Saudi Arabia has attracted $888 million in investment deals through the international technology conference LEAP 24.

The investments include venture capital funds and fresh funding for start-ups. They are meant to support innovation and tech entrepreneurship in the region, according to the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Tuesday.

Among the investments, InvestCorp launched a $500 million fund that will be targeting Saudi businesses that are in their growth stages.

The National Development Fund and the Social Development Bank set up the $40 million Gaming and Esports Investment Fund, managed by Impact46, while Merak Capital established an $80 million fund to back game accelerators in the kingdom.

Another fund with $50 million was launched by Saudi Arabia’s Takamol Holdings to support early-stage firms, while two more funds from Plug and Play and X by Unifonic were also announced to support technology start-ups and business software services for young businesses.

As for start-ups, fundraisings scored an aggregate investment of $53.4 million.

The investments will go to Saudi-based companies, including BRKZ, an international information technology firm that secured $8 million in a Series A round; FanZ, an AI-enabled sport tech that bagged $1.5 million in pre-seed funding; and Lawazem, an online B2B supplies player that secured $8 million, among many others.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) seban.scaria@lseg.com