Wa’ed dedicated up to SAR 8.1 million in seed grants, loans, and VC funds to six Saudi entrepreneurs during the center’s fifth Roadshow stop held on Thursday night in Madinah. 

14, November 2021 - Wa’ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, has dedicated up to SAR 8.1 million in new seed grants, loans, and VC investments to six Saudi-based startups during the center’s fifth roadshow stop in Madinah. The amount includes Wa’ed’s SAR 1.9 million venture capital fund in Qreeb, a Saudi-based and ISO-certified e-procurement startup.

The fifth stop was organized in partnership with Namaa Almunawara, the executive arm of the non-profit Waqf Almunawara, and welcomed participations from a number of startups in the supply chain and hospitality and tourism industries, highlighting new local innovations in the two emerging sectors.  
“As we approach our final stop of the roadshow, we are reminded of the incredible innovations that Saudi entrepreneurs continue to present forward. Our role at Wa’ed is to build the needed support system for those entrepreneurs as they lead a wave of change to reshape our national economy”, said Fahad Alidi, Managing Director at Wa’ed.

During the event, Wa’ed announced its SAR 1.9 million VC investment in Qreeb, the digital facility management and e-procurement startup that offers a unified traceable communication platform that connects service providers with registered clients. 
The startup was founded in 2018 by its three co-founders, Abdulaziz Al Abdulkader, Hassan Ikram, and Abdulrahman AlOmair, as a platform that could address the need to streamline supply chain processes. Qreeb, which possesses both the ISO-9001 and the ISO-14001 certifications, helps solve this market demand by allowing clients to trace and track their procurement orders with vendors. 

Wa’ed also selected two Saudi-based companies to receive loan agreements including TAP, the telemedicine logistics company providing at-home healthcare and medicine delivery services, who will receive a SAR 3.5 million loan from Wa’ed, and Storage Station, an e-commerce fulfillment services platform serving online stores, who was qualified for a SAR 2.5 million loan.

For seed grants, Wa’ed recommended a SAR 75,000 to the first-place winner Taawoni, a platform connecting graduating students with training centers to help provide coop training opportunities, a SAR 50,000 to Ajwatech, a digital marketing and shipping platform to ship local dates within the kingdom and abroad, and a final SAR 25,000 grant to Wassan, the local maker of modern enclosed sleeping capsules that counts universities and corporates among its clients. 
This raises the total financial support that Wa’ed had dedicated to local entrepreneurs so far throughout the entire roadshow campaign, from September to November, to over SAR 36 million, divided between 24 Saudi entrepreneurs whose startups had qualified them to receive Wa’ed’s seed grants, loans, or venture capital deals after completing the final onboarding processes.  

Established in 2011 to become the leading entrepreneurship arm of Aramco, Wa’ed has deployed over SAR 400 million in venture capital deals, incubation programs, and loan agreements to empower Saudi entrepreneurs and help them lead innovative initiatives that could further the kingdom’s economic diversification plan.

The center will conclude its Entrepreneurship Roadshow campaign with a final stop planned for Makkah on December 6, for which the center will be reviewing a wide range of tech-focused startup participations.  
Applications for the final stop will remain open to all qualified entrepreneurs until Thursday, 18 November 2021.