MENA corporate VC is GCC dominated with Saudi leading the race

Corporate venture capital (CVC) in MENA is increasingly a Gulf-led story, with Saudi Arabia firmly at the center of activity and the UAE close behind. Together, Saudi Arabia and the UAE accounted for 86% of the region’s corporate funding activity — VC’s more steady and consistent funding source — over the past five years, according to a Magnitt report seen by EnterpriseAM. Some 70% of active corporate investors in MENA are headquartered in one of the two Gulf markets.

Saudi Arabia made up the lion’s share, contributing 57% of the total corporate capital deployed and 41% of transaction volume over the past five years. That amounts to SAR 1.1 bn in corporate-backed funding across 170 transactions.

This places us well ahead of runner-up UAE, which followed with USD 544 mn across 107 transactions, while Egypt ranked third with USD 151 mn across 66 transactions.

Corporate venture capital has quietly become a backbone of MENA’s VC ecosystem, maintaining a steady pace of 70-100 transactions annually over the past five years despite market volatility. Corporate investors have deployed roughly USD 200-500 mn each year, often sticking to long-term strategy rather than reacting to valuation swings or higher interest rates.

Trends of the sector

2025 snapshot: MENA’s corporate venture funding reached USD 381 mn in 2025 across 73 transactions, equal to 10% of the total VC funding of USD 3.8 bn.

Investment models are maturing: Direct investments led with 45% of activity last year, followed by corporate VC funds at 29% and corporate venture arms at 23%. Over the past five years, direct transactions and funds made up nearly two-thirds of deployments, showing a shift toward longer-term, institutional CVC models rather than one-off wagers.

And capital is flowing to the home team’s sectors: In the past five years, fintech captured the largest share of corporate funding at USD 576 mn across 103 transactions, followed by e-commerce (USD 488 mn), logistics (USD 182 mn), enterprise software (USD 107 mn), and food and beverage (USD 105 mn). CVCs tend to back companies in sectors adjacent to their own, using investments as a hedge against disruption or as a pipeline for future acquisitions.

Room for improvement

Despite steady activity, MENA’s corporate investors still have some catching up to do on the world stage. CVCs took part in around 12% of capital deployed across the region over five years, below the global range of 15-17%, leaving room for deeper participation.

Some structural kinks need ironing out: The regions’ exit pathways remain underdeveloped, and growth-stage capital remains scarce between the pre-seed funding and pre-IPO scale-up phases, SC Ventures CEO Alex Manson said in the report. Corporate venture investors will need to focus on either becoming long-term strategic holders, effectively “buying back” assets, or building portfolios with credible paths to liquidity.

What to watch

The VC space has been going local: Geopolitical headwinds and tighter global liquidity have led to greater caution among global and regional investors. Meanwhile, local VCs — Khwarizmi Ventures, Sharaka Capital, and Sadu — are using the vacuum as a window, continuing to raise and deploy funds, with more investments expected in 2026.