GEN has been operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for more than 15 years helping to foster a deeper understanding of the importance of new firm formation and the development of an innovation ecosystem. In the early years, GEN’s signature Global Entrepreneurship Week served as the core activity, but from the outset, GEN’s president and staff have provided research, insights and advice on how to instill and develop a culture of entrepreneurship in the Kingdom to the leaders throughout Saudi Arabia.
GEN’s anchor partner in Saudi Arabia over the years has been Monsha’at, the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, which has supported the establishment of GEN Saudi and its board, and funded programs. GEN has also partnered with many additional organizations and initiatives that have contributed to what is now a thriving and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem delivering the highest rate of GDP growth in the world. Beyond participating and helping organize many key events annually over the last decade, key highlights of GEN’s work include running angel investor training workshops with Saudi Venture Capital, helping to create the Entrepreneurship World Cup with the MiSK Foundation, a global competition and accelerator now managed by Monsha’at and GEN each year that attracts tens of thousands of early and growth stage startups bringing the top 100 to Riyadh.
In 2022, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosted GEN’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC). More than 9,400 participants registered from 166 countries and gathered in Riyadh to reboot, rethink and regenerate their economies following the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of US $13.8 billion in investment was secured during the Congress to promote entrepreneurial activity in the Kingdom. The first day along saw 34 agreements signed – including those with companies expanding into the Saudi domestic mark such as Lenskart, GoDaddy, Kitopi and Cars24. Among the big announcements was the Social Development Bank’s launch of new products and initiatives to support and empower entrepreneurs with a value of almost US $3 billion.
Organized in association with the Department of Commerce with the blessing of the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, GEC Riyadh also served to help accelerate global awareness and appreciation of the maturity of the innovation ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and laid the groundwork for the historically fast growth of the ecosystem and global attention around it. GEN Saudi as a new legal entity was formed following the event in 2022 serving as a local entity working closely with various agencies and organizations in supporting the ecosystem and expanding its connection to the world. GEN Global will continue to bring more of its programs, research, policy experiments and direct founder support to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia directly or in partnership with others consistent with the KSA’s Vision 2030 goals and targets.
Please direct inquiries to Malik Al Kishi at malik@genglobal.org.