Small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia grew by 2.6 percent, reaching 1.23 million enterprises during the second quarter of this year.
The General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monsha'at) issued a report revealing the developments of the sector in the second quarter of 2023, and an increase in the number of establishments, most of which were concentrated in the capital, Riyadh, by 42.3 percent, followed by Makkah Al-Mukarramah by 18.6 percent.
The report reviewed the latest venture capital funding figures in the first half of this year, which witnessed an increase that contributed to making the Kingdom the second-largest country in terms of funding volume and number of deals compared to the Middle East and North Africa markets. Resulting in about 1.7 billion riyals ($ 453 million) in loans to startups in the country, the total of which is concentrated in e-commerce and retail by 83 percent.
Source (Al-Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper, Edited)
