{"id":18776,"date":"2021-01-13T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saudishopper.com.sa\/en\/?p=18776"},"modified":"2026-03-27T20:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:12:49","slug":"despite-covid-aramcos-entrepreneurship-center-waed-raises-financial-support-to-ksa-start-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saudishopper.com.sa\/en\/despite-covid-aramcos-entrepreneurship-center-waed-raises-financial-support-to-ksa-start-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite COVID, Aramco\u2019s Entrepreneurship Center (Wa\u2019ed) Raises Financial Support to KSA Start-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"https:\/\/saudishopper.com.sa\/ar\/?p=35237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>January 12,&nbsp;2021<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, tripled the amount of money it loaned to Kingdom-based start-ups during 2020, and injected significantly more money into new businesses through venture capital (VC) investments, as it began a multi-year effort to raise support for Saudi entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dhahran-based venture, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aramco, increased loan disbursements to&nbsp;small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Saudi Arabia to&nbsp;SR31&nbsp;million&nbsp;in 2020,&nbsp;from&nbsp;SR10&nbsp;million&nbsp;in 2019. In venture capital investments, Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;deployed&nbsp; SR43 million, up 34 percent from SR32 million in the previous year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number of loans&nbsp;financed&nbsp;rose to&nbsp;12&nbsp;in&nbsp;2020 from four in 2019, and venture capital deals executed&nbsp;increased from seven to nine over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since its inception in 2011,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;has deployed more than SR375&nbsp;million to enable the growth of hundreds of innovative, disruptive digital businesses in Saudi Arabia through a unique end-to-end combination of loans, VC investment and incubation services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under its mandate to help diversify the Saudi economy and support entrepreneurs, Wa\u2019ed targets game-changing SMEs across all sectors whose technologies are unique, innovative, ready for market, and address a gap in the country. Diversifying the Saudi economy beyond oil and gas by investing in other sectors is one goal of the Kingdom\u2019s Vision 2030 initiative, a bold, ambitious blueprint to ensure sustainable economic growth into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By supporting first-mover companies whose products measurably raise the quality of life in Saudi Arabia, Wa\u2019ed has helped grow the Kingdom\u2019s nascent start-up ecosystem into one of the&nbsp;fastest-growing&nbsp;hotbeds of entrepreneurship in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;responded to&nbsp;the&nbsp;challenges&nbsp;of&nbsp;COVID-19 by&nbsp;going virtual and&nbsp;redesigning workflows to&nbsp;streamline&nbsp;procedures&nbsp;and manage new realities,&nbsp;creating&nbsp;efficiencies&nbsp;that generated higher loan and VC investment volumes. Wa\u2019ed believes the workflow enhancements it introduced will&nbsp;continue to boost operating performance long after&nbsp;the&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am very grateful for the confidence and support we receive from Aramco and the Kingdom, which enables Wa\u2019ed to fulfil its unique pioneering role as an advocate for innovative new businesses that localize technologies and services which are needed in Saudi Arabia and can help improve quality of life,\u201d said Wassim Basrawi, Wa\u2019ed\u2019s Managing Director. \u201cIn a very challenging year, I am proud of the Wa\u2019ed family, which includes my team and our resilient entrepreneurs, for rising to the challenges and keeping us on track to deliver an even greater impact in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through its mentoring and&nbsp;start-up&nbsp;incubation activities,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;is a&nbsp;thought&nbsp;leader in Saudi Arabia, offering a wide range of cutting-edge&nbsp;professional certification, patent development&nbsp;and incubation&nbsp;support&nbsp;services,&nbsp;as well as a range of&nbsp;entrepreneur networking&nbsp;events&nbsp;that attracted more than 3,000&nbsp;people&nbsp;during&nbsp;2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wa\u2019ed\u2019s Innovation Ecosystem team is a Gulf leader in creating new incubation techniques.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, personnel from the efactory, a prototyping development lab at Wa\u2019ed, were named inventors on three patents from&nbsp;the U.S. Patent &amp; Trademark Office.&nbsp;The team incubated 10 new tech start-ups during the year, and three were awarded national contracts after receiving funding, interest and scouting from Aramco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the onset of COVID-19,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed adopted virtual training of entrepreneurs by developing an online platform&nbsp;that&nbsp;attracted&nbsp;60 new mentors, who reviewed over 130 applications from entrepreneurs with \u201cminimum viable products\u201d ready for market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social distancing also did not hinder&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed from expanding the&nbsp;Innovation Ecosystem Society&nbsp;(IES), a&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed-sponsored network&nbsp;of&nbsp;more than 1,600&nbsp;entrepreneurs who meet in virtual events called Google Grind, which is co-sponsored with the U.S. technology giant.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As it&nbsp;prepares to close out its first decade,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;plans to increase its impact as the largest and most active institutional venture capital investor for Saudi-based start-ups&nbsp;and the only&nbsp;SME-sized lender in the Kingdom offering non-collateralized loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;currently&nbsp;supports&nbsp;66 Saudi SMEs&nbsp;through loan financing and,&nbsp;with&nbsp;its&nbsp;venture capital&nbsp;investment&nbsp;arm&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;Ventures, a portfolio of more than 30 companies, including&nbsp;tech platforms&nbsp;Golden Scent,&nbsp;an e-commerce merchant for beauty products; Wahed,&nbsp;a&nbsp;global Shariah-compliant fintech robo-advisory&nbsp;platform licensed by the Saudi Capital Market Authority;&nbsp;and&nbsp;FalconViz,&nbsp;a provider of unmanned aerial drone systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;announced five new venture capital&nbsp;deals,&nbsp;including&nbsp;Ynmo,&nbsp;which develops&nbsp;Arabic-language instructional software for children with learning disabilities, and Postage, a last-mile&nbsp;logistics provider and rapid courier service&nbsp;for businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through&nbsp;bridge&nbsp;rounds,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;raised venture capital&nbsp;investments&nbsp;in&nbsp;Averos, a&nbsp;developer&nbsp;of real-time location-based monitoring systems, Hazen.ai, a&nbsp;developer&nbsp;of intelligent&nbsp;road safety systems, and&nbsp;GetMuv,&nbsp;a&nbsp;platform&nbsp;to access more than 100 health clubs and&nbsp;centers&nbsp;in the Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking ahead to 2021,&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;is planning a series of new initiatives to support development of Saudi\u2019s&nbsp;venture&nbsp;capital ecosystem,&nbsp;which is&nbsp;increasingly&nbsp;attracting&nbsp;foreign innovators who are interested in localizing their technologies in the Saudi market.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The newest innovation in 2021 is expected to be Wa\u2019ed\u2019s new Venture Builder, a one-of-a-kind breeding ground for promising start-ups in Saudi Arabia, which provides entrepreneurs and start-ups with essential back-office services such as marketing, new business development and networking, allowing innovators to get their companies off the ground. The Venture Builder will allow Wa\u2019ed to specifically nurture start-up businesses that target existing market needs and gaps in Saudi Arabia, which are critical to the Kingdom\u2019s economic future and diversification.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, Mr. Basrawi said&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;plans to&nbsp;double&nbsp;the number&nbsp;of loan and venture capital deals in next three years by entering new&nbsp;collaborations, better leveraging Saudi Aramco\u2019s own business ecosystems,&nbsp;and&nbsp;actively&nbsp;reaching out&nbsp;to&nbsp;investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its first decade, Wa\u2019ed benefited from co-investment and innovation collaborations with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and King Fahd University of Petroleum &amp; Minerals (KFUPM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December, Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;signed&nbsp;a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate with OQAL, the largest network of angel investors in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain,&nbsp;with the goal&nbsp;of&nbsp;creating&nbsp;a new&nbsp;pipeline&nbsp;of potential deals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also&nbsp;during&nbsp;the month, Wa\u2019ed&nbsp;signed an MoU with&nbsp;Namaa&nbsp;Almunawarah, the business development agency for&nbsp;the city of Medina, to support local SMEs there.&nbsp;Medina is one of the&nbsp;fastest-growing&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;hubs for&nbsp;start-up investment, based in part&nbsp;on&nbsp;well-developed&nbsp;research universities&nbsp;that have&nbsp;spearheaded the development of&nbsp;new technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wa\u2019ed is also in advanced discussions to execute an MoU with the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu, to promote entrepreneurial opportunities in the industrial sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>January 12,&nbsp;2021&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;Wa\u2019ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, tripled the amount of money it loaned to Kingdom-based start-ups during 2020, and injected significantly more money into new businesses through venture capital (VC) investments, as it began a multi-year effort to raise support for Saudi entrepreneurs. The Dhahran-based venture, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aramco, increased loan disbursements [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":18777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_pr_autopilot_social_copy":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter_image_id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_extra_hide_author_box":"","_extra_featured_post":"0","_partner_post_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-education","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wa\u2019ed entrepreneurship - Support for KSA Start-ups | | Saudi Shopper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wa\u2019ed entrepreneurship boosted Saudi start-ups in 2020, tripling loans and increasing VC investments despite COVID. 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