Samira al-Qattan -beth:

The executive director of the Innovation PortAL company, engineer Muharib Al-Rashidi, predicted that the volume of investment in the artificial intelligence sector in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia will reach 120 billion dollars by 2030, pointing out that the company's contribution to the continued increase in investment in the technical sector is to establish a system to increase the success rates of these companies in the technical sector, which contributes to accelerating the entry of these companies into the markets and their growth in the future, as well as ensuring the product and Its he pointed out that the failure rate of emerging projects reaches 80%.

He added during the ceremony held by the company recently, at the Grand Hyatt Al Khobar hotel on the occasion of the anniversary of its establishment with the participation of partners and joint stock companies, that the company is seeking to obtain preliminary approval for the "innovation gateway for bold investment" fund to exercise its activity by the Capital Market Authority, adding that work is progressing at an accelerated pace to structure the fund, pointing out that the company plans to launch several investment funds, where the first fund will be launched worth 50 million riyals and the second fund worth 180 million riyals, stressing that the funds will focus on the technical sector.
He pointed out that investing in the technical sector is high-risk, but a model can be formulated to avoid these risks in a more professional way to get the company to safety.

He mentioned that the company plans to launch marketing campaigns to attract distinguished entrepreneurs, so that they will be supported financially and strategically and apply the best international practices for the success of their products and turn them into successful companies, indicating that financial support for entrepreneurs through partnership as a founding partner at the beginning of the launch, and then there will be the possibility of exit.

He said that the software capitalization project consists in converting expenses into capital costs to become an asset of the company, adding that the company seeks to capitalize all smart applications that it designs and supervises, by converting operational costs into capital costs to become intangible assets, which enhances the market value of smart applications and products, stressing that the company has launched 3 applications and the work is based on the creation of 15 applications over the next five years in the fields of business, real estate, financial technology and e-commerce, indicating that the volume of investments in 15 applications will amount to 30 million riyals, adding that it is expected that the market value of these applications will exceed one billion riyals during The next three years.

​He explained that the Innovation PortAL company is working hard to be a unique model of its kind, as an integrated system, taking the entrepreneur during his journey to safety, pointing out that the business of the Innovation portal, and its paths, intersect directly with the vision of ٢٠٣٠ especially in the field of entrepreneurship, to support the technical sector, where it keeps pace with the contribution of the private sector to the economy, facilitates doing business, and develops the effectiveness of the economy digital access to the overall goal.. The economy is booming.
He pointed out that the company has developed 3 strategic pillars, through which it intends to design and develop its products, transform them into legal entities in several sectors, and contribute to enabling it to achieve its ambitions in 2026, and aspirations in 2030, pointing out that these pillars vary between the pillars of empowerment, concerned with participation in increasing the contribution of small and medium enterprises in the economy, through virtual business accelerators, development pillars, aimed at developing the digital economy, through supporting the digital transformation system, and investment pillars, seeking to diversify investment portfolios.

He stressed the focus on building an integrated business system starting from the business accelerator and the startup studio, in addition to the Innovation PortAL company for services that support the design of applications for entrepreneurs and funding them through the bold innovation portal fund
He stressed that the "Innovation PortAL" seeks to be the first reference in the region, to provide high quality products, improve the quality of business, and the development of innovation and development methods, in the business community.

For his part, CFO Mohammed Hassan explained that the" Innovation PortAL " applies the highest standards to build digital transformation products, applying the best practices and international specifications in building the product and reaching the target segment, and then its growth and financial and strategic support.
He added that money and lack of liquidity is a real challenge and a direct reason for the failure of some startups, as 38% of new projects fail to get funding in a timely manner, so the "Innovation PortAL" model was to focus on the product and markets in entrepreneurs ' projects,.

Meanwhile, investment manager Aya zaghnin said that the startup environment in the Kingdom witnessed a tremendous growth in financing in 2022, reaching more than 1.2 billion dollars in venture capital investments and equity financing for Saudi startups. This represents a growth that has doubled 20 times in just five years, and the volume of one transaction in Saudi Arabia has increased to more than 20 million dollars per transaction in 2022. This growth in funding has driven Saudi Arabia to become the second largest startup ecosystem in the Arab world..