Merak Capital Backs DSShield with SAR 203M to Fuel Saudi Cybersecurity Growth

Editorial Team

Last updated 30-12-2025

3 min

Merak Capital invests SAR 203 million in DSShield, enhancing Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity endeavours.

Saudi Arabia's cyber market hit SAR 15,2 billion in 2024, with a 14% annual rise.

DSShield has delivered over SAR 1,5 billion in cybersecurity projects since its 2020 launch.

The investment supports DSShield’s expansion in security operations and tech platform development.

DSShield aims for public listing as it strengthens its role in securing critical infrastructure.

Merak Capital has put SAR 203 million into DSShield, one of Saudi Arabia’s fast-rising cybersecurity players. The timing isn’t surprising; everywhere you look in the Kingdom, organisations are shifting to the cloud, tightening up industrial systems, and basically running full speed into digital transformation. And when things move that quickly, cyber risks usually tag along for the ride.

Saudi Arabia’s cybersecurity market reached SAR 15.2 billion in 2024, according to the National Cybersecurity Authority, with a solid 14% jump from the previous year. The country also topped the IMD World Competitiveness cybersecurity indicator for 2025, which is quite spot on considering how much the digital economy has expanded lately. Sometimes, when I chat with founders in the region for Arageek pieces, they say keeping up with these standards can be a bit of a faff — but essential if they want to scale.

DSShield, founded in 2020 and based in Riyadh, focuses on environments where there’s simply no room for mistakes. Since launch, the company has delivered more than SAR 1.5 billion worth of cybersecurity projects spanning advisory work, implementation, and round‑the‑clock managed security operations. I reckon that level of execution is what caught investors’ eyes, especially as businesses try to juggle physical systems, data flows, and cloud setups all at once.

In a statement, founder and CEO Siraj Marghalani said the company was built on “trust, discipline, and execution,” adding that the new partnership will help strengthen its capabilities and support its ambition to become a national cybersecurity leader as digital adoption accelerates. Merak Capital’s co-founder and managing partner, Othman Abdulrazaq Alhokail, echoed that sentiment, describing the investment as part of the firm’s mission to back companies that underpin Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation. And on the flip side, partner Mohannad Alfayez highlighted that DSShield has already earned trust across public and regulated sectors, with this new capital paving the way toward an eventual public listing.

The money will go toward expanding DSShield’s security operations, growing its advisory and implementation teams, and speeding up development of its own tech platforms. It also aims to scale its work across operational technology — an area many founders tell me still feels under-served in the region, even as demand climbs. Believe it or not, some of those older industrial systems can be trickier to protect than the most modern cloud tools… well, I mean, depending on who you ask.

With the Kingdom pushing hard on both digital and industrial modernisation, this move positions DSShield to play a bigger role in securing critical infrastructure and enterprise environments. And if everything goes as planned, that pathway to a listing might become clearer sooner than expected — though it’s definately one to watch.

🚀 Got exciting news to share?

If you're a startup founder, VC, or PR agency with big updates—funding rounds, product launches 📢, or company milestones 🎉 — AraGeek English wants to hear from you!