Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), a subsidiary of the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank (SME), one of the development banks affiliated with the National Development Fund, released Wednesday its recent Impact Report, which revealed SVC's contribution to achieving record growth rates. The report highlighted the impact of SVC on the Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) ecosystem in the Kingdom since the company's establishment in 2018. The SVC Impact Report revealed that the total committed investments of SVC amounted to $560 million since its inception, while the total committed investments including partners are estimated at $3.9 Billion. SVC invested in 35 funds that have invested in 525 startups through 904 deals so far, including several vital sectors such as e-commerce, FinTech, information and communication technology, education, delivery, and transportation. The impact report showed that SVC's strategy contributed over the past four years in increasing the number of investors in Saudi startups and SMEs, encouraging existing and new financial companies to establish VC and PE funds, and motivating regional and global funds to invest in Saudi startups and SMEs. The report revealed that the funding deployed into Saudi Arabian startups grew 17 times to a record-high close to $1 billion in 2022 versus $59 million in 2018 when SVC started operation. Commenting on the report, CEO and Board Member at SVC Dr. Nabeel Koshak said: "We at SVC are committed to supporting the development of the VC and PE ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and continue stimulating private investors to provide support in turn for startups and SMEs to be capable of fast and high growth, which leads to diversifying the national economy and achieving the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030." — SPA
