Shaimaa Ibrahim 

Venture capital in the Gulf region, particularly in Saudi Arabia, is experiencing a rapid growth phase driven by the expansion of the digital economy, the rise of innovation ecosystems, and increasing interest in advanced technologies—most notably artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. As capital flows increase and investment funds multiply, there is a clear shift toward specialized investment models aimed at building companies with global reach, rather than limiting success to local markets.

In this context, Propeller stands out as a distinct player in the venture capital landscape, focusing on early-stage infrastructure software companies and connecting top technical talent from the MENA region directly to global markets, with a particular emphasis on the United States. Its cross-border operating model is designed to empower founders to build globally relevant companies from day one, leveraging the region’s deep engineering talent alongside operational expertise from leading global technology hubs.

Against this backdrop, Sharikat Mubasher sat down with Zaid Farekh, founder of Propeller, to discuss his vision for the future of venture capital, his experience supporting technical founders, and his assessment of AI and infrastructure opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the broader region.

What is Propeller’s strategic vision, and how does it stand out from other venture capital firms in the region?

Propeller’s strategic vision is to become the leading early-stage platform for infrastructure software founders emerging from MENA by providing them with direct, early access to global—particularly U.S.—markets.

Propeller focuses exclusively on pre-seed and seed-stage infrastructure software, backing highly technical founders and helping them validate, sell, and iterate with real U.S. customers—especially in Silicon Valley—much earlier than would otherwise be possible.

What differentiates Propeller is its deliberate focus and cross-border operating model. Rather than being a generalist regional fund, Propeller concentrates on a narrow, technically demanding category and actively bridges two ecosystems: MENA’s deep engineering talent and the world’s most advanced infrastructure buyers and partners in the United States. This approach allows founders to shorten the path to product–market fit, build globally relevant companies from day one, and access follow-on capital more effectively.

How would you describe the current venture capital landscape in the GCC, and what is required to elevate the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to a global standard?

We’ve been excited to see the venture landscape maturing in the GCC over the past few years, but we still believe there’s a long way to go. We ultimately believe that the best way to elevate the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is to bring its best founders to the global stage so they can learn from and compete with a high density of other founders of a similar calibre. We see this trend happening across the world, not just the Middle East. Great founders from Europe, South America and elsewhere spend time in Silicon Valley or New York, but invariably end up having a huge impact on their local, ‘home’ ecosystems as well, whether by returning themselves to continue to build their startup, by hiring local talent remotely or building an in-region office, by angel investing in the home market’s newest founders, or simply by inspiring a new generation of founders. 

What criteria are most important when evaluating startups, and how does Propeller help founders overcome funding and growth challenges?

Propeller focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage infrastructure software startups, investing checks between $500,000 and $3M. It prioritizes founders building for global gaps (not only regional needs) and sees opportunity across multiple layers of the AI stack, from hardware-adjacent enablement to infrastructure, platforms, and applications with defensible infrastructure moats.

Can you provide an overview of Propeller’s current funds, including their strategic focus and sector priorities?

Fund I was a test vehicle of approximately $2M launched in 2017. Fund II was approximately $13M launched in 2021. Fund III is a $50M fund focused on pre-seed and seed-stage infrastructure software startups, with emphasis on AI infrastructure and AI-native software across MENA and the U.S.

What motivated the launch of Propeller’s $50 million third fund, and why focus specifically on horizontal AI infrastructure?

The adoption of artificial intelligence will be the single largest driver of enterprise and economic value over the next decade. Startups are being launched today and in the coming years to meet the enormous infrastructure demands this adoption will create, quickly propelling the best ones into large, category-defining companies

We believe infrastructure is the ultimate multiplier of value in AI. Strong infrastructure enables vertical applications and horizontal platforms to scale faster, cheaper, and more securely.

At the same time, the most enduring applications and platforms will be those that sit on top of proprietary or defensible infrastructure, creating moats that go beyond user interfaces or data wrappers.

To date, how many startups has Propeller invested in, across which regions, and what tangible impact have these investments had on the regional innovation ecosystem?

Propeller has backed 30+ startups across its first two funds and has 6 active investments in Fund III. Propeller is present across MENA and the U.S., specifically in Riyadh, Amman, Boston, and Silicon Valley.

How do you assess venture capital opportunities in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the AI sector?

We assess opportunities in Saudi the same way we assess opportunities everywhere - does the founder have a severe conviction in a unique version of the future? Are they building infrastructure & apps because they love building? And are they thinking Global from day one?

We assess venture opportunities in Saudi Arabia through a fundamentals-first lens, with additional scrutiny specific to the AI sector.

In AI specifically, we look beyond model novelty and focus on structural advantages, such as access to proprietary data, deep integration into workflows, or infrastructure-level positioning that is difficult to replicate. We are cautious around pure “wrapper” businesses and place greater emphasis on companies that own a critical layer of the stack or have defensible deployment advantages.

We have long-standing experience building and selling technology in Saudi Arabia and view it as a strong, sophisticated market for AI adoption. At the same time, we do not see Saudi Arabia as the only market. We assess whether companies can win locally on commercial merit and then expand beyond the Kingdom over time, rather than being structurally dependent on a single geography or policy tailwinds.

Finally, we evaluate alignment with Saudi Arabia’s long-term priorities, such as digital infrastructure and AI enablement without relying on policy tailwinds alone. Our goal is to back companies that can succeed on commercial merit, with or without local incentives, and scale globally over time.

What are Propeller’s plans for expansion, and are there initiatives to establish new regional or international partnerships?

Our team members are already present in Silicon Valley, Boston, Amman, and Riyadh and we have close relationships with follow-on investors and experienced operators in those markets

In your view, which sectors or types of companies are best positioned for significant growth in the coming years, especially in AI and technology infrastructure?

We believe exciting new companies will be built at all layers of the software stack:

1. Application Layer – Vertical AI applications that win with infrastructure moats, not just data wrappers.
2. Platform Layer – Horizontal AI platforms that standardize workflows across industries.
3. Infrastructure Layer – Tools that abstract complexity and make AI usable, secure, and scalable.
4. Hardware-Software Convergence – Silicon-adjacent software bridging models and metal, optimizing performance and efficiency. 

More than companies, we invest in people. We believe that the founders who will build these companies will:

1. Have a severe conviction in a unique version of the future
2. Build infrastructure & apps because they love building 
3. Think global from day one
4. Attract and inspire early employees and supporters.
5. Have the persistence to run through walls, the flexibility to change course, and the judgement to know when to do each.
6. Lead from the front by building, not just directing.
7. Build with responsibility, aware of the scale and impact of the infrastructure they create.
8. Nurture a community around their vision. Creating movements not just companies.

Noha Gad

The world is in a race to master quantum computing — a technology based on the principles of quantum physics with the potential to reshape industries, security, and science. Unlike current computers, which rely on simple binary bits, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in multiple states simultaneously and can be profoundly interconnected. This potential enables them to tackle complex challenges in areas such as medicine, materials science, and logistics at speeds higher than today's most advanced supercomputers.

By harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics, this emerging field offers time- and energy-efficient computational power, secure communication, and precise sensing capabilities. The quantum economy is poised to generate immense value through the application of quantum technologies across various sectors. 

Saudi Arabia acknowledges the revolutionary impact of quantum technology and is strategically positioning itself to become a global leader in this domain. This emerging field is not a distant concept but a strategic priority aligned with Vision 2030. The Kingdom is actively building its own quantum landscape, transforming ambition into structured national action. This move is a clear step to diversify its technological capabilities and cultivate homegrown scientific talent for the post-oil era. 

According to a report released by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Saudi Arabia (C4IR Saudi Arabia), quantum technology can drive innovation across multiple sectors, creating new industries and economic growth. In the healthcare industry, quantum sensors could revolutionize medical sectors, leading to more accurate and less invasive diagnostic tools. Additionally, very high precision in material characterization leads to the development of new materials and improves quality control in industry and manufacturing sectors. This technology can also revolutionize financial services and enhance risk management by improving the accuracy and speed of risk analysis. This could transform areas like portfolio optimization, fraud detection, and pricing of complex financial instruments.

When deployed in the logistics sector, quantum computing can improve route optimization for logistics companies, ultimately reducing fuel consumption, delivery times, and costs.

On the other side, these technologies have vast and multifaceted societal impacts, encompassing ethical, legal, economic, educational, and cultural dimensions. They are expected to transform how societies operate, how economies function, and how individuals interact with technology and each other.

Potentials and challenges

Saudi Arabia has significant opportunities to establish itself as a key player in the quantum technology race and become a regional quantum hub that attracts talent and investment and fosters collaboration. 

Various stakeholders play a crucial role in advancing quantum technology in the Kingdom and enhancing short-term educational initiatives aimed at rapidly building and strengthening the quantum talent pool. For instance, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) established dedicated research centers and designed undergraduate and graduate curricula focused on quantum technology. They also contribute through specialized programs, professional training courses, and collaborations with industry and government entities. 

Prominent organizations such as the National Information Technology Academy (NITA) and the Saudi Federation for Cyber Security and Programming, through TUWAIQ Academy, actively contribute to workforce development through internships, specialized training, and skill transition programs. King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), in collaboration with Aramco, has established a Quantum Chair Professor program to foster research, education, and innovation in Quantum technologies. 

Partnerships with local and international partners also play a fundamental role in advancing the quantum computing industry and creating innovation hubs in the Kingdom. These collaborations bring expertise, technology, and resources to the Kingdom, accelerating the development and commercialization of quantum technologies. 

Aramco recently deployed the first quantum computer in Saudi Arabia, and the region’s first quantum computer dedicated to industrial applications, in partnership with Pasqal, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing. Deployed at Aramco’s data center in Dammam and powered by neutral-atom technology, this quantum computing is expected to significantly build regional expertise and accelerate the development of quantum applications across the energy, materials, and industrial sectors in the Kingdom and the broader Middle East. Pasqal’s system can control 200 qubits arranged in programmable two-dimensional arrays, offering a platform suitable for exploring advanced quantum algorithms and real-world use cases relevant to industrial operations.

The Saudi Telecom Company (stc), one of the leading enablers of digital transformation, recently expanded its collaboration with IBM to establish a quantum-safe framework designed to proactively identify and mitigate cryptographic risks, ensuring readiness for a time when large-scale quantum computing could challenge existing encryption systems safeguarding sensitive data. 

Although Saudi Arabia has various potentials to lead the quantum computing industry regionally and globally, it faces several challenges in this domain, notably a talent shortage. The limited number of quantum scientists and engineers compared to global leaders creates a substantial obstacle to rapid advancement, compounded by a scarcity of specialized quantum laboratories, hindering crucial research and development efforts. The quantum industry in the Kingdom is still in its infancy, with few commercial applications, making it difficult to attract investment and create a thriving ecosystem.

In conclusion, Saudi Arabia has laid an impressive and strategic foundation for its quantum future, moving decisively from ambition to action and aligning national vision with institutional power, industrial need, and educational reform. Its unique advantage lies in applying quantum computing to its own industrial sectors, creating a tangible testbed for innovation. However, the Kingdom’s success will ultimately be measured by its ability to transition from foundational projects and protected pilot cases to a vibrant, open, and innovative ecosystem that attracts global talent, fosters indigenous entrepreneurship, and produces groundbreaking intellectual property. By navigating the challenges of talent cultivation, ecosystem diversification, and sustained investment, Saudi Arabia will be positioned not only to adopt quantum technology but to actively shape its development and secure an influential role in the coming quantum-powered era.

Ghada Ismail

For many startups, revenue growth is treated as a numbers game: more leads, more sales calls, more discounts. But as markets tighten and investors become more selective, this approach is proving fragile. Revenue engineering offers a structured alternative, one that treats revenue as a system to be designed, tested, and optimized, not just chased.

Instead of asking “How do we sell more?”, revenue engineering asks: “How does our product, pricing, and customer journey work together to generate sustainable, predictable revenue?” In other words, it’s not just about closing deals, but rather about designing a revenue machine that grows with your business.

What Is Revenue Engineering?

Revenue engineering is the deliberate design of a startup’s revenue model. It connects pricing, product design, customer behavior, and distribution channels into a coherent system aimed at predictable, scalable, and sustainable income.

Unlike traditional sales-led approaches that focus on pushing transactions, revenue engineering looks at the full picture: how pricing structures influence adoption, how product packaging drives upgrades, and how retention strategies affect lifetime value. For startups, applying this mindset early can prevent common pitfalls that are expensive or impossible to fix later.

Why Startups Should Care Early

Early-stage startups often make revenue mistakes that seem minor but have long-term consequences. Misaligned pricing, confusing product tiers, or poorly defined customer segments can lead to low margins, high churn, and dependence on discounts to close deals. Investors are increasingly looking beyond top-line growth, as they want proof that your revenue model is solid and scalable.

Revenue engineering addresses these challenges by creating a system that naturally drives predictable results.

Core Pillars of Revenue Engineering

1. Pricing Architecture
   Startups need to choose pricing models that reflect both market realities and product value. Subscriptions, usage-based pricing, freemium, or enterprise contracts each work differently and must evolve as the business grows. Testing pricing early is crucial to avoid missed revenue opportunities.
2. Product Packaging
   Deciding which features are free, paid, or premium isn’t just a marketing decision; it directly affects revenue. Proper packaging guides customer behavior, incentivizes upgrades, and ensures that your most valuable features generate the right return.
3. Customer Segmentation
   Not all customers are the same, and revenue engineering ensures that offers align with willingness to pay. Segmenting customers by behavior, value, or needs allows startups to tailor pricing, upsells, and communication effectively.
4. Sales & Distribution Logic
   Startups must choose how to reach customers efficiently. Self-serve, inside sales, enterprise teams, or channel partners each have pros and cons. Revenue engineering ensures the distribution strategy supports scalable revenue rather than just immediate wins.
5. Retention & Expansion Mechanics
   Sustainable growth doesn’t rely only on new customers. Revenue engineering plans for upsells, cross-sells, and renewals from the start, ensuring long-term value from each client.

Common Mistakes Startups Make

Many early-stage startups fail at revenue engineering without even realizing it. Common errors include:

• Copying competitors’ pricing without understanding unit economics
• Over-discounting to close early deals
• Building features that don’t unlock higher-paying tiers
• Treating churn as a customer problem, instead of a signal of flawed revenue design

Recognizing these pitfalls early can save a startup from costly missteps.

Revenue Engineering vs. Sales-Driven Growth

Revenue engineering does not eliminate the need for sales; it actually strengthens it. Even the best sales teams struggle when the underlying revenue model is unclear or poorly designed. By building the revenue system first, startups give sales teams clear pricing, defined margins, and repeatable processes. The goal is to create a revenue machine that supports sales efforts, rather than depending entirely on aggressive sales activity to drive growth.

To Wrap Things Up..

Revenue engineering is less about spreadsheets and more about intentional design. For startups, it’s the difference between reacting to revenue pressure and creating a business that earns sustainably. By aligning pricing, product, customer behavior, and distribution from the start, founders can build a revenue system that grows with the company.

In an era where growth-at-all-costs is no longer sustainable, startups that engineer their revenue carefully—rather than simply chasing sales—are the ones that will survive, scale, and thrive.

Noha Gad

In an era where technological disruption accelerates at remarkable speeds, businesses worldwide are at a crossroads: adapt or fail. Artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as a transformative force reshaping the future of industries, economies, and daily operations.

AI-first business models redefine the way companies operate, compete, and scale by embedding AI at the core of their DNA rather than as a helping tool. These models treat AI as the foundational engine driving innovation, decision-making, and customer value in key sectors such as fintech and startups. Traditional businesses often integrate AI into outdated processes, yielding marginal gains, while AI-first pioneers redesign everything around intelligent systems for exponential advantages. This shift enables hyper-personalization, predictive analytics, and autonomous operations that thrive on data abundance.

How do AI-first business models work?

AI-first business models embed AI as the core engine for operations, decision-making, and growth, enabling radical automation, hyper-personalization, real-time insights, and scalable efficiency through autonomous agents and data-driven feedback loops, fundamentally redesigning organizational structures and workflows around intelligent systems rather than just adding AI as a feature. 

Unlike traditional AI-enhanced approaches, these models reimagine processes from the ground up, prioritizing data flows, automation, and machine learning as core infrastructure to ensure seamless scalability and adaptability in fast-evolving markets. 

Compared to AI-augmented models, AI-first models make intelligence proactive and pervasive, influencing every layer from product development to customer engagement. These approaches treat data as the primary asset for real-time analytics and predictive capabilities, fostering continuous learning loops without heavy human intervention.

Main features 

AI-first business models are defined by characteristics that prioritize intelligence as the central pillar, enabling unprecedented efficiency, adaptability, and value creation across operations. Key features include:

• Automation. AI handles end-to-end workflows autonomously, from transaction processing to compliance checks, reducing human involvement in major processes. For instance, in wealth management, AI-first platforms dynamically rebalance portfolios based on real-time market data and user life events.
• Data-based decisions. Real-time analytics from vast datasets power predictive insights, replacing intuition with probability-based forecasting for agile market responses.
• Hyper-personalization. AI-first models can help companies and startups provide tailored experiences by analyzing individual behaviors, preferences, and contexts to anticipate needs proactively. For example, banking applications deploy conversational AI agents to answer queries and execute actions, such as freezing cards or updating addresses via biometrics, enhancing user trust and retention.
• Scalable infrastructure: Cloud-native AI supports rapid growth and continuous model refinement.

How AI-first models could support startups’ businesses

Along with enhancing decision-making processes and providing hyper-personalized products, AI-first models help startups enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs by automating repetitive tasks, such as customer support via chatbots or inventory optimization. AI-first startups command investor attention due to their proven scalability, data moats, and rapid revenue trajectories. This advantage arises from AI's ability to demonstrate measurable revenue on investment (ROI) quickly, such as predictive models forecasting user acquisition costs.

For product innovation, accelerated prototyping via AI tools eliminates time-to-market from months to weeks and allows startups to test minimum viable products (MVPs) with real user data. AI-first models can also contribute to talent and team optimization since AI handles hiring screening, skill matching, and performance analytics.

AI-first startups can improve their risk mitigation strategies by utilizing AI to forecast market risks, regulatory hurdles, or supply disruptions early.

In summary, the rise of AI-first business models represents a fundamental architectural shift, not a mere technological upgrade. It transforms AI from a tool that supports business into the foundational engine that defines it. For startups and established companies alike, this approach unlocks exponential advantages through radical automation, hyper-personalization, and predictive, data-driven decision-making. 

Ghada Ismail

Saudi Arabia’s venture capital market is no longer finding its footing. It has found its pace. What began as an ecosystem driven by experimentation and policy-led pilots has evolved into a more mature, institutionalized market that now attracts regional and international attention. According to data compiled by MAGNiTT and the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Saudi Arabia has ranked among the most active venture capital markets in the MENA region over the past three years, both in terms of capital deployed and the number of deals completed.

This momentum is often cited as proof that the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem is working. Funding volumes are rising. New funds are being launched. More founders are building locally. Yet as the market grows, a more serious discussion has started to surface. Scale alone is no longer enough. Increasingly, investors, founders, and policymakers are asking how capital is being distributed across sectors, and whether that distribution reflects the broader economic ambitions Saudi Arabia has set for itself.

At the center of this conversation sits fintech.

According to MAGNiTT’s Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Reports, fintech startups consistently attract one of the largest shares of venture investment activity in the Kingdom, particularly when measured by deal count rather than absolute capital raised. Payments platforms, digital lenders, BNPL providers, wallets, and financial infrastructure startups appear again and again in funding announcements, accelerator cohorts, and portfolio disclosures.

This raises a structural question rather than a critical one. Has Saudi venture capital become overly concentrated around fintech, and if so, what does that mean for the long-term health and resilience of the startup ecosystem.

Fintech by the Numbers: A Clear Leader in Deal Activity

Look across multiple datasets, and the pattern is hard to miss. Fintech dominates venture deal flow in Saudi Arabia.

According to MAGNiTT’s 2024 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Report, fintech ranked among the top sectors by number of transactions completed during the year. In several quarters, it led outright. While total capital raised shifted depending on the presence of large late-stage rounds in other sectors, fintech maintained steady activity across seed, Series A, and growth stages.

SVC’s FY2024 venture capital analysis reinforces this conclusion. The report showed that fintech accounted for a significant portion of all VC deals closed in the Kingdom, even during periods when sectors such as e-commerce surpassed fintech in total disclosed funding value due to one or two large transactions.

This distinction matters.

• Fintech frequently leads in deal volume, reflecting repeated investor willingness to back early- and mid-stage startups
• Capital rankings can be distorted by isolated mega-rounds in other sectors
• Fintech activity remains consistent across market cycles

According to Fintech Saudi’s 2024 Annual Report, more than 260 fintech companies were operating in the Kingdom by the end of the reporting period. The report also noted that cumulative investment into Saudi fintechs had reached several billion riyals, surpassing earlier ecosystem targets set under the national fintech strategy.

Together, these figures position fintech not just as a successful sector, but as a defining pillar of Saudi Arabia’s venture story.

Why Fintech Attracts Venture Capital So Readily

Investor appetite for fintech is not driven by hype. It is driven by structure.

According to Fintech Saudi and regional banking studies, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest digital payments adoption rates in the Middle East. Consumers are comfortable transacting digitally. Merchants are rapidly onboarding payment solutions. Banks are increasingly open to collaboration rather than competition. Regulators have moved early to create sandboxes, licensing pathways, and open banking frameworks.

This combination has created fertile ground for fintech startups to test, launch, and scale.

MAGNiTT’s sector analyses consistently highlight fintech as a category that offers:

• Clear monetization models
• Faster visibility into revenue generation
• Defined regulatory pathways
• More predictable exit scenarios

From a venture capital perspective, this reduces uncertainty. Payment platforms can scale merchant adoption quickly. Consumer finance products grow through mobile-first distribution. Enterprise fintech solutions integrate directly with banks and large corporates, embedding themselves into core systems.

Fintech also aligns closely with national policy priorities. According to official government strategies and Fintech Saudi publications, financial inclusion, SME financing, and payment digitization remain key economic objectives. Venture capital flowing into fintech, therefore, delivers both commercial returns and measurable policy outcomes.

That dual alignment helps explain why fintech consistently outperforms other sectors when it comes to deal activity.

The Cost of Concentration

Concentration, however, is not without consequences.

According to ecosystem observers and VC market analyses, when one sector absorbs a disproportionate share of capital, talent tends to follow. Engineers, compliance specialists, data scientists, and senior product leaders are naturally drawn to startups with clearer funding pipelines and higher valuation benchmarks. In Saudi Arabia, that often means fintech.

This dynamic creates several knock-on effects.

First, talent clustering. Founders building outside fintech face a tougher challenge when assembling experienced teams, particularly in technically demanding sectors such as healthtech, climate technology, or industrial software.

Second, idea shaping. Market analysts note that founders increasingly design startups around perceived investor appetite. When fintech appears more fundable, entrepreneurs may reshape ideas toward financial use cases, even when the underlying problem sits more naturally in healthcare, sustainability, or logistics.

Third, portfolio exposure. When most venture capital goes to just a few sectors, the whole ecosystem becomes more vulnerable to changes in rules or the economy. For example, if consumer credit, payment margins, or financial regulations take a hit, it wouldn’t just affect one company; it could impact many startups at once. These are risks for the system as a whole, not failures of individual businesses.

Sector Concentration and Portfolio Exposure

Saudi Arabia’s VC ecosystem demonstrates capital clustering, which carries both advantages and risks. In 2024, e-commerce and retail startups led total disclosed funding, largely due to a few mega rounds, while logistics, mobility, and enterprise software received steady but smaller investments. Meanwhile, healthtech, climate and sustainability solutions, advanced manufacturing, and deep technology (including applied AI) captured only a minor share of VC funding, despite their strategic importance. 

Fintech fits into this concentration pattern differently. While not always the top sector in total capital, it leads in deal count, with repeated investor backing in early- and mid-stage startups. Its dominance demonstrates the ecosystem’s strength but also its vulnerability: heavy focus on one or a few sectors means that regulatory shifts, macroeconomic downturns, or changes in financial policy could ripple across the startup ecosystem, affecting many companies simultaneously. These are systemic risks, not failures of individual startups.

A Market in Transition

Early-stage concentration is not unique to Saudi Arabia. According to global venture capital studies, emerging ecosystems often gather around one or two scalable sectors before diversifying more broadly.

Saudi Arabia appears to be following a similar trajectory.

Recent signals suggest growing awareness of the need to broaden sector exposure. According to public announcements and fund mandates, several Saudi-backed investment vehicles and accelerators have launched programs specifically targeting health innovation, climate solutions, and industrial technology.

Corporate venture arms are also beginning to look beyond fintech. Increasingly, they are seeking strategic technologies that align with operational needs, supply chains, and productivity gains rather than purely financial returns.

These shifts suggest fintech dominance may represent a phase rather than a permanent imbalance.

Investors and the Role of Incentives

Venture capital firms shape the startup ecosystem by deciding where to put their money. Many investment funds in Saudi Arabia were created when financial technology was growing quickly. Their teams, networks, and investment strategies were built around that sector.

Industry observers say that moving into new areas of investment requires important changes:

• Spending more time and effort understanding the technology behind startups
• Being willing to invest for a longer period before seeing returns
• Adjusting expectations about when and how investments will succeed

Investors who provide the capital for these funds, such as large institutions and government-backed organizations, play a key role. They can support longer-term projects that may take years to pay off but can have a lasting impact on the economy.

What the Data Means for Founders

For founders operating outside fintech, the fundraising environment is more selective, but it is not closed. Non-fintech startups are expected to demonstrate credibility earlier in the fundraising process. That often includes:

• Clear regulatory progress
• Pilot deployments with credible partners
• Revenue-linked traction
• Well-defined scalability pathways

Saudi Arabia offers structural advantages here. Government procurement programs, large corporate buyers, and centralized decision-making can dramatically shorten adoption cycles if accessed effectively.

In this environment, execution matters more than narrative. Strong fundamentals can still unlock capital, even in less appealing sectors.

Conclusion: Fintech as a Foundation, Not a Ceiling

According to every major dataset tracking Saudi Arabia’s venture capital market, fintech has earned its place as a leading sector. Regulatory reform, market readiness, and investor confidence have aligned to create one of the region’s most active fintech ecosystems.

At the same time, the same data highlights concentration. Deal flow, talent, and capital remain heavily going after fintech, while other strategically important sectors continue to lag behind.

The challenge ahead is one of balance. Not replacing fintech, but building alongside it.