RIYADH — The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) has launched a Data and Al accelerator to support national startups in expanding their businesses and investments. SDAIA announced that the program is open now for registration in its first edition, which will focus on smart cities through an intensive three-month training course in Riyadh. The accelerator program goes through three phases. First: registration and selection of startups participating in the Challenge Day. Second: the selected startups will enter the Challenge Day, where the projects and innovative solutions will be reviewed to select ten startups to enter the accelerator program. In the final phase, the startups will go through the three-month accelerator program, which includes training workshops, events, incentives to end up with the Demo Day. The participating startups will showcase their developed projects during the program to potential investors to obtain financial support. Dr. Abdullah Alghamdi, SDAIA's President, said, "at SDAIA, we work to enhance the accelerators' ecosystem in the Kingdom by targeting local and international startups in the field of Data and AI; we are determined to place the Kingdom in the forefront of data and AI enabling countries." He noted that the launch of the Smart City accelerator is drived from the unlimited support by the Crown Prince, the Chairman of SDAIA's Board of Directors Prince Muhammad bin Salman to SDAIA's initiatives and programs which contribute to achieving the Vision 2030 objectives. He also encouraged innovators with creative data and AI-based solutions to join this program, develop unique solutions designed to serve smart cities, and contribute to elevating the Kingdom's ranking in Smart City indicators to become among the top five countries in the field of AI. Dr. Mishari Almishari, Deputy Director of the National Information Center (NIC) and CEO of the Strategy Management Office at SDAIA, said that "the accelerator program is one of SDAIA's initiatives in cooperation with Plug and Play, to accelerate startups growth in the field of data and AI." "The accelerator aims to support the success and growth of startups by enhancing their networking and exchange of ideas through co-working spaces, providing incentives, training to acquire necessary skills, as well as communication with potential investors and opportunities that facilitate accessing the market," he added.
