stc Group, the region’s leading digital enabler, announced during its sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative that it has committed an additional $300 million, in addition to $500 million, to STV, the largest independent technology investment company in the Middle East and North Africa region.
In a recently published report, STV predicted that the MENA region is poised to create 45 unicorns by 2030, providing a $100 billion opportunity to be made available through local IPOs. STV intends to acquire a significant portion of its accelerated unicorn creation process on the back of its investments in leading companies across rapidly growing sectors. STV made its mark as a venture capital investor in emerging markets in the first quarter to be a driving force behind innovation in the MENA region.
This additional investment confirms stc Group’s future vision and its contribution to digital transformation endeavors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and abroad. It also reflects our direction to inject innovative projects into the digital economy, as well as our aspirations to develop technologies in the Kingdom and the region. Middle East and North Africa.
Our investments in STV since its launch have achieved great investment returns that were the main catalyst for doubling our participation today. In addition, we seek, through our comprehensive strategy, to provide support and motivation to leading digital companies with the aim of growth and expanding the scope of the group’s investments in modern technical sectors.
Eng. Olayan bin Muhammad Al-Watied, CEO, stc Group
We are proud of stc’s affirmation of its confidence in STV by doubling its participation, which is another milestone in the fund’s journey to build a platform for technology investment in the MENA region. We believe that the region has reached It is an upward turning point and has emerged as one of the most attractive areas globally for project investments.
Abdul Rahman Trabzoni, CEO, STV
Since its launch in 2018, STV has invested in a range of technology companies in a number of sectors in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing primarily on opportunities with a gap between digital supply and demand in traditionally large industries such as logistics, e-commerce and Fintech, In order to maximize these opportunities and support its existing startups, STV has expanded its team to more than 20 professionals with diverse backgrounds, including technology, investments and operations.
This additional support will contribute to STV consolidating its position as the most active investor in the region, as the fund has led nearly 60% of venture capital opportunities in Saudi Arabia, and its portfolio has created thousands of direct jobs and nearly 3 million indirect jobs, in addition to It has become one of the players in the sector due to the expansion it has achieved throughout the region and internationally.
With venture capital expansion in the MENA region increasing significantly in recent years, Saudi Arabia has become the fastest growing major venture capital market in the region with the venture capital market growing 244% year-on-year to reach $584 million in The first half of 2022. In addition, the programs of Vision 2030 contributed to promoting digitization and innovation, and created a strong economic environment, in addition to the large influx of international institutional capital, with which the pace of value creation in the Kingdom is set to accelerate in the coming years.
