Online Event
$860M, 114 VC Deals: Why Saudi Arabia Leads MENA Startups (2025) | SEEDRA Ventures
How Saudi Arabia Became MENA’s Next Startup Hub
Date
Jan 19, 2026
Time
04:00 am - 05:30 am
Address
Online Event
Saudi Arabia is rapidly emerging as MENA's next startup hub, with local startups raising $860 million across 114 VC deals in the first half of 2025 alone. Key sectors like fintech, e‑commerce, AI, and logistics are leading this surge, fueled by Vision 2030 initiatives and mega-projects such as NEOM, Red Sea, and Qiddiya. This momentum highlights the Kingdom as a founder-friendly, high-growth market with opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to scale regionally and globally. At this session, Omar Munawar from SEEDRA Ventures will share how the firm backs founders with strategic capital, operational insight, and access to regional markets.
SEEDRA Ventures has made over 38 investments across the region, with typical funding checks ranging from $1–5 million, and their portfolio includes high-impact companies like Tamara, Lendo, Zid, Lucidya, and Noon Academy. Omar will discuss recent investment patterns, sector opportunities, and growth strategies for founders interested in tapping into the Saudi market.
This is your chance to cut through myths and see Saudi’s startup landscape as it really is: a thriving, globally connected ecosystem where bold founders can build market-leading businesses. Whether you are exploring expansion, fundraising, or launching a new venture, this session provides actionable insights and a roadmap to capitalize on Saudi Arabia’s booming startup ecosystem — with guidance from one of the region’s most influential investors, Omar Munawar of SEEDRA Ventures.
Agenda:
- Welcome and Introduction
- Speaker Introduction
- Panel Discussion on Key Topics
- Audience Q&A
Featured Speaker:
- Omar Munawar - A seasoned venture capitalist at SEEDRA Ventures, a Riyadh-based early-stage investment firm focused on backing bold founders across the Middle East. With a strong track record of over 38 investments in high-impact startups, Omar has helped companies like Tamara, Lendo, Zid, Lucidya, and Noon Academy scale from local innovators to market leaders.
Moderator:
- Erdinc Ekinci - Founder, Investment Lead of Co-capital.vc, Co-Founder, CEO of Openfor.co, Managing Director of Founder Institute Japan/Korea/Taiwan
📌 Who Should Attend?
- Early-stage founders looking to scale their startups in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.
- Entrepreneurs exploring new markets and global expansion opportunities.
- Investors and venture builders seeking insights into Saudi’s booming startup ecosystem.
- Startup enthusiasts and ecosystem stakeholders who want to understand funding trends, sector opportunities, and growth strategies.
- Anyone curious about MENA’s next startup hub and how to tap into high-growth opportunities with strategic guidance from SEEDRA Ventures.
📌 What You Will Learn
- Saudi’s Startup Surge: Understand the $860M funding across 114 VC deals in H1 2025 and why Saudi is MENA’s next startup hub.
- Investment Insights: Learn how SEEDRA Ventures identifies high-potential startups and deploys capital strategically.
- Sector Opportunities: Discover the hottest sectors — fintech, e-commerce, AI, and logistics — that are attracting investors.
- Scaling Strategies: Gain actionable guidance on building market-leading businesses and expanding regionally and globally.
- Founder Success Stories: Hear from Omar Munawar on real-world examples from SEEDRA’s portfolio, including Tamara, Lendo, Zid, Lucidya, and Noon Academy.
❗️ Also, if you can’t join live or physically, register to get the recording!
About Organiser:
-Founder Institute: Founder Institute, which originated in Silicon Valley, is a founder and idea stage accelerator, and with its Founder Capital, backs the best performing FI alumni as early as the angel stage. FI has over 8K+ startup portfolio (Including leading e-learning platform Udemy, IPO in Nasdaq $3,8B) across 200 cities in 100 countries around the world.) We are also the largest mentor network in the world, with over 35,000 mentors, and our alumni have already raised over $2 billion in US dollars and have recently exceeded the 10K mark of investors network as the FI-Venture-Network.
-FI’s sister program, called VC Lab, helps launch aspiring investors into launching VC firms. As an accelerator that allows both sides of the table, 70% of the activities we do are advocacy of entrepreneurship and ecosystem creation, which means we do way more activity than the accelerator to promote entrepreneurship to solve real-world problems with entrepreneurship in an economically feasible way, build a company that grows into a venture-scale.
-Openfor.co: A “Global Partnership Accelerator” originated in Silicon Valley that combined with an online platform and marketplace for learning, building, launching, monetizing, and growing partner ecosystems and a collaborative community around you for achieving effective marketing, sales, community building, GTM, fundraising, and many more.
-Co-Capital: Pre-seed & Seed stage new firm that focuses on hands-on GTM, sales, and partnership support, focusing on English-speaking Asian founders who have global ambitions from day ONE. Domiciled in the USA, with regional appearances in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Utilizes partnerships with the GTM expert network and the venture partner network across 20 major hubs and a network of 35 other VC networks who are willing to co-back our founders!
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