In a recent press release by the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, Monsha’at has vehemently announced that the number of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the Kingdom have crossed over a 892,000, marking a 25.6% increase from the fourth quarter of 2021. The announcement from Monsha’at concurred with the release of its Q2 2022 report and its assessment of a number for various investment sectors and files.
According to the report, with a proportion of 35.4%, the Riyadh region has the biggest share of all firms, followed by Makkah with 21% and Al-Shraqiyah with 12.7%. Monsha’at has also claimed in its report that 81% of these businesses are classified as micro and small businesses. It further records that the percentage of the enterprises that are owned by women were documented to 45% of the total start-up companies’ owners in Saudi Arabia, which is double the percentage of what had been attained in 2017.
The report entails that the investment financing secured by Saudi start-up businesses in the first quarter of 2022, increased by 244%, topping SR2.19 billion on an annual basis. Consequently, Saudi Arabia has become the second most active venture capital market in the Middle East and North Africa regions over the same time period
Compared to businesses operating in other sectors, the food and beverage sector has received the largest share of investment capital in the first half of 2022. As per the findings of the MAGNiTT report, the food and beverages sector received an investment of SR700 million during the first half of this year.
The Monsha’at report also noted that there is now a lot of activity in Saudi Arabia related to coffee production. With more than 400,000 coffee trees, Saudi Arabia has increased the production of Khawlani coffee by as much as 70%. It was confirmed that the Saudi Coffee Company would invest SR1.2 billion in the country’s coffee industry over the next ten years.