RIYADH: Saudi venture capitalist Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed announced five new investments during the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Prince Khaled explained exclusively to Arab News that the five new portfolio companies were focused on the medical technology and health technology sectors.
The royal investor also emphasized his company KBW Ventures’ alignment with Saudi Arabia’s deployment of capital in bioscience and biotechnology.
He said: “We actually have a long footprint in biosciences, but the focus on health technologies and medtech was relatively small until the past 18 months.
“One of our first investments in this health space years ago was a Canadian company that is refining the allergy testing experience, a next-gen solution.
“We haven’t disclosed any of these five publicly yet, and there’s more in the pipeline that we are in the due diligence process for now.”
Three of KBW’s new ventures — Truelli, Qvin, and CytoSPAR — specialize in different types of diagnostics using advanced proprietary technology.
NeuroPlan is an app that aims to democratize neurological insights by helping users to track and improve cognitive capacity, while the fifth company, Rula Health, is a telehealth startup seeking to address mental health issues.
Prince Khaled added that KBW Ventures, aligned with the Saudi government’s focus on improving the overall health of its population, was also assessing several other businesses for potential investment that aimed to slow the aging process and improve lifespan.
He said: “I’ll be in a conclave around healthy aging solutions at FII addressing technologies that we are looking at in the longevity sector.”
The prince, who is a fitness aficionado, stressed that early disease detection, prevention, and personalized medicine were all areas that captured both his attention and capital.
During his panel discussion Prince Khaled noted that while KBW Ventures previously focused on early-stage investments, the firm has now moved into growth stage funding.
He said: “A survey of US companies that raised Series A funding and went on to close Series B saw an average of 28 months between rounds; it hasn’t been like that since 2012.”
