The Wa'ed Entrepreneurship Roadshow
Dear Reader,
Every trip begins with a single first step. In a few weeks, Wa'ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, will embark on an historic journey of national importance to search the Kingdom for a new generation of transformative Saudi entrepreneurs.
The Wa'ed Entrepreneurship Roadshow to find and fund Saudi-based start-ups is more than a feel-good celebration of entrepreneurial thinking. Wa'ed is prepared to invest up to 100 million SAR in cutting-edge new businesses whose innovations fill key gaps in the Saudi economy.
We invite all of you to participate in the roadshows and submit your new business ideas at https://waed.net.roadshow/en/. Don't pass up this rare opportunity to showcase your start-ups to a major gathering of Saudi investors.
From September through December in six cities -- Jubail, Yanbu, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Riyadh -- the best and brightest Saudi entrepreneurs will pitch to receive start-up loans of up to 5 million SAR and venture capital investments of up to 19 million SAR.
Wassim Basrawi is the Managing Director of Wa'ed
Our goal is to identify a new generation of Saudi-based entrepreneurs who will accelerate the growth of the Kingdom's digital economy and bring about an innovation-driven future that provides quality jobs, opportunity and inspiration to Saudis.
Wa'ed is hosting the roadshows with influential national partners that are also looking to support new Saudi enterprises: The Royal Commission for Jubail & Yanbu, Monsha'at, the Saudi Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises General Authority, Wadi Makkah, KAUST and Namaa Almunawarah, among others.
The Wa’ed roadshows are focusing on the fastest-growing economic sectors of the future: e-commerce, Fintech, artificial intelligence, robotics, agri-tech, environmental technology, industrial efficiency applications and much, much more.
The Wa'ed roadshows will be held at venues with limited seating and broadcast live online. We started taking applications June 16 and the response has been strong. Make sure to get in your application today.
While we expect high-profile visitors from government and industry to join us at each location, the most important participants will be Saudi-based entrepreneurs, the engines of constructive change and architects of a more diversified Saudi economy.
The roadshows are a milestone in Wa’ed's 10-year journey as one of the original architects of Saudi’s start-up sector. We are still the only no-collateral lender to Saudi entrepreneurs and the largest institutional venture capital investor in Saudi-based start-ups.
We’ve committed $100 million in loans and VC investment to Saudi-based entrepreneurs since Wa'ed's founding. And our impact is poised to grow. By 2023, we will double our annual deal-making pace, as we follow our impact-driven business strategy.
With partners and an aggressive outreach strategy that includes this Roadshow, Wa’ed is expanding its leadership as a catalyst for economic diversification and growth. In that sense, the Wa’ed Entrepreneurship Roadshow is not the end, but the beginning of a new journey.
Let’s bring about a more economically sustainable future for the Kingdom, one driven by innovation and the power of ideas and dreams.
Join us for the Wa’ed Entrepreneurship Roadshow.
Best regards,
Wassim Basrawi
Managing Director
Wa’ed, the Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Center
Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Wa’ed, the Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Center
Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
