-ups increased by 18 percent to reach 228 companies at the end of June 2018, compared to 193 last year, the statement said.