RIYADH: In its mission to empower the next generation of gaming entrepreneurs, Exel Gaming Accelerator by Merak hosted its second cohort’s community day on Thursday evening, acting as a real-world testing ground for its latest gaming studios.
“We really want to see them grow, and we really care about building the ecosystem,” Rema Alyahya, vice president of venture capital, told Arab News.
“We have 18 companies — half Saudi companies, half international companies — that are relocating to Saudi,” she said.
“All early-stage studios are developing really exciting and different games in different genres.”
The event, which brought together leading designers, investors, and gaming enthusiasts, falls under a 16-week accelerator program designed to scale early-stage gaming startups.
Backed by an $80 million gaming fund and sponsored by the National Development Fund, Exel by Merak is actively shaping a sustainable industry by mentoring 18 companies — half of which are local startups and the other half international studios relocating to the Kingdom.
“The National Development Fund has a big focus on gaming and growing the gaming ecosystem. And what we do is, we are executing on their investment by trying to find the best local talent and then also by bringing in the best international talent — early-stage companies,” Alyahya said.
Some of the game developers under the cohort included Stellar Mythical, TAKA Studio, Limeless, Inventix Games, Sword Play, Holodot, Saer Games, and more.
The event offered a rare opportunity for early-stage studios to step out of the coding lab and into the public eye, allowing them to test their games with a diverse audience of specialists, including gamers, investors, and veteran product designers.
This community day served as a critical feedback loop for the cohort. Developers used barcodes to collect immediate feedback from players, helping them refine their user experience and game mechanics before their official demo day set for February.
“We wanted to see what the people think of their games, and wanted to get feedback. Every computer has a barcode where we can give your feedback,” Alyahya explained.
“The focus of our accelerator is actually on how these companies can monetize and commercialize their game,” she said.
The community day also gave the developers in the cohort the opportunity to interact with customers and meet with investors.
“We know that they know how to build, but we want to teach them how to sell these games,” Alyahya explained.
“We then try to help them with connections, with investors, and as they grow older as a company and they reach their milestones … we really want to see them grow, ” Alyahya added.
The accelerator also provides the game developers with the legal, human resources and marketing support needed to scale.
Under Vision 2030, the Kingdom has launched a multi-billion dollar National Gaming and Esports Strategy aimed at contributing $13.3 billion to local GDP and creating 39,000 jobs by the end of the decade.
The Exel program by Merak is also actively supporting in attracting and retaining global gaming entrepreneurs to the Kingdom to grow the industry sustainably.
“We really try to focus on bringing amazing talent into Saudi Arabia. They have to relocate here. And we urge them to do that because we want the industry to grow here organically,” Alyahya explained.
“We want them to meet other studios that are local, we want them to meet local talent, we want them to also connect with different entities that are focused on gaming,” she added.
Alyahya also underlined that Merak has multiple partnerships in place to support the developers, with partners such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Huawei.
Under the accelerator, developers also receive weekly guidance from industry experts.
“It’s really just making sure that they have the right mentors, the right tools, the right resources. So, for example, part of the program here is every week we bring two mentors — world-class mentors — and they teach their specific expertise. Like last week we had how to use AI tools in gaming, for instance,” Alyahay explained.
One of the entrepreneurs in residence who supported the cohort recipients with resources, advice, and guidance in the industry was Kelly Zmak, entrepreneur in residence for cohort two of Exel.
“Well, the gamers here are certainly excited to interact with, and I really love the enthusiasm they’re bringing to the table,” Zmak said.
“My focus is on the teams (game developers), but to watch them prepare for today and go through this experience and actually engage with consumers, which is a fairly new experience for most of them, has been the part I’ve really enjoyed the most.
“People are enjoying the games they’re making, but they’re also understanding how to have those conversational discussions about product and ideas and concepts, and to see each one of them step up and actually share their information with these gamers — if they have questions about development, have questions about process, have questions about the work —that’s been my most exciting part,” Zmak added.
The community day also featured a panel session, where gaming entrepreneurs heard from leading experts and received advice on how to start, build, and scale their gaming ventures.
The Saudi gaming market was valued at approximately $2.39 billion in 2025 and is on track to hit $2.67 billion by 2026.
Approximately 23.5 million people (67 percent of the population) in the Kingdom identify as gaming enthusiasts, and women and girls now represent 42 percent of the esports participant base and 48 percent of the total gaming population.
