Startup ecosystem, funding in focus at AFF

Entrepreneurs looking to fund their tech offerings were presented at an international forum in Hong Kong a slew of ideas on how they can best strategize their approach, and how AI is attracting a lion’s share of investment funds.

Abdulrahman Alolayan, founder and managing partner at Saudi venture capital fund Beta Lab, told a session at the Asian Financial Forum (AFF) on Jan 13 — the first day of the two-day annual event — that more than $100 billion, or a third of global investment, went into AI in 2024.  

“Clearly, it tells you the appetite… When we look to Saudi in particular, Saudi’s national strategies (on) AI, these are the north star,” Alolayan told the audience at a session titled “Global Spectrum – Funding the Future of Emerging Technologies”.

He noted how the Saudi Arabian government had been “investing and deploying heavily in AI” within the Gulf nation and globally as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy that was introduced in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In October last year, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Beta Lab signed a partnership that aims to support fintech startups by granting access to a $300 million investment fund.

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