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With the ambitious Vision 2030 driving Saudi Arabia to a knowledge-based economy, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship have emerged as key pillars for the country’s transformation.  Against this backdrop, thousands of digital business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors will gather in Riyadh on December 12-13 for the largest technology gathering to take place in the Kingdom, under the banner of “Rise of the Innovation Kingdom.”

Make sure to register to attend this massive gathering which will surely stand out from previous events and here is why:

The Conference Revamped

This year, the gathering will feature two events taking place simultaneously:

Arabnet Riyadh will gather more than 1000 corporate executives and senior government officials and is introducing 3 different forums, Finverse, OMD Stage, and Ad/Edge.

Monsha’at Startup Saudi will attract more than 4000 entrepreneurs, youth, and students to engage and inspire them on entrepreneurship and innovation with the Launchpad, Merchant Hub, and MediaBuzz forums (More details can be found here).

Worldwide Outreach

Several successful industry leaders from around the world will make their way to the event to share their comprehensive knowledge and experiences in fintech, entrepreneurship, digital media, etc.

Some examples of the participating speakers are Frank Salzgeber, Head of Innovation and Venture at the European Space Agency (ESA), Ghela Boskovich, Head of Fintech & Regtech Partnerships at Rainmaking Innovations - home of Startupbootcamp and founder of FemTechGlobal, Dr. Clive Stainton, CTO of CyberQ, and Robbie Douek, President and COO of RFRSH Entertainment (Check out the full list of speakers here).

Interactive Initiatives

Monsha’at Startup Saudi is introducing a line-up of 6 initiatives (the Academy, Instashop, Sawalif Riyadeyah, Women Mentoring Women, the Matchup, and the Clinic) designed to help young entrepreneurs grow their businesses, meet potential clients and investors, get exposed to the latest trends, and pave the way for success.

Rise of Fintech

Over the past years, investment in Fintech startups across MENA has increased steadily, with over $200M invested to date. The Fintech industry has been reshaping the financial and banking sector by disruptive innovations. For that reason, Arabnet Riyadh is conducting the Finverse Forum, in partnership with Fintech Saudi and sponsored by MasterCard.

Fintech gurus will gather under one roof to discuss the new trends and innovation in fintech, the Bank of the Future, shaping Fintech regulations and lessons from Sandboxes, AI in financial services, and challenger banks.

Industry Giants

The biggest startups in the region who have achieved remarkable milestones in terms of investment and acquisition will be present at the event. Some of the big names you will encounter are:

Careem, recently acquired $200M in Series F funding round; Anghami, celebrating their recent rebranding 6 years after their launch; Talabat, acquired by Rocket Internet for $170M and planning to expand beyond the GCC area; Paytabs, raising $20M in investment last year to support their global expansion plans; Carriage, acquired by Delivery Hero for a $100M; Vezeeta, recently raised $12M in investment from various venture capitals; Mumzworld, recently received a $20M investment round from Gulf Islamic Investments.

Digital Media Hub

Considering that Saudi Arabia is the number one country in accumulating a total of 56M active users across social media platforms when compared to UAE and Egypt, we thought it necessary to dive deeper into the media industry. Therefore, there will be 3 forums: Media Buzz, part of Monsha’at Startup Saudi; Ad/Edge; and OMD Stage. Attendees will get the chance to meet with leaders in marketing and media innovation not limited to Danube, Snapchat, Vice, Elm, Zain, and HyperPay.

Largest Startup Gathering

The event will feature over 200 startups and 100 investors, with more than $1B in capital available for startups seeking investment to support venture capitalists from around the world in setting up funds specifically for investing in the Kingdom’s startups.

Additionally, workshops will be conducted to help foreign startups set up their business in Saudi Arabia, along with a panel discussed title “Scaling in Saudi,” including fast-growing business such as Vezeeta and PayTabs.