RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has made a remarkable achievement in the field of entrepreneurship, with the position of Riyadh, the capital city, advancing 60 places over the past three years, ranking 23rd among the top 100 emerging startup ecosystems globally. This was revealed in the "Global Startup Ecosystem 2025" report issued by Startup Genome, in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network. According to the report, the Kingdom recorded the second-highest performance in the Middle East and North Africa region, ranking third in terms of funding volume and investment value versus impact, while ranking fourth in terms of the availability of skills and expertise, enhancing its ability to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent. The report highlighted the promising sectors that contributed to these results, most notably artificial intelligence, financial technologies, cybersecurity, smart cities, infrastructure, and digital health, which represent key pillars of the Kingdom's economic transformation plans. This great progress reflects the Kingdom's rapid growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly in terms of venture capital indicators and the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem's infrastructure. This is in addition to the rising levels of innovation and investment in emerging technologies. This achievement was made possible mainly because of the support and empowerment provided by government agencies in the Kingdom to investors in the sector, including the efforts of the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha'at) to build an integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem through its initiatives and programs that support the growth and expansion of startups and enhance the legislative and regulatory environment for entrepreneurs. This aims to increase the share of these enterprises in the GDP, in line with the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. The Startup Genome report was based on data analysis of more than 5 million startups across more than 350 global ecosystems, reviewing the most prominent investment trends and policies that stimulate the success of innovation and entrepreneurship at the international level.
