Riyadh: Deputy Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture Engineer Mansour bin Hilal Al-Mushaiti inaugurated the second phase of the Sidra Accelerator in Silicon Valley, California. Sidra is one of the ministry’s initiatives aimed at building an entrepreneurship system in the environmental sector.

The initial investment rounds of the startups incubated by the ministry exceeded a million dollars in their initial stages.

During the visit, Eng. Al-Mushaiti met with the Stanford University Sustainability Center's head, Professor Yi Cui, and discussed mutual areas of interest with several researchers from the university. He met with the founders of startup companies in the accelerator to discuss opportunities and possibilities to accelerate their business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, he reviewed global experiences of Plug & Play and discussed investment opportunities in the environment, water, and agriculture fields.

He concluded his tour by visiting the University of California at Berkeley, where he met with researchers from the College of Entrepreneurship and the SkyTech Accelerator.