RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s venture capital investments grew 244 percent in H1 2022 with a record high of $584 million funding deployed — surpassing the total amount in 2021. According to a report by venture data platform, MAGNiTT, the Kingdom saw 79 deals in H1 2022, an increase of 36 percent compared to H1 2021. It also indicated that 88 investors participated in funding deployed by Saudi startups, up by 126 percent in the first half of 2022 over H1 2021 as 42 percent of investors were from outside the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia ranked the second largest venture capital market in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of total transactions and funding. In terms of industries, fintech had the highest number of transactions with 17 deals, followed by logistics which had 12 deals, and e-commerce with eight deals, in H1 2022.