Saudi Arabia registered over 80,000 new SME commercial records in the second quarter of 2025, raising the total number of active records in the Kingdom to 1.7 million, according to the latest SME Monitor report released by the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at).
The report highlighted key sector trends, noting that e-commerce alone accounted for 39,366 of the new records.
Young entrepreneurs represented 38 per cent of all SME registrations, while women-owned businesses made up 47 per cent, reflecting their increasingly prominent role in the entrepreneurial landscape.
Saudi Entrepreneur Hotspots
Riyadh led in new SME registrations with 28,181 records (35.2 per cent), followed by Makkah with 14,498 (18.1 per cent), the Eastern Region with 12,985 (16.2 per cent), and Qassim with 4,920 (6.2 per cent). The remaining regions collectively accounted for 19,416 records (24.3 per cent).
Opening the report, Minister of Education Yousef Al-Benyan highlighted that investment opportunities in the education sector are projected to exceed SR50 billion ($13.3 billion) by 2030.
He further noted that SMEs constitute nearly 98 per cent of educational establishments in the Kingdom, with women owning 39.4 per cent of these businesses.
SME support programmes continued to grow. In Q2 2025, 3,175 SMEs benefited from the Tomoh Program, with many later listed on the parallel market (Nomu).
The Kafalah Program, established in 2006 to support SMEs and entrepreneurs, has delivered SR121 billion ($32.3 billion) in initiatives and products by the end of Q2 2025.
