{"id":98790,"date":"2025-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/07\/16\/saudi-arabia-leads-mena-vc-funding-in-1h-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T00:00:00","slug":"saudi-arabia-leads-mena-vc-funding-in-1h-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/07\/16\/saudi-arabia-leads-mena-vc-funding-in-1h-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia leads MENA VC funding in 1H 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venture capital funding in Saudi Arabia surged 116% y-o-y to USD 860 mn from 114 <\/strong>investments in the first half of 2025<\/strong>, establishing the Kingdom as the leading venture market in the MENA region, according to Magnitt\u2019s Emerging Venture Markets (EVM) press release (pdf)<\/a>. The growth was fueled by the return of mega-transactions (over USD 100 mn), including rounds for Ninja and Tabby.<\/p>\n

Who else topped the region?<\/strong> The UAE logged USD 447 mn in funding, an 84% y-o-y increase across 114 transactions, according to Magnitt\u2019s EVM report (pdf)<\/a>. This marked the UAE's highest deployment level since 1H 2020. Meanwhile, Egypt\u2019s total VC funding increased 90% y-o-y to USD 185 mn.<\/p>\n

Bucking the EVM trend: <\/strong>VC funding across all EVMs dropped 7% y-o-y to USD 4 bn \u2014 the lowest half-year level since 2017. The decline was primarily due to a 32% drop in Mega rounds and a continued investment contraction in Southeast Asia, which has historically been the largest EVM market.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The MENA picture: <\/strong>Total VC funding in the MENA region rose 92% to USD 1.5 bn across 310 investments in 1H 2025. The figure marks the region\u2019s strongest half-year performance since 2022 and represents 39% of total funding across EVMs \u2014 which include the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and Turkey \u2014 up from 19% in the same period last year.<\/p>\n

Fintech was the standout sector in 1H 2025<\/strong>, with funding across the broader MENA region tripling y-o-y to USD 596 mn.<\/p>\n

Our MVPs:<\/strong> Riyad Capital emerged as the most active investor by estimated capital deployed, while Plus.VC led in terms of the number of investments, according to a separate Magnitt brief (pdf)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The market is maturing:<\/strong> Some 42% of Series A and B rounds exceeded USD 20 mn, up from just 10% a year ago. This reflects a growing preference for ventures with proven traction and scalability as investors back companies that are ready to accelerate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia ranked second among all EVM geographies, with USD 860 mn raised from 114 investments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2556],"tags":[3779,3777,10,208,3775,3772,1670,3771,3450,3773,1169,1226,3780,179,725,5,568],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-98790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup-watch","tag-africa","tag-emerging-venture-markets","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-fintech","tag-funding-rounds","tag-investments","tag-magnitt","tag-mena","tag-middle-east","tag-ninja","tag-riyad-capital","tag-saudi-lime-industries","tag-southeast-asia","tag-startup-watch","tag-tabby","tag-venture-capital","tag-yanbu","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"89942084-a233-4545-80ef-a8e77b4bec25","order":"6","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/2\/706.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Saudi Arabia leads MENA VC funding in 1H 2025","related_issue":[98780],"teaser":"Saudi Arabia ranked second among all EVM geographies, with USD 860 mn raised from 114 investments","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/7\/.198de99a-9651-47cb-b225-b3ed1721dc6a.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nSaudi Arabia leads MENA VC funding in 1H 2025 - 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