🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Riyadh’s state-backed venture boom explains Ressi’s timing

• Adeo Ressi plans to set up at least 100 new VC firms in the Middle East. The market already looks hot, with startups raising $1.34 billion in the first half of 2025, up 342% year on year 1.
• Government-backed money fuels much of this momentum. The Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) has committed $2bn+ across more than 40 local funds 1.
• Riyadh runs a mixed system rather than Silicon Valley’s private-LP model. State capital, including the Public Investment Fund (PIF), anchors venture activity and ties it to Vision 2030 projects 1.

New VCs may succeed by funding state-aligned startups

• Ressi’s new firms may do better by matching investment plans to government programs, instead of relying only on market pull.
• Saudi Arabia and the UAE back technology markets through national strategies such as Vision 2030. This can lower market risk and speed adoption in AI, cybersecurity, fintech, cloud computing, and smart infrastructure 2.
• Seed-stage companies with government contracts or proofs-of-concept (small, time-bound pilots used to test whether a product works in a real environment) with Aramco or NEOM may move up the funding list 1.
• This flow of capital can help build local technology supply, which can cut reliance on foreign tech imports for projects that matter to national plans 2.