Riyadh - Sharikat Mubasher: Wa’ed Ventures, the $500 million venture capital (VC) fund wholly owned by Aramco, and Tali Ventures, the corporate VC arm of stc Group, co-led a $19 million extension round for the US-based network-as-a-service (NaaS) provider, Graphiant.
As part of the investment agreement, Graphiant will build a regional headquarters in Riyadh, strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a hub for emerging technology, a recent statement revealed.
This move aligns with Wa’ed Ventures’ strategy for localizing global technology pioneers and reflects the fund’s commitment to supporting advanced digital infrastructure and AI technologies with a strong potential for localization and scalability in the Kingdom.
The investment is an extension of Graphiant’s $102 million Series B round, which included participation from Sequoia Capital, Two Bear Capital, and IAG Capital Partners.
Commenting on this milestone, Anas Algahtani, Acting Chief Executive Officer at Wa’ed Ventures, said: “By enabling enterprises to deploy secure, high-performance connectivity across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, Graphiant is solving foundational challenges for digital transformation. We are excited to back their expansion into the Kingdom as a strategic partner and look forward to supporting Khalid on his journey to bring world-class digital infrastructure closer to Saudi businesses.”
For his part, Khalid Raza, CEO of Graphiant, affirmed that the partnership with Tali Ventures, Wa’ed Ventures, and the broader support of stc Group marks a defining chapter in the company’s journey.
Meanwhile, Motaz Alangari, Group Chief Investment Officer at stc Group, affirmed the group’s commitment to driving digital transformation across the region by investing in global innovation and emerging technologies.
Graphiant delivers a cutting-edge approach to building resilient, secure, scalable, and high-performance enterprise networks. With over 13 patents, the company has already deployed its platform with global enterprises including Sony Pictures and Valmont.