Saudi Arabia's Startup Ecosystem Surges as AI, Food Tech Deals Highlight Growth
Rapid ascent in tech investments across sectors including AI, food tech, logistics, and sports.
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's startup ecosystem is gaining momentum, characterized by a surge of early- and growth-stage investments in technology-driven sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), food technology (food tech), logistics, and sports.
The trend reflects the kingdom's efforts to diversify its economy and leverage innovation for future growth.
Kamco Invest, a prominent investment firm based in Saudi Arabia, has acquired a stake in Foodics, a leading restaurant technology and payments platform in the country.
This move is part of Kamco Invest's strategy to support high-growth, tech-enabled businesses with potential for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Middle East and North Africa.
Foodics, founded in 2014, serves over 33,000 restaurants globally, managing an annual gross merchandise value exceeding $10 billion.
The cloud-based platform provides a comprehensive solution for restaurant operators to manage orders, operations, finances, and access capital through a unified interface.
Dalal Al-Shaya, Director of Private Equity at Kamco Invest, commented on the investment: "We are proud to back a regional tech champion like Foodics.
Its scale, innovation, and strong investor base indicate an exciting growth trajectory." The company aims to list publicly on Tadawul, Saudi Arabia's stock exchange, within the next two to three years.
The latest investment in Foodics follows a $170 million funding round led by Prosus and Sanabil Investments, a fund owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
Other participants included Sequoia Capital India, STV, Raed Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst.
In addition to Foodics, other Saudi startups have also secured significant investments.
Calo, a food tech startup focused on meal subscriptions, has raised $39 million in a series B extension round, bringing its total funding to $64 million.
This growth capital will be used to fuel international expansion and enhance product development.
Flex League, a sports-tech company centered around padel and tennis, has secured a six-digit dollar seed investment to expand its platform's capabilities.
The funds will support the development of a court booking system, team growth, and market penetration across Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
Sawt, a startup specializing in Arabic-native voice AI systems for customer support, has closed a $1 million pre-seed round.
This investment will be used to improve its proprietary models, enhance technical infrastructure, and scale the team as it prepares to handle millions of voice interactions.
OmniOps has launched Bunyan, Saudi Arabia's first Inference-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform focused on data sovereignty and enterprise-grade compliance.
The platform supports AI applications in text, vision, and speech, promising revolutionary performance improvements for organizations deploying and scaling AI solutions.
Olivery, a B2B Software-as-a-Service company digitizing logistics operations, has secured seed funding to expand its offerings across the region.
The investment will facilitate the introduction of AI-driven features such as predictive routing and automated data entry, enhancing operational efficiency.
Mataa, an e-commerce platform in Libya, has completed its first seed investment round with backing from Libyan business angels.
The funds aim to strengthen logistics networks, expand warehouse capacity, and onboard new suppliers and product categories, reflecting growing confidence in Libya's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The trend reflects the kingdom's efforts to diversify its economy and leverage innovation for future growth.
Kamco Invest, a prominent investment firm based in Saudi Arabia, has acquired a stake in Foodics, a leading restaurant technology and payments platform in the country.
This move is part of Kamco Invest's strategy to support high-growth, tech-enabled businesses with potential for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Middle East and North Africa.
Foodics, founded in 2014, serves over 33,000 restaurants globally, managing an annual gross merchandise value exceeding $10 billion.
The cloud-based platform provides a comprehensive solution for restaurant operators to manage orders, operations, finances, and access capital through a unified interface.
Dalal Al-Shaya, Director of Private Equity at Kamco Invest, commented on the investment: "We are proud to back a regional tech champion like Foodics.
Its scale, innovation, and strong investor base indicate an exciting growth trajectory." The company aims to list publicly on Tadawul, Saudi Arabia's stock exchange, within the next two to three years.
The latest investment in Foodics follows a $170 million funding round led by Prosus and Sanabil Investments, a fund owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
Other participants included Sequoia Capital India, STV, Raed Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst.
In addition to Foodics, other Saudi startups have also secured significant investments.
Calo, a food tech startup focused on meal subscriptions, has raised $39 million in a series B extension round, bringing its total funding to $64 million.
This growth capital will be used to fuel international expansion and enhance product development.
Flex League, a sports-tech company centered around padel and tennis, has secured a six-digit dollar seed investment to expand its platform's capabilities.
The funds will support the development of a court booking system, team growth, and market penetration across Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
Sawt, a startup specializing in Arabic-native voice AI systems for customer support, has closed a $1 million pre-seed round.
This investment will be used to improve its proprietary models, enhance technical infrastructure, and scale the team as it prepares to handle millions of voice interactions.
OmniOps has launched Bunyan, Saudi Arabia's first Inference-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform focused on data sovereignty and enterprise-grade compliance.
The platform supports AI applications in text, vision, and speech, promising revolutionary performance improvements for organizations deploying and scaling AI solutions.
Olivery, a B2B Software-as-a-Service company digitizing logistics operations, has secured seed funding to expand its offerings across the region.
The investment will facilitate the introduction of AI-driven features such as predictive routing and automated data entry, enhancing operational efficiency.
Mataa, an e-commerce platform in Libya, has completed its first seed investment round with backing from Libyan business angels.
The funds aim to strengthen logistics networks, expand warehouse capacity, and onboard new suppliers and product categories, reflecting growing confidence in Libya's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
