Wadi Makkah Ventures Company invests in Saryah, a technology startup
Wadi Makkah Ventures Company has announced its investment in the startup, Saryah, one of the companies that emerged from Haramain Technology Accelerator, which is affiliated with Badir Technology Incubators and Accelerators Program, one of the initiatives of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in the preliminary financing round.
Saryah Company provides an electronic platform which offers information about the most prominent religious, historical, and tourist sites in the kingdom and the region. It also provides a service which enables the residents and tourists alike to find tourist guides and easily explore free tours and trails.
Haramain Technology Accelerator, managed and operated by BIAC(Business Incubators and Accelerators Company,) a governmental company affiliated with Taqnia which is owned by The Public Investment Fund, is considered the first business accelerator specialized in supporting and developing businesses for entrepreneurial companies and for projects which participated in Hajj Hackathon which was organized by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones last year. Hajj and Umrah sector’s strategy for innovative systems and entrepreneurship, which has been developed by specialists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to accelerate the development of innovative systems and entrepreneurship at a regional level, has also been utilized.
In that respect, Eng. Khalid Abdul-Ghani Hamzah Sulaimani, Chairman of the board of directors of Wadi Makkah Ventures Company and the chairman of the investment committee, said that Wadi Makkah Ventures Company aims to invest in local and international startup companies which offer services and technologies that improve and develop the quality of the services provided by the Hajj and Umrah sector in its initial and advanced stages in order to make Makkah a smart city and the Hajj and Umrah journey an easy and comfortable one.
Eng. Sulaimani added: “Wadi Makkah’s investment and empowerment of Saryah is an advanced step in enriching the local content for tourist projects in Saudi Arabia in general and in enhancing the quality of the services provided by the Hajj and Umrah sector in particular. It asserts the company’s concern with the quality of the outcomes of the programs which aim to improve the Hajj and Umrah system in accordance with Vision 2030 since Al-Harameen Accelerator is considered one of their fruits.”
He also asserts that Wadi Makkah Ventures Company with its investment in Saryah and under the guidance and vision of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage is looking forward to enriching and changing the features of the tourism and development sectors in the kingdom by presenting them with high-quality and user-friendly technologies while using the services provided by Saryah’s app.
Eng. Sulaimani explained that Wadi Makkah Ventures Company is the investment arm of Wadi Makkah for Technology which is owned completely by Umm Al-Qura University. The initial investment portfolio (seed fund) is one of three investment portfolios included in Wadi Makkah Fund for bold investments.
Eng. Khalid Sulaimani concluded: “The Seed Fund includes a number of investments relevant to Hajj and Umrah, such as Bab Makkah, Umrah Pro, Mabeet, and now Saryah. The third investment portfolio is the one that is concerned with the Company’s investment in startups in advanced stages (Series A) which focus on technologies specialized and related to developing the system of Hajj and Umrah. It is worth mentioning here that the company has announced its investment in Pavegen, the Clean Energy Technology Company last week under this portfolio.”