Saudi Venture Capital Invests $30M in Shorooq Partner’s Bedaya Fund II

Saudi Venture Capital (SVC) has announced its investment of $30 million in Bedaya Fund II, managed by Shorooq Partners. Launched in March, the fund primarily focuses on early-stage startups in fintech, software, platform verticals and digital assets.

The signing of the subscription agreement took place with the participation of Dr. Nabeel Koshak, CEO and Board Member at SVC, and Mahmoud Adi, Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners. The ceremony was attended by notable figures including Yousef Al-Benyan, Chairman of the SME Bank, and Abdulrahman Mansour, acting CEO of the SME Bank.

“The investment in Bedaya Fund II by Shorooq Partners is part of SVC’s Investment in Funds Program to support the growth of the VC ecosystem in Saudi Arabia for all stages and to fill financing gaps for early stages,” Dr Koshak tells StartupScene. “SVC’s expansion in investing in early-stage funds comes as a result of the recent support from the SME Bank to increase the investment capital of SVC, leading to a total investment capital of $1.6 billion.”

"We are privileged to have SVC as a strategic investor to Bedaya Fund II, again after our partnership in the prior fund (Bedaya Fund I),” Mahmoud Adi says. “This commitment highlights the increasing confidence in Saudi Arabia's thriving startup ecosystem. With our persistent focus in Saudi Arabia and leadership position across the Middle East, Bedaya Fund II is well-positioned to support the growth and innovation of early-stage startups.”

SVC, established in 2018 as a government investment company and a subsidiary of the SME Bank, aims to stimulate sustainable financing for startups and SMEs, ranging from pre-Seed to pre-IPO stages. Through investments in funds and co-investment in startups, SVC has allocated $1.6 billion to support 674 companies across 1,257 deals through 38 funds.