Saudi ArabiaPlatform
Asia · Pop. 35.3M · #36 startup ecosystem by EV
1 Overview
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
2 Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in Saudi Arabia
A live treemap of $15M+ rounds from the Dealroom API. Each cell is one round into a Saudi Arabia-headquartered company, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in Saudi Arabia - 2026
4 VC investment
How much venture capital flows into Saudi Arabia
VC investment into Saudi Arabia-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
5 Academia
Saudi Arabia's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to Saudi Arabia.
| # | University | City | Founders | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | King Saud University | Riyadh | 232 | 234 |
| 2 | King AbdulAziz University | Jeddah | 135 | 142 |
| 3 | King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals | Dhahran Compound | 119 | 122 |
6 Location comparison
How Saudi Arabia stacks up
Compare Saudi Arabia with similarly sized ecosystems in Asia — switch between combined EV, 5-year EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top ecosystems in Asia ranked by combined EV. Saudi Arabia's row is highlighted (#12).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $5.8T | 3.1× | 511 | $33.9B | 24.8K |
| 2 | India | $925B | 7.5× | 129 | $14B | 13.4K |
| 3 | Israel | $598B | 5.6× | 132 | $10.5B | 4,791 |
| 4 | South Korea | $431B | 15.3× | 47 | $8.3B | 8,023 |
| 5 | Singapore | $321B | 8.6× | 40 | $4B | 3,960 |
| 6 | Japan | $227B | 5.7× | 21 | $7.1B | 7,885 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | $179B | 12.4× | 21 | $3.1B | 1,238 |
| 8 | United Arab Emirates | $76.4B | 10.2× | 22 | $3.9B | 1,586 |
| 9 | Indonesia | $64.9B | 5.0× | 12 | $485.4M | 1,215 |
| 10 | Taiwan | $61.5B | 8.1× | 10 | $209.1M | 627 |
| 11 | Türkiye | $52.6B | 16.1× | 9 | $714.6M | 2,044 |
| 13 | Saudi Arabia | $33.9B | 81.0× | 8 | $1.5B | 820 |
7 Patent intelligence
Saudi Arabia startup IP portfolio: 3,071 patent families
Granted patent families assigned to startups headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Aggregated across the country's hub-level filings — Bay Area, Boston, etc. roll up under the United States row, the same way Tokyo and Osaka roll up under Japan.
8 Premium analytics
What we don't show on this page (yet)
Sector breakdowns, founder origins, AI-talent leaderboards and live deal flow are gated to logged-in Dealroom users. Book a demo to access the full Saudi Arabia dataset — or see a sample on the Dealroom app.
More data
Explore Dealroom data →Get the full Saudi Arabia ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.