Noha Gad

When investors start investing, they often analyze the economy by studying interest rates, inflation, and political events. After forming a view on the broader market, they decide whether to buy stocks or to stay in cash. This way of investing is called top-down investing because it starts from the top, meaning the whole economy, and then moves down to individual companies.

Bottom-up investing inverts this hierarchy, treating the macroeconomic climate as a secondary, almost incidental variable. Instead of looking at the economy first, the bottom-up investor looks at a single company, reviews its annual report, and examines how much it makes and how much it spends. They examine its debts and its cash reserves, then ask simple questions: Does the company have a product that people truly need? Is the management team honest and capable? Does the company have a lasting advantage over its rivals, such as a well-known brand or lower production costs? After answering these questions, the bottom-up investor considers the broader economy, treating it as a secondary factor.

The bottom-up approach dismisses the notion that a great business is merely a beneficiary of favorable cycles. Instead, it posits that superior operational and financial fundamentals can generate alpha irrespective of the prevailing macro wind. It is the intellectual framework of concentrated portfolios, outsized long-term returns, and the kind of analytical patience that ignores headlines to focus on durable competitive advantage.

Understanding Bottom-Up Investing startegy

Bottom-up investing focuses on analyzing individual companies rather than broader economic trends. Investors who use this method look closely at fundamentals, such as revenue and earnings, to find strong companies. Unlike top-down investing, which focuses on the economy or sector trends, bottom-up investing prioritizes the company itself. 

Most of the time, bottom-up investing does not stop at the individual firm level, although that is where analysis begins and the most weight is given. The industry group, economic sector, market, and macroeconomic factors are eventually brought into the overall analysis. However, the investment research process begins at the bottom and works its way up in scale.

Bottom-up investors usually employ long-term, buy-and-hold strategies that rely strongly on fundamental analysis. This approach offers an in-depth look at a company and its stock, revealing its long-term growth potential. Top-down investors may be more opportunistic, entering and exiting positions quickly to profit from short-term market changes.

Key Features

1. Company-first focus: Decisions originate from micro-level insights about specific companies, not from macroeconomic themes.
2. Fundamental analysis: This approach focuses on revenue quality, margins, cash flows, balance-sheet strength, and sustainable profitability.
3. Management and governance: Close evaluation of leadership competence, capital allocation history, incentive alignment, and minority shareholder protections.
4. Active monitoring: Ongoing company-level monitoring for execution, guidance changes, insider activity, and competitive shifts.

These features make the bottom-up investing strategy a perfect choice for active equity managers and stock pickers seeking alpha from idiosyncratic company performance. It also suits value investors who focus on fundamentals and margins of safety, as well as Long-term investors and concentrated-portfolio managers who can tolerate company-specific volatility.

Significant risks

Bottom‑up investing is powerful, but it can easily become undisciplined if investors fall into classic behavioral or analytical traps. Major risks include: 

• Ignoring macro and sector risks: Bottom‑up investors sometimes focus tightly on company fundamentals that they downplay macro headwinds, such as currency depreciation, interest‑rate hikes, or sector‑wide regulation, that can hurt even strong businesses.
• Chasing past performance. Bottom‑up investors can slip into momentum‑style behavior by chasing recently overperforming names that already reflect high expectations, leaving little margin of safety.
• Over‑concentration or poor diversification. As bottom‑up investing emphasizes deep conviction in individual companies, investors sometimes hold too few positions, exposing themselves to single‑stock or single‑sector risk.
• Using incomplete data. Bottom‑up research that relies only on outdated financial reports or limited public disclosures can miss turning points such as margin compression, rising payables, or competitive losses.

Finally, bottom‑up investing offers a disciplined, company‑centered framework that cuts through macro noise and focuses on what ultimately drives returns: strong fundamentals, capable management, and sustainable competitive advantages. By starting with individual companies and only later layering in industry, market, and macro considerations, this strategy enables investors to uncover high‑quality businesses that may be overlooked or mispriced by the broader market.

For active managers, value‑oriented investors, and long‑term stock pickers, bottom‑up investing remains one of the most effective paths to meaningful, risk‑aware alpha, as long as its core principles are applied.

Ghada Ismail

A few years ago, launching a startup in Saudi Arabia usually followed a familiar path. Founders would enter an accelerator, pitch investors, secure early funding, and then try to figure everything else out along the way. Today, a different model is beginning to take shape across the Kingdom, one that is less about simply financing ideas and more about building companies from the ground up.

Welcome to the era of venture studios.

Across Saudi Arabia, a growing number of venture builders are quietly changing how startups are created. Instead of waiting for entrepreneurs to arrive with fully formed businesses, these studios help shape the idea itself, validate the market, recruit talent, build products, and guide operations from day one. In many cases, they act less like investors and more like co-founders.

The rise of players such as VMS, Sanabil Studio, and Lean Node Venture Studios reflects a broader shift happening inside Saudi Arabia’s startup ecosystem. The conversation is no longer just about funding entrepreneurs. It is increasingly about building startups systematically, repeatedly, and at scale.

Moving Beyond the Accelerator Boom

For years, Saudi Arabia has focused heavily on laying the groundwork for entrepreneurship. Government initiatives, accelerator programs, startup competitions, and venture capital funds helped create momentum in the ecosystem. As investment activity accelerated, the Kingdom quickly became one of the Middle East’s largest startup funding markets.

But money alone could not solve every challenge.

Many startups still struggle with execution. Some founders had strong technical skills but limited experience building scalable businesses. Others found it difficult to navigate regulations, recruit the right talent, localize products, or acquire customers efficiently.

That gap created space for venture studios to emerge.

Unlike traditional venture capital firms that invest after a startup already exists, venture studios often start much earlier. They identify opportunities internally, test market demand, help shape business models, and sometimes build entire companies alongside entrepreneurs from the earliest stages.

Globally, the model has already produced major companies within various sectors. Saudi Arabia is now adapting the concept to fit its own market dynamics and economic ambitions.

Why the Model Makes Sense in Saudi Arabia

The venture studio approach fits naturally with where Saudi Arabia’s ecosystem stands today.

Under Vision 2030, the Kingdom is trying to diversify its economy, accelerate innovation, create private-sector jobs, attract global talent, and localize emerging industries, all at the same time.

Venture studios actually offer a structure that supports many of those goals simultaneously.

Unlike short-term accelerator programs, studios stay involved throughout the startup journey. They provide operational support, legal guidance, hiring assistance, technical development, fundraising strategy, and business connections under one roof.

For first-time founders, that reduces risk considerably.

For investors, it creates a more controlled environment where ideas are validated before large amounts of capital are deployed.

And for Saudi Arabia, venture studios provide a way to systematically produce startups in strategic sectors such as fintech, AI, logistics, tourism, enterprise software, and digital commerce.

That is why many Saudi venture studios no longer describe themselves simply as investment firms. They position themselves as company builders.

VMS and Saudi Arabia’s Soft-Landing Opportunity

Among the more visible players in this space is Value Makers Studio (VMS), which positions itself as both a venture studio and a platform helping regional and international startups enter the Saudi market.

Based in Riyadh, VMS provides support that goes beyond capital, including technology development, legal assistance, marketing support, financial guidance, and access to Saudi business networks. The company also operates initiatives such as the ‘VMS Bridge Program,’ which focuses on connecting startups from emerging markets with Saudi Arabia’s innovation ecosystem.

That ‘soft-landing’ approach is becoming increasingly relevant as more foreign founders and international startups look toward Saudi Arabia as a regional expansion market.

VMS also reflects a broader trend emerging across the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem, where venture studios are evolving into ecosystem connectors alongside their company-building role. In practice, this often means helping startups navigate relationships with investors, corporations, regulators, and local business networks, presenting an advantage that can significantly influence how quickly companies scale in Saudi Arabia.

Sanabil Studio and Institutional Startup Creation

A stronger example of institutional venture building can be seen in Sanabil Studio, which was established by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund. 

The studio focuses on building startups from the earliest stages, working closely with founders across ideation, prototyping, MVP development, product design, engineering, hiring, finance, and growth support. According to the studio’s website, it combines capital, market insight, and hands-on operational support to help founders launch and scale ventures in Saudi Arabia. 

What makes Sanabil Studio particularly notable is its combination of sovereign-backed capital with hands-on company creation. Unlike traditional venture capital firms that typically invest after startups are already established, venture studios such as Sanabil Studio participate much earlier in the company-building process, often helping shape ventures from ideation through early execution. 

Lean Node and the “Startup Factory” Approach

Another important player is Lean Node, which focuses on building ventures internally while supporting entrepreneurs through structured startup-building programs.

According to the company, it has helped launch more than 18 startups since 2017 using a repeatable venture-building framework designed to reduce common startup risks.

Lean Node highlights one of the biggest advantages of the venture studio model: operational centralization.

Instead of every startup building separate HR systems, legal structures, financial operations, and development teams from scratch, studios create shared infrastructure that multiple ventures can use simultaneously.

This lowers costs, speeds up execution, and allows studios to test ideas more rapidly across different sectors.

In many ways, the model resembles a startup factory more than a conventional investment firm.

Lean Node and the “Startup Factory” Approach

Another important player in Saudi Arabia’s venture studio ecosystem is Lean Node, which focuses on building ventures internally while supporting entrepreneurs through structured startup-building programs.

According to the company’s website, Lean Node has helped build more than 18 startups since 2017 through a venture-building model focused on developing scalable businesses across the MENA region. The studio describes itself as “an engine that builds disruptive products” using a “tested and streamlined process” designed to maximize success while lowering risk. 

The company’s structure reflects one of the core characteristics of the venture studio model: centralized operational support. Rather than every startup independently building teams and systems from scratch, venture studios typically provide shared access to areas such as product development, operational guidance, technical expertise, and business support. This approach can reduce early-stage costs and accelerate execution across multiple ventures simultaneously. 

Lean Node has also expanded into specialized venture-building initiatives, including fintech-focused startup creation through partnerships such as Lean Fintech, launched with Mjalis Investment during LEAP 2023. 

In practice, the model operates more like a startup production platform than a conventional investment firm, with venture studios playing an active role in company creation rather than acting solely as financial backers. 

Closing the Founder Experience Gap

One reason venture studios are gaining traction in Saudi Arabia is that they directly address one of the ecosystem’s biggest challenges: experience.

The Kingdom has no shortage of ambitious entrepreneurs or available capital. What remains relatively limited, however, is the number of experienced startup operators who have repeatedly built and scaled companies.

Founders across the ecosystem frequently talk about the difficulties of navigating fundraising, finding product-market fit, hiring effectively, and scaling operations.

Venture studios attempt to shorten that learning curve.

Instead of forcing founders to figure everything out alone, studios embed experienced operators, engineers, marketers, product designers, and venture builders directly into the process from the beginning.

The Challenges Behind the Hype

Still, venture studios are not a perfect solution.

Some entrepreneurs argue that studio models can dilute founder ownership too aggressively. Others question whether startups created inside structured environments develop the same resilience as companies built independently.

There are also operational risks.

Running multiple startups simultaneously requires significant capital, talent, and management discipline. Internationally, several venture studios have struggled to maintain strong long-term performance across large portfolios.

Another open question is whether venture studios can consistently produce truly disruptive innovation rather than safer, optimized versions of existing business models.

Saudi Arabia’s ecosystem is still young enough that many of these questions remain unanswered.

Even so, supporters of the model believe the Kingdom’s current market conditions make venture studios especially relevant. In an ecosystem that is still building institutional startup knowledge, structured company creation may offer advantages that traditional founder-led approaches cannot always provide on their own.

The Future Ahead

The next phase of Saudi Arabia’s venture studio ecosystem will likely become far more specialized.

Future studios may focus entirely on sectors such as AI, cybersecurity, climate tech, gaming, logistics, biotech, fintech, or deep tech. Some early signs of that trend are already emerging through initiatives tied to advanced technologies and national innovation priorities.

AI-native venture studios could also become increasingly common as generative AI dramatically reduces development timelines and startup operating costs.

At the same time, international venture builders are expected to form more partnerships inside the Kingdom as Saudi Arabia continues positioning itself as one of the region’s largest startup markets.

What is already becoming clear, however, is that Saudi Arabia’s ecosystem is entering a new stage of maturity. The early era of startup hype is gradually giving way to something more structured, operational, and institutionalized. And venture studios may end up playing a central role in that transition, not simply by funding the next generation of Saudi startups, but by helping build them from scratch.

Kholoud Hussein 

Saudi Arabia’s food and beverage landscape is entering one of its most dynamic periods in recent history. Dining has become a central expression of the Kingdom’s cultural transformation—fueled by an expanding middle class, rising disposable income, record spending on experiences, and a powerful shift toward homegrown concepts. As restaurants multiply across Riyadh, Jeddah, and emerging destination districts, one bottleneck remains stubbornly persistent: access to growth capital that reflects the real economics of hospitality.

Traditional financing tools—rigid bank loans, equity dilution, and short-term discount-driven customer acquisition—have long failed to match the realities of an industry defined by seasonality, thin margins, and escalating operating costs. This gap has created a critical need for financial models built specifically for restaurants, not adapted from generic SME templates. It is within this landscape that SPICE has emerged as one of the sector’s most closely watched disruptors.

Founded by a veteran entrepreneurial team with a two-decade track record in F&B technology, SPICE is introducing what it calls Dining Capital—a Sharia-compliant, zero-debt financing model that pre-purchases future dining credit to provide restaurants with upfront, non-dilutive cash tied directly to guest demand. At the same time, the company is building an invite-only dining platform designed to attract high-value customers, offering curated recommendations and instant rewards that strengthen restaurant loyalty without eroding brand equity.

With Saudi Arabia as its headquarters and primary growth market, SPICE is positioning itself at the intersection of fintech, hospitality, and Vision 2030’s experience-led economy. The Kingdom now represents nearly one-third of all POS transactions in the region’s foodservice sector, and as tourism accelerates and giga-projects set new expectations for hospitality, the demand for smart, aligned financing structures is only growing.

In this exclusive interview with Sharikat Mubasher, co-founder and CEO Zeid Husban discusses the economics behind Dining Capital, SPICE’s strategic alignment with Vision 2030, how the company underwrites risk, and why premium dining represents one of the most attractive investment categories across the GCC. He also reflects on past exits—including ifood.jo and POSRocket—and how those lessons shaped SPICE’s operational philosophy. As the company scales across Saudi Arabia and prepares for GCC expansion, Husban lays out a vision for a future in which growth capital, curated demand, and technology-driven guest experiences operate as a single, integrated ecosystem powering the region’s next generation of restaurant brands.

SPICE positions itself as a catalyst for a “premium dining movement.” How does your Sharia‑compliant, zero‑debt financing model reshape the way premium and fine‑dining restaurants access growth capital in Saudi Arabia today?

We started SPICE because, honestly, financing for restaurants is not easy and it’s broken. Banks still look at restaurants like any other SME. They expect fixed repayments every month, even though the F&B industry is faced with seasonality, volatility, and very thin margins. Great restaurants and their operators end up punished for investing in people, product, and the dining experience.

That is why we looked to build a solution, given our background in creating F&B tech solutions. Our answer to that is what we call Dining Capital. Instead of giving a loan with interest, we pre‑purchase future dining credit from the restaurant and give restaurants upfront, Sharia‑compliant cash that does not sit as debt on their balance sheet. That credit is then used over time as SPICE guests dine and pay through our consumer app.

So the “repayment” happens naturally through real visits that generate revenue, not through a fixed schedule that ignores how this business actually works. It lets premium venues grow, without resorting to discounts or short‑term fixes that hurt their brand. For us, that is how you genuinely support a premium dining movement in Saudi.

Saudi Arabia is seeing unprecedented momentum in the foodservice sector, with restaurants representing nearly a third of all POS transactions. How is SPICE aligning its investment strategy with Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s rapidly expanding F&B landscape?

If you spend any time in Saudi Arabia today, you can feel how much dining has become part of the country’s new story. Vision 2030 put hospitality and tourism at the center, and you see it in how people go out, where they spend, and how quickly new concepts are opening. This is not just with nationals and residents, but tourists as well. 

We chose to make Riyadh our headquarters because we believe Saudi is where you can build truly category‑defining companies, not only for the region but globally. Every riyal of Dining Capital we deploy ends up as real spend at partner venues. That means more local brands, more jobs, and more reasons for residents and visitors to have a great dining experience with Saudi hospitality.

Our strategy is very focused. We choose to partner with select premium restaurants that we think should become part of the country’s dining fabric, and then we tie their funding directly to guest demand. That way, our growth, their growth, and Vision 2030’s push for an experience‑led economy are all moving in the same direction.

You’re offering what you call “Dining Capital” upfront cash with no interest and no fixed repayments. Can you walk us through the economics of this model and how you mitigate risk while still enabling restaurants to scale?

The model is quite simple and has no hidden intentions. We give a restaurant an upfront lump sum, and in return, we receive a larger pool of future dining credit that will be used by SPICE diners over time, who are invited to use our app. There is no interest, no fixed instalments, and no equity dilution. The restaurant is simply agreeing to honour this pre‑purchased credit at face value whenever our guests dine. Guests simply book and pay through the app. Every time they pay, they get rewarded with 20% cashback, which can add up to a significant amount. 

But that is why we need to manage risk very closely, which explains why we are selective with the brands we fund. We work only with premium and upper‑casual venues that meet high standards on consistency, concept, and brand. Second, we size each financing opportunity based on realistic future demand, using our experience, data, and technology.  Third, we do not just wire money and disappear. We actively drive demand through our invite‑only diners, so capital and demand always work together.

For the operator, it feels like getting growth equity without giving up ownership. This kind of working capital eliminates the headache of monthly repayment pressure. For us, it creates a new, Sharia‑compliant asset class that is directly backed by how often people dine at these venues.

On the consumer side, SPICE is building an invite‑only dining platform with concierge features and 20% instant rewards. How does your technology shape the guest experience, and what competitive advantage does this create for your restaurant partners?

On the consumer side, we are trying to build the app that serious diners wish already existed. SPICE is invite‑only. That’s why it feels more like a membership than a mass deals app, and every venue on it is handpicked. If a venue is on SPICE, it is because we would happily send our friends and family there. It is the app that people in the know use when they have to choose where to go. 

Inside the app, you can quickly find the right spot for a date, a business lunch, or a family dinner, then pay in‑app and receive 20 percent instant rewards on your bill. Over time, the product learns where you like to go, what kind of vibe you prefer, and even what kind of occasion you are planning. It starts to feel like a digital concierge that understands your taste.

For restaurants, that experience matters a lot. They are not getting random coupon hunters. They are getting high‑value guests who come for the experience first and appreciate that SPICE is tied to quality, not cheap deals. That combination of curated demand plus instant rewards is a strong edge for our partners.

Your team has a strong entrepreneurial track record, having led successful exits such as ifood.jo and POSRocket. How have these previous experiences informed SPICE’s operational strategy and its expansion approach in the GCC?

As founders, we have been in food and hospitality tech for almost twenty years now. We built ifood.jo, Jordan’s first food ordering platform, which was acquired by Delivery Hero, and POSRocket, a cloud POS for restaurants that was acquired by Foodics. So we have seen this industry from a lot of different angles, from the kitchen printer to the customer’s phone. More importantly, Wadi, Youssef, and I have built together, and we complement each other’s strengths. 

On the B2B side, we saw great operators struggling with cash flow, and we saw how banks often did not really understand restaurant risk. On the B2C side, we watched as diners were trained to chase discounts, which might look good in the short term but slowly erodes brands and guest trust. In fact, many diners don’t like to show they use discounts, especially when it comes to paying at premium restaurants. 

With SPICE, we are essentially solving the problems we kept running into. Operationally, we decided not to build just another F&B service. We are building a movement where capital, demand generation, and guest experience are tightly connected. That is also why our expansion plan is careful by design. We are 100% focused on Saudi first. After proving the model works and scales, we’ll take it into other markets in the GCC. 

Saudi Arabia is your primary focus today, but you’ve previously hinted at wider regional expansion. What can you share about SPICE’s plans across the Gulf, and what markets are you prioritizing next?

Saudi Arabia will always be home for SPICE. It is where we launched and where we are building the Dining Capital category. It is home not just for the brand but for our team and our families. But from the beginning, we knew the model would resonate across the Gulf.

Markets across the GCC have high dining‑out spend, very savvy consumers, and restaurants facing similar challenges with funding and loyalty. Yet no one has really owned the premium dining capital and cashback space in a way that feels curated and long-term. This category is non-existent, and we are essentially building from the ground up.

We plan to earn the right to expand by proving what we do in Saudi Arabia first. Once we have shown that Dining Capital can become part of how premium restaurants in Riyadh and other major cities fund growth, we will start rolling out into other Gulf markets where Sharia‑compliant, non‑debt funding and premium dining experiences are just as relevant.

In each market, we will adapt the curation to local taste, but our core stays the same, where we partner with recognised venues, provide zero‑debt growth capital, and enable an elevated, rewarding dining experience. Eventually, we want a SPICE member from Riyadh to land in Dubai or Kuwait, open the same app, and instantly feel at home.

Access to capital is still one of the biggest bottlenecks for restaurants looking to scale. From your perspective, what structural changes or financial innovations are needed to unlock the next wave of F&B growth in the Kingdom?

If you talk to operators in Saudi Arabia, many will tell you the same thing. Getting the first location off the ground is hard, but getting from one or two branches to a real group is often even harder, simply because the right kind of capital is not always available.

Banks tend to apply generic SME models that do not fully reflect how hospitality works. Equity investors often want to back platforms, not individual restaurant brands. So a lot of very good concepts get stuck in the middle, even while the overall market is booming. Starting a restaurant isn’t cheap either, with a few million riyals needed in upfront capital. 

We think the next wave of growth will come from a mix of new structures and better data. Instruments like Dining Capital, where funding is Sharia‑compliant, non‑dilutive, and repaid through actual guest visits, are one important piece. Another is using real transaction and behaviour data to underwrite restaurant performance instead of relying purely on static projections. That’s why we are investing heavily in our technology so we can model the data right, but also target the right audience for each brand. 

The other important priority is alignment with the KSA leadership’s vision for the country. As tourism and hospitality targets ramp up, you need funding tools that are designed specifically for restaurants in key locations, especially around giga‑projects and destination districts. With SPICE, we are trying to show what that can look like when you connect capital directly to demand and treat the dining experience itself as the asset.

With Sharia‑compliant financing and consumer rewards merging into a single ecosystem, where do you see SPICE in the next three to five years? Are external investments or new funding rounds part of that growth trajectory?

When we think about the next three to five years, we do not just think in terms of app metrics. We imagine a world where Dining Capital is a normal part of the conversation for premium restaurants across Saudi Arabia and the GCC.

If a group is planning a new branch or a new concept, we want them to reach out to us first and seek Dining Capital from SPICE. This isn’t just about lending once, but being a real partner in the growth journey of high-potential brands. On the diner side, if you care about where you eat and how you are rewarded, we want closing the bill with SPICE to feel like the natural way to end a great meal.

Right now, we are well-funded and focused on deploying capital to restaurants. At the end of the day, we want to be an active partner supporting the F&B ecosystem. In pioneering a new category around Dining Capital and helping define what premium dining in this region feels like, we hope to play a role in how restaurants grow and how guests experience and remember each meal.

Kholoud Hussein 

Saudi Arabia is witnessing the rise of a new socioeconomic force reshaping its cities, workplaces, and daily behaviors: the Digital Middle Class. This emerging demographic—defined not purely by income, but by digital fluency, technological consumption, and ability to thrive in a data-driven economy—is rapidly becoming one of the most important engines of national transformation. Powered by Vision 2030, fast-expanding digital infrastructure, and a tech-driven private sector, this group is changing not only how Saudis live, but how they learn, work, build wealth, and participate in the economy.

In earlier eras, entering the middle class required stable employment, home ownership, and rising disposable income. Today, digital fluency has become just as important. Access to cloud services, AI-driven productivity tools, fintech platforms, digital payments, e-commerce participation, and new types of online work are defining what opportunity looks like in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the new digital middle class is not a passive outcome of economic change—it is an active contributor to the Kingdom’s transformation.

“Digital transformation is not just a technological project. It is a social and economic movement,” Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha said recently. “Our goal is to empower every Saudi citizen with the tools needed to participate in a digital economy, and to lead in it, not just adapt to it.” His words reflect the government’s central thesis: expanding digital participation expands the middle class, and expanding the middle class accelerates the nation’s economic diversification.

A New Definition of Wealth: From Assets to Access and Digital Capability

Digital transformation has redefined what economic mobility looks like. Traditionally, wealth accumulation depended on physical assets—real estate, cars, or retail businesses. But digital-era wealth often grows from intangible assets: data literacy, technological skills, digital entrepreneurship, ability to sell services online, and participation in the digital financial ecosystem.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s fastest-growing digital economies, with the ICT sector surpassing $40 billion in market size and maintaining growth rates far above global averages. This economic expansion has created new pathways into the middle class—ones that do not require traditional capital.

Skills such as coding, cloud computing, fintech operations, digital marketing, and AI analysis now open doors to higher-income employment. Remote work, freelancing platforms, and digital marketplaces such as Marsool, Salla, Zid, and Jahez have enabled thousands of Saudis to run businesses with minimal overhead. Even the creative economy has become a serious economic opportunity, with thousands entering fields like game development, digital art, and content production.

For many Saudis entering this new class, the smartphone—not a storefront or an office—has become their first business tool.

How Digital Transformation Expanded the Middle Class

The expansion of digital access has been foundational. Saudi Arabia today ranks among the top nations globally in 5G deployment and internet speed, and more than 98% of the population is connected online. This digital infrastructure has become the gateway to new economic participation.

Government-led platforms such as Absher, Tawakkalna, Nafath, and Musaned have normalized digital trust and online service use, reducing barriers that once required physical presence and long processing times. This shift has empowered citizens to perceive digital services as reliable, safe, and efficient—key ingredients for the rise of the digital middle class.

The digital payments revolution has been equally transformative. The Saudi Central Bank reports that digital payment adoption exceeded 62% in 2023, surpassing Vision 2030’s original target seven years ahead of schedule. This shift has enabled new financial behaviors: online purchases, subscription-based services, e-wallet savings, and investment through digital platforms.

Fintech startups such as Tamara, HyperPay, STC Pay, Tabby, and Raqamyah have introduced financial tools that were previously difficult to access, from installment payments to peer-to-peer financing and micro-investment platforms. As fintech penetration deepened, financial inclusion expanded, allowing more Saudis to build credit histories, access new types of capital, and participate in the digital economy.

The Digital Skills Boom and the Birth of a New Labor Force

One of the most significant shifts is the transformation of the labor force. Saudi Arabia has invested billions into upskilling its population, with programs from SDAIA, MCIT, and Human Capability Development Program (HCDP) targeting emerging fields such as AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and software engineering.

The government announced that more than 100,000 Saudis will be trained in AI and advanced technologies by 2030. These investments are not academic exercises; they are building a workforce capable of supporting a trillion-riyal digital economy.

This new labor force is essential for the rise of the digital middle class. Higher-skilled digital roles offer higher salaries, flexible work, and career mobility—traits that rapidly elevate individuals into middle-class stability. Remote work adoption has also increased dramatically, enabling Saudis—especially youth and women—to enter the labor market on new terms.

Female participation in the workforce has surged past 34 percent, a milestone that would not have been possible without digital work environments and technology-enabled jobs. Many of these new participants are entering tech-enabled roles in e-commerce, cloud services, fintech operations, and digital content creation.

Startups as Engines of Digital Mobility

Startups have become one of the most influential forces accelerating the rise of the digital middle class in Saudi Arabia. Already, the Kingdom is the fastest-growing startup market in MENA, attracting more than $1.38 billion in VC investments in 2023 alone.

Startups across sectors—including mobility, logistics, AI, fintech, healthtech, and retail tech—are not only generating economic value but also creating new types of digital employment.

Examples include:

• Jahez, HungerStation, and Mrsool – enabling gig-work and flexible income generation.
• Salla and Zid – empowering thousands of small online merchants to launch digital stores with minimal technical knowledge.
• Lean Technologies and Hakbah – building fintech rails that democratize access to financial services.
• Taffi and Labayh – creating new digital service categories in mental wellness and personal styling.

These startups are directly supporting the expansion of the digital middle class by creating new revenue channels, entrepreneur-friendly tools, and knowledge-based employment. Their models lower entry barriers and expand economic inclusion.

Startups are also filling market gaps—payment infrastructure, logistics optimization, AI-driven services, digital ID systems—that directly enhance citizens’ ability to participate in the digital economy.

The Private Sector’s Expanding Role

As the Kingdom continues its diversification roadmap, the private sector has become a major driver of digital transformation. Telecom companies such as STC, Mobily, and Zain have built world-class digital infrastructure. Banks and fintechs are investing heavily in digital-first strategies. Large retailers are digitizing entire supply chains, onboarding thousands of Saudi employees into tech-enabled roles.

Global tech players, including Google Cloud, Oracle, and Huawei, have opened cloud regions in Saudi Arabia, bringing with them skills development programs and new job opportunities.

These investments create an environment where digital middle-class behaviors—online consumption, digital entrepreneurship, remote employment—become the norm rather than the exception.

Private sector innovation is also accelerating the adoption of new technologies. From AI-driven healthcare platforms to robotics in logistics, technology is reshaping service accessibility and quality. As these services expand, so does demand for digital talent, further strengthening the digital middle class.

Digital Trust: The Foundation of Behavior Change

The shift in Saudi citizens’ confidence in digital services cannot be overstated. According to SDAIA, public trust in government digital platforms exceeds 90 percent, one of the highest levels globally. This trust is the backbone of digital transformation.

When citizens believe that digital platforms are secure, reliable, and efficient, they adopt them with confidence. This adoption reduces transaction costs, increases economic participation, and boosts productivity—key characteristics of a stable middle class.

Startups play a meaningful role here. By offering secure, user-friendly, and transparent services, they reinforce the culture of digital trust. Fintech companies, in particular, invest heavily in compliance, security, and transparency—strengthening users' confidence in managing money online.

The Future: A Digital Middle Class That Builds, Not Just Consumes

As Saudi Arabia evolves into a digital-first economy, the digital middle class is expected to become an even more influential driver of economic growth. By 2030, the Kingdom aims for:

• A digital economy contributing 30 percent of GDP
• Hundreds of thousands of high-skilled digital jobs
• A global leadership position in AI and cloud-driven industries
• A thriving digital entrepreneurship ecosystem

The future digital middle class will not simply consume technology. It will build it—creating intellectual property, launching startups, exporting digital services, and shaping the Kingdom’s place in the global digital economy.

The rise of AI-native startups, deep-tech ventures, and digital-first SMEs demonstrates this shift. As more Saudi citizens gain advanced digital skills, the country transitions from being a user of global technologies to becoming a producer of them.

Finally, the rise of the digital middle class in Saudi Arabia represents far more than the adoption of apps or online platforms. It marks the restructuring of society around new definitions of opportunity, skill, and economic participation.

Saudi Arabia’s transformation is not only digital—it is deeply social, driven by a new generation that sees technology not as a tool, but as a pathway to agency, competitiveness, and global relevance.

As Vision 2030 continues to unfold, the digital middle class will remain one of the central pillars of economic diversification. Strong digital infrastructure, high adoption rates, a flourishing startup ecosystem, and ambitious government programs are transforming the Kingdom into a global model for digital economic development.

Ghada Ismail

Every year, startups launch with big ambitions, exciting ideas, and dreams of becoming the next success story. Founders spend months building apps, designing products, and preparing launch plans. But many startups run into the same problem: they create something people do not actually need.

That is why validation matters.

Before investing serious time, money, and energy into a startup, founders need to know whether there is genuine demand for what they are building. Validation is not about killing creativity or slowing momentum. It is about making smarter decisions early and avoiding costly mistakes later.

Start With the Problem, Not the Product

A lot of entrepreneurs get excited about an idea and immediately jump into building the product. But successful startups usually begin with a real problem, not just a clever solution.

Ask yourself a few honest questions. What problem are you solving? Who experiences this problem every day? And is it frustrating enough that people would actively look for a solution?

The best way to answer these questions is by talking to people directly. Have conversations with potential users. Ask them about their experiences, frustrations, and current alternatives. Instead of trying to convince them that your idea is great, focus on listening.

When multiple people describe the same issue repeatedly, that is often a strong sign that you are solving something meaningful.

Define Your Audience Clearly

One common mistake founders make is trying to target everyone. In reality, validation works better when you focus on a specific group first.

Think carefully about who your ideal customer is. Are you targeting students, small businesses, working parents, freelancers, or enterprise companies? The clearer your audience, the easier it becomes to understand their behavior and needs.

For example, validating a fintech app for university students requires a completely different approach than validating software for logistics companies.

Knowing your audience also helps you understand how they currently solve the problem—and whether they would realistically switch to your solution.

Research the Market

Some founders worry when they discover competitors in the market. But competition is not always a bad sign. In many cases, it proves there is already demand.

Take time to study businesses operating in the same space. Look at their pricing, features, customer reviews, and overall positioning. Pay attention to complaints customers frequently mention because those gaps could become opportunities for your startup.

At the same time, avoid copying competitors blindly. Validation is not about building the same thing with a different logo. It is about understanding what customers still feel is missing.

And if you cannot find any competitors at all, that may also be worth questioning. Sometimes a market is untapped, but sometimes there is simply no demand.

Build a Simple Version First

You do not need a fully developed product to start validating your idea.

Many successful startups begin with a Minimum Viable Product, often called an MVP. This is a basic version of your idea, designed to quickly and cheaply test interest.

An MVP could be a landing page, a prototype, a waitlist, a short demo video, or even a social media page explaining your concept.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is learning.

Watch how people respond. Are they signing up? Asking questions? Sharing it with others? Or are they losing interest after the first interaction?

Real behavior tells you far more than polite compliments ever will.

Focus on Actions, Not Opinions

Friends and family will often encourage your idea because they want to support you. But encouragement is not validation.

The real question is whether people are willing to take action.

Would they join a waiting list? Book a demo? Pre-order the product? Pay for early access?

These actions matter because they show genuine interest. Many startup founders confuse positive feedback with actual demand, and the two are very different.

Someone saying “That sounds cool” is not the same as someone opening their wallet.

Test Whether People Will Pay

One of the biggest validation mistakes founders make is avoiding conversations about money.

A startup can solve a real problem and still fail if customers are not willing to pay enough for the solution.

Testing pricing early helps you understand whether your business model is realistic. Even simple experiments—such as different pricing options on a landing page or discussing budgets during customer interviews—can reveal valuable insights.

If people hesitate when pricing enters the conversation, you may need to rethink your positioning or value proposition.

To Wrap Things Up…

Building a startup always involves risk, but validation helps reduce unnecessary uncertainty. Instead of relying on guesses, founders learn directly from real people and real market behavior.

It may feel tempting to build quickly and figure things out later, but taking the time to validate first can save enormous amounts of time, money, and frustration in the future.

In the end, the strongest startup ideas are not just innovative; they solve real problems for real people.