PARIS
Monsha’at, Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, led a group of five potential Saudi unicorns SMEs to participate in VivaTech 2025, Europe’s leading technology and innovation exhibition. Its participation was part of Saudi Unicorns; a Saudi Vision 2030 initiative to help high-potential, fast-growing companies in promising sectors reach valuations of over $1 billion.
Held in Paris from June 11-14, the four-day innovation-focused event featured 13,500 startups, 3,200 investors, and over 165,000 attendees.
Now in its ninth year, the conference was a key opportunity for Monsha’at to expose high-potential Saudi startups to global best practices, industry insights, and strategic networks with leading global stakeholders, gain fresh perspectives, and acquire the skills and contacts they need to globally scale. It also allowed them to share Saudi Arabia’s success story with leading tech investors, which aligns with the Saudi Unicorns initiative’s commitment to driving growth and innovation in the Saudi startup space.
“Our participation at VivaTech 2025 was a tremendous opportunity to not only showcase several of the best young startups and concepts coming out of the Kingdom,” said Saud Alsabhan, Vice Governor of Entrepreneurship at Monsha’at. “It was also a chance to allow some of our best tech entrepreneurs to share insights about the Kingdom’s booming startup ecosystem with leading global investors and innovators.”
The Monsha’at-led Saudi cohort included five startups: Telgani, a digital car rental platform with over 3 million users; Soum, a second-hand sales app with over 6 million downloads; Webook, a digital engagement platform that has processed over $500 million in event transactions; SiFi, which provides financial solutions to over 500 Saudi companies; and Rewaa, a retail tech company serving over 7,000 clients across the Kingdom. Together, these companies showcase the dynamism of Saudi Arabia’s growing e-commerce, transportation, entertainment technology, fintech, and retail tech sectors.
Their involvement comes at a time of strong momentum for the Kingdom’s SME and startup ecosystems. In Q1 2025, Saudi Arabia’s private sector recorded a 48% q-o-q increase in commercial registrations, reaching 1.68 million active registrations nationwide. High-growth sectors included e-commerce, which saw a 6% increase to 41,322 registered entities, and cloud-computing, which surged 33% during the same period.
Monsha’at’s presence at VivaTech 2025 underlines Saudi Arabia’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, enabling international partnerships, and accelerating the growth of Saudi tech leaders, particularly SMEs.
