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Saudi tech start-ups to drive Digital Economy

RIYADH, November 10, 2016

Saudi tech start-ups will drive the Digital Economy over the next 15 years, and support job creation for technology talents, the Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology announced today at SAP’s first Start-up Focus event in the kingdom.

Dr Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel said: “Government support for tech start-ups is essential for driving the Saudi Vision 2030 goals of national digital transformation and sustainable career paths for Saudi talents.”

“Public-private partnerships, such as with SAP, combine government vision and private sector expertise to amplify Saudi entrepreneur’s ideas and enhance the kingdom’s digital economic competitiveness,” he added.

As part of SAP’s mission to support promising technology start-ups, SAP has seen strong success on the Start-up Focus Programme globally. The programme has helped eligible start-ups, whose product ideas are based on Big Data, predictive or real-time analytics solution, accelerate the development of their solutions, and assist in bringing their solutions to market, said a statement from the company.

Boosting regional innovation and supporting local entrepreneurs, the SAP Training and Development Institute has now launched the initiative in Saudi Arabia with an event in Riyadh. During the two-day event, attendees gained insights from successful start-up founders and thought leaders, and interacted with the start-up ecosystem in the kingdom. Promising entrepreneurs also learned how to grow their innovative business plans with SAP's cutting-edge technology, it said.

Ahmed Al-Faifi, managing director, SAP Saudi Arabia, said: “Saudi tech talents and millennials are already among the best-connected in the world, and have the ambition and business acumen to become global start-up leaders.”

“Our company is dedicated to joining forces with the Saudi government and local partners to support Saudi Vision 2030, digital economic innovation, and talented youth in reaching their dreams,” he said.

Selected Saudi start-ups now have the chance to develop their solutions on the SAP Hana real-time analytics platform, receive free support from technical experts to help them productising their ideas and making the best use of the SAP Hana cloud platform. Participating start-ups have access to a community network of entrepreneurs, partners, investors, thought leaders and industry experts.

Once validated, start-ups can pitch to SAP’s ecosystem of more than 320,000 customers worldwide. The programme has engaged with more than 3,750 start-ups across 59 countries and 22 industries, bringing hundreds of solutions to market.

Marita Mitschein, senior vice president and managing director, SAP Training and Development Institute, said: “Launching the Start-up Focus Programme in the Kingdom concludes with impressive turnout, bringing together the countries’ start-up scene with successful entrepreneurs to exchange best practices and get inspired for an entrepreneurial career in Saudi Arabia.”

“SAP is now reviewing submitted business cases to identify the strongest start-ups, eligible for the programme, taking Saudi innovations to a global scale and boosting local innovations,” she added.

Demonstrating the economic impact of digital transformation, the Saudi gross domestic product (GDP) could increase by $31 billion by 2020 if the kingdom optimises digital tools, according to a recent Accenture report. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Saudi Arabia | | economy | Digital | Start-ups | tech |

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