Women in Saudi’s Venture Capital Ecosystem

The issue of underrepresentation of women in tech has been a long-standing issue around the world. When I was in Silicon Valley studying at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2017, it was at the forefront of conversation amongst prominent VCs and tech companies as the #MeToo movement gained momentum across the US. Despite more women graduating than men from STEM degrees like biological sciences, far less graduated from computer sciences (18%) or engineering (20%) degrees, according to a 2015 study by National Girls Collaborative Project.

Saudi Arabia is also keen to increase female participation in the venture capital (VC) and start-up ecosystem; though in its nascent stages, there is some very promising data, and perhaps some surprising data for some, coming out of the Kingdom. For a start-up ecosystem