Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – The SMEs Bank system of the National Development Fund has signed 20 agreements valued at more than SAR 1 billion ($266 million) with several financial technology entities, local and international investment funds and e-commerce platforms.
These deals include 10 agreements and MoU by the SMEs Bank worth SAR 500 million, three investment agreements signed by the Saudi Venture Capital Company SVC worth SAR 232 million and seven MoUs by the Small and Medium Enterprises Financing Guarantee Program “Kafalah” worth SAR 300 million with a leverage of up to five times.
Acting CEO of the SMEs Bank, Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Mansour, said the signing of the pacts is aimed at diversifying the options and add new financing solutions for the SMEs sector, and raise its contributions to the GDP to 35 percent by 2030, in order to achieve the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 programs.
He said during the first quarter of 2023, the bank financed more than 300 SMEs with more than SAR 1.1 billion in addition to what was achieved by the Saudi Venture Capital Company “SVC”, where its total investments reached 1.75 billion riyals by the end of the first quarter, and the number of funds invested in it reached 32 funds.
The number of startups and small and medium enterprises invested in them through SVC investment programs reached 674 companies, in addition to the growth in the value of financing the guarantee during the first quarter by 17 percent, bringing the value of funding provided since the establishment of the program to more than 80 billion riyals.