Sanabil Investments, a financial investment company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), continues their efforts to serve and further develop the Saudi Arabian startup ecosystem through their innovative Venture Studio, by launching four startups on their one-year anniversary.
The Venture Studio aims to create scalable technology ventures. The initial focus for venture building is on three sectors within the PIF’s Strategic Pillar program: Fintech, Consumer Goods and Tourism & Leisure. The Venture Studio started operations in 2023 and has four minimum viable products currently live.
Venture studios offer a transformative approach to innovation and startup creation. By fast-tracking the ideation, validation, and early-stage venture building process, Venture Studios co-create new businesses with the advantages of capital, access, and industry knowledge. The model allows for a unique solution, de-risking startup building, and capturing new disruptive opportunities.
Sanabil has partnered with Stryber, a strategic growth advisory and venture builder headquartered in Switzerland with offices across the globe, to create and run the Venture Studio, leveraging Stryber’s unique data-driven approach to de-risk each stage of the venture-building process. An entrepreneurial team of over 50 people, including ‘Venture Architects’, Product Managers and Designers, as well as software engineers, are already working on the Studio’s different startups and prototypes. $14 million of capital has already been deployed in 2023, some of which went towards funding the first four startups.
“Since launching our Venture Studio in early 2023, we have been in stealth mode, quietly going about researching, ideating and testing different products and solutions. We have already seen promising results, as four startups have gone live across multiple sectors,” said a spokesperson at Sanabil Investment. “Besides building early-stage ventures, the studio will participate in providing the initial funding to founders. We are now starting to hire some of Saudi’s, and the region’s, brightest talent for our ventures.”
Rayan Aebi, Partner at Stryber, commented: “We are excited to partner with Sanabil to help build and operate the Venture Studio. It is a unique opportunity to scale new startups for long-term value creation, to boost the local startup ecosystem, and to address key sectors in line with Vision 2030. We are confident that the experience and energy we bring will create the right impact.”
Julian Ritter, Partner at Stryber, added: “The Sanabil Venture Studio welcomes engagement from local and regional entrepreneurs and Venture Capital Funds, seeking to make a positive impact across key sectors in Saudi by building, leading and investing in successful startups. Interested individuals are encouraged to go to https://sanabil.studio/stryber to learn more.”
About Sanabil
Sanabil is a financial investment company, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) that commits more than USD 3 billion in capital per annum into global private investments that include VC/Growth. Sanabil is a dynamic, nimble, and highly experienced team of investment professionals. Sanabil provides partners with patient capital, the ability to invest across multiple funding rounds, and access to the region. At Sanabil, we invest in great ideas, great minds, and great companies.
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