Wa’ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, has dedicated more than SAR 21 million in total financial support to Saudi-based startups after concluding its third national roadshow stop in Jeddah. The event follows two previously successful stops held in Al Jubail and Yanbu Industrial cities, where Wa’ed pledged a number of loans and seed grants to eleven Saudi-based startups across various sectors.
Co-sponsored by King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), the ceremony took place in Jeddah to invite local entrepreneurs in environmental and deep technology, calling attention to the social and economic significance of these two increasingly popularized sectors in the region.
“The landscape is rapidly evolving in Saudi Arabia for deep tech startups and we are excited to hear from the next generation of game changers at the Wa’ed roadshow,” said Hattan Ahmed, Head of KAUST Entrepreneurship Center. “KAUST and Wa’ed share a common objective to support founders and develop our local ecosystem to create high value and high impact startups.”
“We believe in providing accessible and inclusive opportunities across various sectors and we will continue our mission to lead the search for true entrepreneurial innovation that makes the backbone of the kingdom’s economic and technological development,” said Fahad Alidi, Managing Director at Wa’ed.
In Jeddah, Wa’ed dedicated financial support to four Saudi entrepreneurs, recommending a venture capital fund to Fathom Solutions, a Saudi-based software company providing enterprise AI and IoT platform solutions to increase digital business agility in the oil and gas industry. Established in 2019 and led by Ibrahim Al-Baloud, the startup leads a team of more than 50 members across its global offices in Oslo, Warsaw, Houston, Kyiv, and Dharhan, where it assists clients in developing custom-made AI platforms to fit their enterprise data and use cases.
In addition to financial support, the investment will also enable Fathom to launch its product services to aid leading local industrial companies such as Saudi Aramco drive cost efficiency, business revenue, and overall productivity for their industrial pipeline operations.
For seed grants, Wa’ed recommended SAR 75,000 to Mawidy, a deep tech startup utilizing Artificial Intelligence to enhance healthcare services, and SAR 50,000 to Last Link (Bubble), a proximity-based online video platform that turns virtual workshops to collaborative and engaging experiences. It also pledged a SAR 25,000 seed grant to Veem, a B2B AI-backed virtual commerce platform that aims to virtualize brick & mortar retail stores to boost their customer experience and retention rates.
As the national roadshow proceeds in the following two months with its planned tour around Riyadh, Madinah and Makkah, Wa’ed will aim to promote higher visibility and financial support to more key entrepreneurial sectors, including reverse technology, hospitality and tourism, and transportation and logistics.
Established in 2011 as a wholly owned venture of Aramco, Wa’ed has backed more than 100 Saudi-based startups through its business incubation, loan financing and venture funding services to become an active entity in Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Applications for upcoming roadshow stops are open to entrepreneurs through November. For more information about the Wa’ed Entrepreneurship Roadshow or to apply, see: https://waed.net/roadshow
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About Wa’ed
Wa’ed is the entrepreneurship arm of Saudi Aramco and the largest and most active institutional venture capital investor for Saudi-based start-ups, providing end-to-end support in mentoring, incubation, loan financing and venture capital investment. Established by Saudi Aramco in 2011 to harness the Kingdom’s entrepreneurial spirit, Wa’ed is an essential enabler of new business growth and economic diversification through its loan financing activities and Wa’ed Ventures VC arm, which oversees a $200 million investment fund and a portfolio of 30+ Saudi-based companies. Based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Wa’ed is a fully owned venture of Saudi Aramco.
About King Abdullah University for Science and Technology
Established in 2009, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is a graduate research university devoted to finding solutions for some of the world’s most pressing scientific and technological challenges in the areas of food, water, energy and the environment. With 19 research areas related to these themes and state of the art labs, KAUST has created a collaborative and interdisciplinary problem-solving environment, which has resulted in over 11,000 published papers.
For more information please contact:
Emi O’Connor
E: emi.oconnor@waed.net
Yasmeen Almattboli
E: yasmeen.almattboli@waed.net
© Press Release 2021
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