AI Investors in Riyadh (2026): Who Is Backing Early-Stage Startups

Investors backing early-stage AI startups in Riyadh in 2026 include Raed Ventures, SEEDRA Ventures, STV, Merak Capital and Tali Ventures, from pre-seed to Series A.

Researched and written by Zeeshan Ali at Platvix. Checked on 24 October 2026.

TL;DR

• Who is actually funding AI startups in Riyadh? Raed Ventures, SEEDRA Ventures, STV, Merak Capital and Tali Ventures have each backed a company in the city in the past two years.
• What size of round can I raise in the city? The AI rounds in this guide run from Sawt's $1m pre-seed in July 2025 to Signit's $15m Series A in April 2026.
• What if I am earlier than that? These funds do write first cheques: SEEDRA led Rime's pre-seed and STV co-led Sawt's $1m pre-seed. NTDP's MVPLab backs founders at minimum viable product stage.

Early-stage AI investors in Riyadh

Raed Ventures

An early-stage firm with an office in Riyadh that names AI among the sectors it backs.

• Invests in: early stage companies in the MENA region, across sectors including AI and machine learning, fintech, logistics, digital health and enterprise software.
• AI startups backed: Signit, the contract platform in Riyadh whose AI assistant drafts and reviews contracts, Echelon, which helps Saudi organisations deploy AI, and Think, an AI infrastructure company.
• Latest Riyadh deal: backed Echelon, a Riyadh company that helps enterprises and government bodies choose and deploy AI, in an undisclosed round announced on 7 October 2026, alongside East40 and Avra, with no lead named. In April 2026 it led Signit's $15m Series A, with STV, Seedra Ventures, Takamol Ventures and Suhail Ventures also taking part.
• Website: raed.vc

SEEDRA Ventures

A Saudi early-stage manager licensed by the Capital Market Authority, whose second fund names AI as a target sector.

• Invests in: early-stage, high-growth startups, with AI, fintech, proptech, SaaS and logistics named for Fund II.
• AI startups backed: Gaia, an enterprise AI platform used by Saudi organisations, Rime, a platform for running physical AI agents on cameras and sensors, and Signit.
• Latest Riyadh deal: led Gaia's $1.5m pre-seed on 8 September 2026, into a Riyadh company whose platform lets organisations search and act on their own internal data. A month earlier it led Rime's seed round of more than $2m on 4 August 2026, a follow-on after leading that company's pre-seed, with Athla Investment, Unity Invest Partners and angels taking part. Rime's own site gives an address in Ad Diriyah, within the Riyadh region. It also took part in Signit's Series A in the city in April 2026.
• Latest fund: the Saudi Venture Capital Company invested in SEEDRA Ventures Fund II in July 2026, a fund the manager says was oversubscribed.

STV

Runs a dedicated AI vehicle alongside its wider venture and growth business.

• Invests in: application-layer startups at their earliest stages across the Middle East and North Africa through its Emerging Tech and AI Fund, described on stv.vc as a $100m AI fund for AI-native startups, backed by Google.
• AI startups backed: Sawt, Clarity, Signit and Stream.
• Latest Riyadh deal: took part in Signit's $15m Series A in April 2026. Before that it co-led, with T2, the $1m pre-seed of Sawt, a Saudi company building Arabic voice agents, in July 2025, the AI fund's first investment.
• Latest fund news: Arcapita invested in the Emerging Tech and AI Fund, announced in September 2026.
• Website: stv.vc

Merak Capital

A Riyadh firm investing across venture capital, private equity, credit and real assets.

• Invests in: early-stage ventures, with the Kingdom as its primary market, in enterprise applications, fintech infrastructure, healthcare technology, cybersecurity, supply chain and developer tools.
• AI startups backed: DOO, an AI customer experience platform, and HakeemX Technologies, which builds clinical decision support.
• Latest Riyadh deal: led DOO's $1.7m round in September 2025, with Plus VC and other regional investors taking part. DOO is headquartered in Riyadh.
• Also backed: led a $1.65m round in HakeemX Technologies in May 2026, with Sanabil 500 alongside. Reports describe that company as Saudi based without naming a city. Its most recent disclosed investment is a $1.5m seed in Ash Games on 27 July 2026, co-led with Impact46 through the Merak Gaming Fund.
• Website: merak.capital

Tali Ventures

stc group's corporate venture arm, investing in AI alongside fintech, cloud and cybersecurity.

• Invests in: startups from their inception to growth stage, across AI, fintech, proptech, ICT, cloud, IoT and cybersecurity. It names no pre-seed, seed or Series A range, so the early-stage evidence here is its own dated deals, a seed and a Series A.
• AI startups backed: Solidrange, which builds AI governance, risk and compliance tooling, and Bonat, an AI customer engagement platform.
• Latest Riyadh deal: took part in Solidrange's $2.4m seed round on 16 February 2026, which Sharaka Capital led, with Sadu Capital and SEEDRA Ventures alongside. The company's release gives its headquarters as Riyadh. Before that it led Bonat's $6m Series A in November 2025, with anb seed Fund, Rua Growth Fund, RZM Investments and angel investors taking part.

Also worth knowing

Sharaka Capital led Solidrange's $2.4m seed round in February 2026, into a Riyadh company building AI compliance tools. Rua Growth Fund took part in Bonat's $6m Series A in Riyadh in November 2025, and led the $3m pre-Series A of AILA, an AI learning platform, in August 2026. Foreign funds are writing cheques here too. Speedinvest led the SR15m ($4m) seed round of Abwab.ai, a Riyadh company selling AI lending software to banks, in September 2026, with Middle East Venture Partners taking part, and the company said it was Speedinvest's first investment in Saudi Arabia. Outliers VC led the $4m seed round of Stream, a Saudi business payments startup, in November 2025. Wa'ed Ventures co-led Think's pre-seed with Raed in July 2026, a round whose coverage names no city for the company.

Other support in the region

NTDP's MVPLab backs founders at minimum viable product stage with funding, workspace and mentoring, and held its graduation at The Garage in Riyadh in February 2026. The Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global took eight startups into its eleventh batch, among them Raid AI, and its next batch runs from 27 September to 9 December 2026, after applications closed on 9 August. For university founders, Riyadh Valley Company, the investment arm of King Saud University, anchored SparkLabs KSU Fund I, a $20m fund investing at pre-seed, seed and Series A, announced in February 2026; its first accelerator cohort of eight startups graduated at LEAP in September 2026.

FAQ

Which investor here is dedicated to AI? STV's Emerging Tech and AI Fund is the vehicle here set up for AI alone, backing application-layer startups at their earliest stages. SEEDRA names AI as one target sector for Fund II, Raed names AI and machine learning among its sectors, and stc names AI in the sector list it published for Tali Ventures.

I am pre-seed or spinning out of a university. Who should I approach? Sawt raised a $1m pre-seed and Rime raised its pre-seed from SEEDRA before its seed, so the funds above do write first cheques. If you are earlier, MVPLab and the SparkLabs fund at King Saud University are built for that stage.

How were these investors chosen? Each one has made a dated investment in a company in Riyadh in the past 24 months, invests at pre-seed, seed or Series A, has made a new investment in the past 18 months and either states an AI focus or has backed an AI company in that time. This guide uses Riyadh the city, with Diriyah inside the Riyadh region, so Kingdom-wide funds appear only where they have a dated Riyadh deal, even though a Saudi founder would reasonably expect national vehicles to count.

How do I find which Riyadh investors fit my startup? Platvix is an investment intelligence platform for founders. It helps you through your fundraising journey, from analysing your pitch deck to finding the right capital for your startup, including VC firms, angels, accelerators and grants.

Where to go from here

• AI investors in Dubai
• AI investors in Abu Dhabi
• Startup funding in Sharjah
• AI investors in London
• The claims investors fact-check in AI decks
• What investors look for in AI startups

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