Saudi Arabia leads MENA venture capital with $860m in H1 2025, surpassing 2024 total

Saudi Arabia has reinforced its dominance in the Middle East and North Africa’s venture capital landscape, securing the top spot in H1 2025 with a total VC funding of $860m (SR3.2bn) — already surpassing the Kingdom’s full-year VC total for 2024.

The “H1 2025 MENA Venture Investment Report” from venture data platform MAGNiTT revealed that Saudi Arabia accounted for 56 per cent of total capital deployed across the MENA region, underscoring its pivotal role in shaping the region’s startup and innovation economy.

The Kingdom also saw a record-breaking 114 VC deals during the first six months of the year, signalling robust investor confidence and continued momentum in startup activity.

Saudi VC funding

This milestone aligns closely with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, which has positioned venture capital and entrepreneurship as key pillars for diversifying the Kingdom’s economy and reducing dependency on oil.

Dr. Nabeel Koshak, CEO and Board Member at SVC, said: “The Kingdom’s leading position in the VC scene in the region comes as a result of many governmental initiatives launched to stimulate the VC and startups ecosystem within the Saudi Vision 2030 programs.

“We at SVC are committed to continuing to lead the development of the ecosystem by stimulating private investors to provide support for startups and SMEs to be capable of fast and high growth, leading to diversifying the national economy and achieving the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030.”

SVC, a subsidiary of the SME Bank under the National Development Fund (NDF), plays a central role in enabling early-stage and growth-stage companies by investing in funds and directly in startups, from pre-Seed to pre-IPO.

With Saudi Arabia now representing more than half of all VC funding in the region, the report confirms that the Kingdom’s startup landscape is entering a new phase of maturity, fuelled by public-private partnerships, policy reform, and sustained investor appetite.