House Ventures Fund Invests $500K in 5 Saudi Startups - إنت عربي

House Ventures, one of Saudi Arabia’s earliest licensed private startup incubators and accelerators, has invested $500,000 through its investment arm, the House Ventures Fund, allocating $100,000 to each of five Saudi technology startups that graduated from the fifth cohort of the Etlaq Accelerator. The financings were executed via Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) contracts and target early-stage companies operating across artificial intelligence, fintech, retail tech and healthtech.

"Saudi Arabia is witnessing the rise of a new generation of technology entrepreneurs, but access to early-stage capital remains one of the biggest challenges," said Bahr Al Harbi, Founder and CEO of House Ventures Fund and General Partner of the fund. "The Atoleq Accelerator identifies and prepares promising startups, while the venture fund provides the capital needed to help them scale both locally and internationally."

Portfolio and focus

• HANDL HUB — an AI-powered platform that analyzes e-commerce store data and provides actionable insights and recommendations to improve business performance.
• STOQA — a platform that transforms financial market data into actionable investment insights.
• OFINTECH — an AI-powered open banking platform that connects bank accounts with enterprise accounting systems.
• SIGHTI — a platform that leverages artificial intelligence to transform traditional surveillance cameras into smart monitoring systems with operational analytics.
• 21 DOCTORS — a cloud-based platform enabling clinics and healthcare providers to build digital presence and manage operations using AI.

The investments were selected from the Etlaq Accelerator's fifth cohort, which drew more than 1,400 applications. The accelerator — described in fund communications as the exclusive pipeline for House Ventures Fund investments — provides seed funding, an acceleration program, hands-on mentorship, regulatory guidance, investor networking opportunities and digital tools to support growth. Since launch, the Etlaq/Atoleq program has graduated more than 100 entrepreneurs across its prior cohorts and its educational platform now serves over 1,200 users.

Why SAFEs and pre-seed focus

House Ventures Fund used SAFE agreements to structure the $100,000 allocations per startup, reflecting a strategy aimed at rapid deployment of capital to pre-seed stage teams. That approach is intended to give founders runway to develop product-market fit and expand operations while preserving deal simplicity and speed. The fund’s focus remains on Saudi technology startups emerging from the accelerator pipeline.

Outlook

By pairing the Etlaq Accelerator’s selection and support process with direct follow-on capital, Bahr Al Harbi and House Ventures Fund aim to close a funding gap frequently cited by regional founders. The five funded startups — spanning e-commerce analytics, fintech data insights, open banking integrations, smart surveillance analytics and cloud-based clinic management — reflect the fund’s emphasis on practical AI applications and fintech infrastructure. Moving forward, the fund will continue sourcing deals exclusively from the accelerator, positioning the program as both a talent generator and a seed-stage investor for Saudi technology ventures seeking regional and international scale.