Female Entrepreneurship: Transforming the Saudi Economy
It is no secret that Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the most rapidly evolving startup and entrepreneurial ecosystems in MENA over the past few years. But what is less known is who is actually driving so much of this transformation.
With two-thirds of its population under 35, the Kingdom has the demographics to make the most of its Vision 2030 program to diversify the economy away from oil by the end of the decade. Wide-ranging public sector support is a central element of this transition, with a variety of investment and upskilling initiatives creating an increasingly supportive business environment. One that is helping Saudi-based companies stand out in the region.
Today, Saudi Arabia has over a million small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that are expanding in every sector, supported by a comprehensive reform agenda, and a suite of new funding and learning opportunities. In addition to driving the nation’s diversification targets, they are also positioning the Kingdom as an increasingly important hotspot on the global startup map.
Notably, the Kingdom’s female entrepreneurs have been at the forefront of this economic transformation, making up almost half of the Kingdom’s SME owners. While driving a significant part of the raw growth in the private sector, Saudi women are also developing new sectors that are booming on the back of Saudi Arabia’s socio-economic revolution, such as e-commerce, retail, food & beverage, and fintech.
Business environment reforms and shifting attitudes to the concept of entrepreneurship—once viewed as a risky undertaking—have been key to this development. According to the 2021-2022 Women’s Report for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 95% of Saudi women listed entrepreneurism as a good career choice, 93% saw opportunities for new businesses, and 90% reported it was easy to start one.
Mounira Jamjoom is one of the Kingdom’s most successful female entrepreneurs in recent years. The company she co-founded, Aanaab, is an online professional development solution for teachers, schools, and governments across MENA, that works with local and global institutions to deliver short courses, qualifications, and licensing programs that upskill the talent pool in the education sector.
In addition to securing $1.5 million in its first external funding round, Aanaab has already enrolled more than 200,000 teachers in the region in its professional courses. “Aanaab was conceived at the intersection of education and technology,” says Jamjoom. “As educators, we realized that we could disrupt the sector by finding a swift and scalable way to upskill teachers and provide them with globally recognized credentials. The edtech sector in the Kingdom and wider region is gaining traction as education rapidly transforms. With the current speed of technological development, online learning will become more bespoke and personalized.”
Aanaab is one of many female-led initiatives that have begun to transform the Kingdom in recent years. Another one is Gathern, a peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace that has rapidly become one of the largest in the market. Since being established in 2017, the company reports that it has grown to include over 50,000 properties in more than 200 cities and towns Saudi Arabia.
“The opportunities available in the Kingdom for peer-to-peer accommodation are growing at a very swift rate,” says Latifah Altamimi, Gathern’s CEO and co-founder. “Saudi Arabia is driving inbound international and domestic tourism as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. In the past year alone, we have seen a tenfold growth in the number of hosts and owners listing their private housing units around the Kingdom.”
Backed by this success, Gathern has secured $11.1 million in funding so far after closing a pre-Series B round in April, and did so shortly after announcing a partnership with Mohammed & Musaab Abdullah Al-Ajlan Investment Company, and Almajdiah Residence.
The improvements to the Kingdom’s start-up environment enjoyed by emerging female business leaders such as Jamjoom and Altamimi have received significant momentum resulting from the work of Monsha’at, Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority.
Monsha’at works with a wide variety of stakeholders throughout Saudi Arabia’s startup and SME ecosystem to encourage investment across emerging sectors. As part of its effort to provide a wide range of services to help SMEs build out their businesses, the authority is also upskilling thousands of startups and entrepreneurs with a wide range of best-in-class incubators, accelerators, consultation services, and networking opportunities.
Monsha’at also provides a welcome boost to the emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem through its popular Biban event, which takes place in March this year. Meaning “doors” in Arabic, this is an annual forum that brings many of the world’s leading startups, SMEs, and entrepreneurs to Riyadh to network, exchange ideas, raise capital, trade best practices, and take part in cutting-edge pitch competitions.
This year, Biban hosts the final round of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC), which features up to $1 million in cash prizes. Since launching in 2019, more than 400,000 entrepreneurs from all over the world have registered for this unique startup pitch competition and support program. As a forum for creating opportunities across Saudi’s fertile young ecosystem, Biban also encourages female entrepreneurship through its exhibitions and performance-based awards.
As the Kingdom’s entrepreneurial landscape evolves, women will continue to be a driving force in Saudi Arabia’s expanding start-up ecosystem. If their ambition, grit, and ingenuity have already propelled them into leadership positions in the country’s booming private sector, public sector support is likely to have a multiplying effect on the economic opportunities of female entrepreneurs that follow.
