Promising Saudi Startups
It’s quite impressive to note that most published studies and rankings list non-Saudi startups as Saudi and vice versa. For instance, less than 50% of the companies listed by Forbes as the 50 Most Promising Saudi Startups are not even Saudi.
Saudi Arabia is indeed home to many young, innovative, and very ambitious companies that have the potential to compete on a global scale. Below is a list of 12 Saudi Startups that have been playing a vital role in the development of their Startup Ecosystem.
UTURN: $10M – Founded in 2010
UTURN is an online entertainment network that produces premium Arabic video content and promotes it on a global scale. It has as a vision to revolutionize Saudi Arabian news and entertainment landscape through creating quality content with global outreach.
FOODICS: $4M – Founded in 2014
With its proprietary cloud-based iPad point of sale (POS) technology and restaurant management system, Foodics aims to optimize restaurants operations with a myriad of features that allow for managing sales, transactions, inventory, employee schedules, logistics, and customer relationships.
SAFEROAD: $1.9M – Founded in 2009
Safe Road provides telematics solutions for fleet management, with features for optimizing maintenance costs and drivers’ utilization. Among the primary goals of the startup is to reduce accidents numbers and help enhance driving behavior.
SIHATECH: $1.2M – Founded in 2016
Sihatech has been developing hospital management and information systems that represent a CRM-like cloud-based solution addressing the very needs of clinics and hospitals of all sizes in digitizing their operations and featuring ease and cost-efficient deployment.
CURA: $1.1M – Founded in 2016
Cura is the telemedicine startup aims to revolutionize access to health care and doctors through enabling direct communication between patients and doctors. Patients can choose doctors based on specialty, location, reviews, and ratings. After that, they can start a private conversation, featuring both voice and video calling options, with the selected doctor to explain symptoms, raise questions and obtain help on the spot.
NOMADD: $1M – Founded in 2014
Nomadd, that stands for NO-water Mechanical Automated Dusting Device, offers desert solar solutions. Their systems are designed, developed and tested in Saudi Arabia to stand the harshest weather conditions in the region.
FALCONVIZ: $900K – Founded in 2015
FalconViz specializes in 3D surveying, aerial scanning, and mapping through Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) with autonomous integrations of multi-rotor copters, fixed wings UAVs, and proprietary 3D software solutions.
RWAQ: $540K – Founded in 2013
Rwaq develops together with universities, educational institutes, and academic instructors content and online courses for the Arab world. Its mission is to foster a robust, fun, and easy to use E-Learning platform for the masses.
JUNNAH: $533K – Founded in 2014
Junnah provides online behavior-change programs focused on chronic diseases prevention through innovative education platform, monitoring, gamification, and certified coaches support. The startup focuses on addressing prevalent diseases in the Arab world, such as diabetes and obesity, through its online training, diet, and workout programs.
WADE7: $320K – Founded in 2016
WADE7 aims to make studying maths as comfortable and enjoyable as watching cartoon movies. By structuring maths lessons in a story-like fashion, the startup has succeeded in developing a curious and engaged audience of elementary school students.
SAWERLY: $211K – Founded in 2013
SAWERLY represents the link between professional photographers and people who need their services. This startup has introduced novel features that help customers decide on photographers they would like to hire through a very transparent bidding system.
LUCIDYA: $135K – Founded in 2016
LUCIDYA provides social media analytics and monitoring tools that help businesses make better decisions backed by big data analytics and machine learning algorithms.