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Saudi continued to outrank its peers in MENA in terms of deployed VC funding in 1H 2024, claiming the top spot with c. USD 412 mn despite a 7% y-o-y drop, according to venture data platform Magnitt’s Saudi Arabia Venture Capital report (pdf). It saw a 3% y-o-y decline in transaction volume during the first half at 63, yet maintained its ranking as the second most transacted country in the region behind the UAE, the Saudi Venture Capital-sponsored report showed.
You can thank Salla for that: The pre-IPO round of e-commerce app Salla accounted for more than a third of the funds raised during the first half of the year, with USD 130 mn in investment tickets during Leap 2024 in March. The round was the region’s only megadeal during the period.
E-commerce / retail topped Saudi’s startup scene in 1H 2024 in terms of funding, amassing USD 215 mn to account for 52% of total funding during the period. However, the funds raised by the industry were down 40% y-o-y, the report showed. Fintech came in second with a triple-digit increase y-o-y at USD 62 mn on the back of fintech Moyasar raising USD 21 mn in seed funding in March and a USD 18 mn series A funding round by robo-advisory Abyan Capital in May.
How the region fared: VC funding in the MENA region was down 34% y-o-y in 1H 2024 to USD 768 mn, making it the region’s worst 1H since the covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reported, citing a separate Magnitt report on emerging markets. “They have shifted away from late stage to early stage investments because of the high cost of capital,” Magnitt CEO Philip Bahoshy said.
Only Saudi was superior: Saudi — which accounted for more than half of total VC funding in MENA during 1H — came in second after Singapore in emerging market VC funding in the first half of the year, a summary of a separate report by Magnitt read. Singapore came in first with USD 1.3 bn in funding, followed by Saudi with USD 412 mn as it maintained “its strong investment landscape despite broader regional declines.”
