Riyadh: Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) announced the launch of the "Investment in Fintech VC Funds" product, in partnership with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), with an allocation of SAR 300M from the investment portfolio for this product.

The "Investment in Fintech VC Funds" product launched by SVC, as part of the Investment in Fund Program, comes to stimulate the establishment of VC funds in the financial technology (FinTech) sector in accordance with the requirements of CMA.

The FinTech sector witnessed a steady growth during recent years. It was the most funded sector in Saudi Arabia in 2022 in terms of number of deals and amount of VC funding, accounting for 24% of the total VC funding in the country with USD 239 Million raised, achieving a growth of 167% compared to 2021.

This growth is driven by the launch of many governmental initiatives that stimulate the FinTech sector, such as the "Saudi FinTech" initiative launched by the Saudi Central Bank in partnership with the Capital Market Authority as a stimulus step to develop the FinTech industry in Saudi Arabia and enhance its role in national socio-economic development. As well as the launch of the Kingdom's fintech strategy as a new pillar within the Saudi Vision 2030 Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), which aims to support the Kingdom to be among the leading countries in the field of FinTech.

SVC is a government investment company established in 2018 and is a subsidiary of the SME Bank, one the development banks affiliated to the National Development Fund. SVC aims to stimulate and sustain financing for startups and SMEs from pre-Seed to pre-IPO by investing USD 1.6 billion through investment in funds and co-investment in startups. SVC invested in 35 funds that have invested in 525 companies through 904 deals.