From Dial-Upโ toโข Unicorns: SAFCSP โHead Recounts Saudi Entrepreneurial Evolution
According to a report by โAl-Marsadโ Newspaper, Faisal Al-Khamisi, Chairman of the board of Directors of the Saudiโค Federation for Cybersecurity, โProgrammingโค and Drones (SAFCSP),โค recently discussed theโ dramatic changes in the Saudiโ entrepreneurial landscape over the past two decades. โขThe โconversation,featuring Yasser Al-Rumayyan,highlighted โthe challenges faced by early entrepreneurs and the transformative impact of vision 2030.
Al-Khamisi began his entrepreneurial journey in 1998 as a first-year computer science student captivated by โคtheโ internet, but hampered byโข its prohibitive cost. He recounted needing toโข make calls throughโข Bahrain at a rate of โ3 riyals per minute to access the technology. He then took a part-time position with a small internet service provider,which was acquired โby a larger company two years after the โinternetS official arrival in Saudi Arabia.This acquisition resulted inโ his โขearning his first million riyals and spurred him โto launch his own venture โin 2002.
That venture,”Shabek,” aimed to provide a free instant โฃmessaging service for mobile phones. Al-Khamisi explained the difficulties of building โขthis service in an habitat lacking bothโ qualified developersโค and necessary infrastructure. He partnered with a Singaporean company, “Mozat,” to develop “Shapek,” a platform allowing free dialog between Nokia andโ Sony phone users, bypassing SMS costs. “Shabek” ultimately reached 10 โmillion users across the region and generated 150 million riyals in revenue.
However,Al-Khamisi noted the meaningful hurdles faced โat the time. “There was no support for entrepreneurship in โขthe Kingdom, not โeven a single event, and we were concluding our deals โคoutside the country,” he stated. The Kingdom lacked essential โขcomponents like electronic payment systems, data โcenters, and venture capital funds, forcing entrepreneurs to โrelyโ on self-financing and negotiate unfavorableโ terms with telecommunications companies.
The successโค of “Shabek” was ultimately disruptedโ by the emergence of WhatsApp in 2009, which Al-Khamisi described as a “black swan” event. The completely free service led to “Shabek” losing millions โฃof โคusers within two years.
Al-Khamisi expressed strong approval of Vision 2030, stating it has instigated a “qualitative shift” inโ the Saudi entrepreneurship ecosystem. He highlighted the dramatic increase in available funding, โnoting the presence of overโ 100 venture capital funds, alongside national โฃand private funds supporting emerging companies. This new environment,โฃ he explained, has enabled the rapid creation of billion-dollar companies.
His current venture, โthe saudi company “Jaco,” exemplifies this transformation. Al-Khamisi stated that “jaco” has already surpassed 26 million users inโข the region andโฃ achieved a billion-dollar valuation in under two years, directly attributing its โขsuccess to the supportive environment fostered by Vision โข2030.
