“Sadaya”: “Ghaya” Accelerator allocates $160 million to 120 startups in artificial intelligence

The Ghaya Generative Artificial Intelligence Accelerator, with the support and empowerment of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and the National Information Technology Development Program, and in cooperation with New Native, contributed to strengthening a number of emerging companies in the field of generative artificial intelligence with the aim of developing them and accelerating the process of their entry into the market.

This step comes within the efforts of “SADAIA” and the National Program for Information Technology Development towards strengthening the Kingdom’s scientific position, and making it at the forefront of possible countries in the field of artificial intelligence, and also reflects their commitment to promoting innovation and sustainable development in the Kingdom, to contribute to achieving Saudi Vision 2030.

The generative artificial intelligence accelerator “Ghaya” works to enable the artificial intelligence ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa region by offering several programs that target all stages of startups in the field, and to attract promising startups in the field of generative artificial intelligence to the Kingdom, according to the news agency. Saudi Arabia “SPA”.

The Ghaya Accelerator has worked to hold 4 artificial intelligence hackathons so far, through which more than 7,000 participants and artificial intelligence developers developed 185 prototypes. The program’s budget also reached $30 million, with the aim of graduating 300 startup companies in generative artificial intelligence.

The first batch of the Ghaya Accelerator was launched in July 2023 with the participation of 15 startup companies, while its investment fund amounts to $160 million and aims to invest in 120 companies in the early stages, as the progress of startup companies is monitored in an automated manner using generative artificial intelligence techniques.

The “Ghaya” accelerator depends on a number of criteria for acceptance, including that the main product is based on generative artificial intelligence technologies, the presence of a full-time founding team consisting of 2 to 5 members, and the readiness to move the startup’s headquarters to the city of Riyadh, in addition to a preliminary product and a presentation showing Problem and solution, business model, added value, market analysis study, and team work.

The companies of the first batch of the accelerator have achieved more than 35 partnerships and the number of users is more than 125 thousand users.

Sadaya, represented by the National Data Management Office and the National Center for Artificial Intelligence, held workshops with startups from the first batch of the Ghaya Accelerator, during which the personal data protection system and the legislative pilot environment initiative for data and privacy were presented, as well as the most prominent use cases for generative artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. And also hold a workshop on sustainability.