Stride Ventures Expands in Saudi Arabia, Accelerates Middle East Venture Debt Growth

There's big news coming out of the Middle East finance sector, as Stride Ventures—the global heavyweight in venture debt financing—has just announced it's ramping up its presence in Saudi Arabia. This strategic move includes significantly expanding their local team and opening up a second regional office. Clearly, they're banking on the Saudis being a driving force behind the region's booming startup scene.

According to the inaugural Global Venture Debt Report 2025, a joint research project from Stride Ventures and global consultancy Kearney, we've seen the global venture debt market expand with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 14% over the past five years. And here’s the fascinating bit: in the Gulf region, spearheaded mostly by Saudi Arabia, that growth rate has been almost four times higher—clocking in at a staggering 54% CAGR. The region’s market size ballooned from just $60 million back in 2020 to about half a billion dollars by 2024. If you stop to digest that, it's pretty remarkable stuff.

Of course, much of the credit here goes to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan, which has seen the Kingdom steadily shifting away from its longtime reliance on oil revenues towards becoming a thriving hub of economic diversity. Government initiatives like the "Jada Fund of Funds," managing assets worth around $1.7 billion, and strategic partnerships with global asset management titans like Goldman Sachs and Franklin Templeton, play a big part. Meanwhile, regional neighbours haven't sat idle either—the Abu Dhabi Global Market and the Hub71 platform have helped create a regulatory climate that actively fosters this kind of innovative financing.

It's fair to say traditional Gulf banks have often erred on the side of caution, particularly when it comes to startups going fast and lean. Venture debt steps in neatly here—it’s flexible, strategic finance ideally suited to early-stage companies. Take local fintech success stories like Tabby and Tamara, who've secured impressive venture debt packages exceeding $100 million apiece. That kind of traction isn't going unnoticed, offering an attractive blueprint for other sectors like logistics, health tech, and climate tech.

Stride Ventures' timing hardly seems coincidental. They've boosted their Gulf-region workforce by over 60 percent during this last year alone. They aren't shy about their goals either: the company aims to triple regionally managed assets by 2026 and invest upwards of half a billion dollars locally within the next few years. Demand looks high for their latest investment fund too, with subscriptions set to exceed targets in under a few months.

At present, Stride manages an active investment portfolio across the region totalling around $110 million—with each deal hanging around the $10 million mark on average. Clearly, the appetite is there, highlighting growing demand from ambitious startup founders across the Middle East eager for more strategic ways of raising capitol.

One measure of how dramatically the landscape is shifting is the steady influx of top-flight global talent. Senior executives—from Silicon Valley to London and Singapore—are now comfortably making Riyadh their new home, attracted by the stability, ample funding, and forward-thinking policy environment. Stride Ventures’ partner, Fariha Ansari Javed, summed it up well, saying: "Saudi Arabia is clearly setting out a dynamic path for venture capital and private finance. We're looking at a fresh generation of entrepreneurs who recognise the immense value of venture debt financing, matched by a hungry pool of investors keen to back this growth wave."

These are genuinely transformative times, turning the Middle East from a traditional capital exporter into a dynamic magnet for global financial innovation. "The Kingdom has dramatically shifted from providing capital to attracting it," Javed added, "and at Stride Ventures, we're proud of our involvement in this emerging story."

Now that's definitely one to keep an eye on—don't be surprised if Arageek starts buzzing about this in the startups section soon enough.

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