Prime Highlights:

• Saudi Arabia’s SMEs are growing rapidly, reaching record levels in financing, employment, and business registrations.
• Biban 2025 is set to empower businesses, improve skills, build partnerships, and attract investment across the Kingdom.

Key Facts:

• By Q3 2025, 7 million businesses were registered, with SMEs employing over 8.4 million people.
• Financing for small and medium businesses rose 20% year-on-year, mostly provided by commercial banks.

Background:

Saudi Arabia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are growing rapidly, reaching record levels in funding, jobs, and business registrations, the Kingdom’s SME authority, Monsha’at, reported.

In its latest report, “Biban 2025: A Destination of Ambition in a Nation Abounding with Opportunities,” released alongside the opening of the Biban Forum in Riyadh, Monsha’at highlighted the progress of the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem and the overall ease of doing business.

By Q3 2025, 1.7 million businesses were registered and women made up 43.5% of the workforce. Key sectors are also seeing steady growth. Tourism spending went up 9.7 percent in early 2025, the real estate market saw 47,286 new off-plan residential units licensed in the third quarter, and the e-sports sector grew 72 percent, with 9,603 new gaming businesses registered.

Financing for small and medium businesses rose 20% this year, mostly from commercial banks. Monsha’at said foreign investment, privatization, and the National Transformation Program are helping boost competitiveness, with support from the Public Investment Fund.

Biban 2025, called a global entrepreneurship platform by Monsha’at, aims to help businesses grow, improve skills, build partnerships, and attract investment across Saudi Arabia The forum, held at the Riyadh Front Exhibition and Conference Center from Nov. 5 to 8, is expected to draw over 140,000 visitors from more than 150 countries, including startup founders, investors, and policymakers.

The agenda features panels, workshops, and deal-signing sessions, and will host the Global Finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup, the world’s largest startup competition. From 10,300 applicants across 169 countries, the top 100 finalists will compete in Riyadh for a total of $1.5 million in cash prizes.

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