Wa'ed Incubation Program
Offers Wa'ed Incubation in Dhahran with twelve months of mentorship, workspace, workshops, and fundraising support.
Wa'ed is the entrepreneurship arm of Saudi Aramco, established in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 2011 to accelerate the growth of Saudi-based startups and support the Kingdom's economic diversification agenda under Vision 2030. As the largest and most active institutional venture capital investor for Saudi-based startups, Wa'ed operates multiple programs including a corporate VC fund (Wa'ed Ventures, with $500 million in assets under management and tickets up to $20 million per deal) and a separate 12-month incubation program for pre-seed and early-stage companies. The incubation program is the non-cash, in-kind support track and does not disburse direct cash to participants.
The incubation program provides up to 12 months of structured support delivered from Wa'ed's Dhahran base. Services include mentoring and coaching from experienced practitioners, co-working space, workshops, bootcamps, networking events, and fundraising guidance connecting founders to the broader Aramco and Saudi startup ecosystem. Wa'ed has historically selected cohorts of early-stage Saudi startups for incubation through competitive accelerator partnerships — for example, in a 2022 fintech accelerator run jointly with Fintech Saudi and Flat6Labs, three startups were selected from a 12-company cohort for Wa'ed incubation with a SAR 50,000 grant each. Target sectors include IoT, fintech, AI, cloud computing, energy and industrial technology, agtech, edtech, healthtech, sustainability, and deep tech.
Eligibility for Wa'ed incubation is restricted to for-profit companies registered and operating in Saudi Arabia. Nonprofit organizations, universities, and individual applicants do not qualify. The program targets pre-seed and early-stage founders with at least a minimum viable product and a full-time committed team. Applications are accepted through Wa'ed's online portal at waed.com. Successful incubation alumni gain a pathway to Wa'ed Ventures equity investment and access to the LAB7 sister entity for product development support.
Provides 12-month in-kind incubation support — mentoring, co-working space, workshops, and fundraising guidance — to pre-seed and early-stage Saudi-based startups, with no direct cash award.
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