LinkedIn announces Top Startups List 2023 showcasing Saudi companies
LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, has announced its annual Top Startups list, ranking the top 10 companies based in Saudi Arabia that have demonstrated unparalleled growth and succeeded in building workplaces that attract top talent.
Amidst global hiring levels cooling down and labor markets tightening, the startups featured in this list are showing remarkable resilience, weathering through a turbulent economic environment and exhibiting innovation that propelled their growth trajectory and enabled them to successfully navigate the evolution of business needs.
LinkedIn’s Top Startups list is published annually and is designed to be a reliable resource that offers guidance to professionals who could be looking for an exciting opportunity at a startup.
The Top Startups for 2023 in the KSA are:
- Lucidya
- Tamara
- Zid
- Nana
- Tweeq
- Lendo
- Gathern
- Salla
- Soum
- Sary
Key trends observed from this year’s Top Startups list:
- New frontiers of innovation: Startups in the Kingdom are steadily exploring new areas for innovation, as seen by the first of its kind regionally focused customer experience and social listening platform Lucidya (#1), and the peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace Gathern (#7).
- Fintech solutions are thriving: Innovative fintech startups continue to leverage the country’s growing financial ecosystem to reaffirm their leading position in the annual startups ranking, with this year’s edition featuring Tamara (#2), Tweeq (#5), and Lendo (#6).
- Sustainable growth in the e-commerce marketplace: Entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia value the potential of offering transformative value add in legacy sectors such as the e-commerce sector, enabling them to grow their startups sustainably. Within this sector, we see a strong presence by the likes of Zid (#3), an e-retail enablement company, Nana (#4) a digital grocery shopping platform, Salla (#8), a rising e-commerce platform, Soum (#9), a re-commerce marketplace platform, and Sary (#10), a B2B focused marketplace platform.
Dana Moukhallati, News Editor at LinkedIn, said: “This year’s list demonstrates the growing capabilities of startups in the Kingdom as they venture into new and untapped industries. We also see the government offering startups the right opportunity to experiment with financial and e-commerce solutions, paving the way for more of those companies to emerge.”
She added, “KSA’s Top Startups List 2023 is a snapshot of the startups and VC landscape in the Kingdom, while also offering insights into the latest economic trends. The startups featured on this list are those that prevailed in the face of economic challenges and excelled in meeting their clients’ needs.”
LinkedIn Top Startups is an annual global ranking that lists the emerging startups to work for and is produced by LinkedIn’s News team, who have analyzed the billions of interactions made by the platform’s 950+ million members. The list is compiled by measuring and analyzing metrics across four pillars: employment growth, engagement with the company and its current employees, job interest, and attraction of top talent.
Methodology
LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent.
- Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase, which must be a minimum of 10%, over the methodology time period
- Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees viewed or followed employees at that startup.
- Job interest counts the rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings.
- Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from LinkedIn Top Companies, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce.
To be eligible, companies must be fully independent, privately held, have 30 or more full-time employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities.
Startups who have laid off 20% or more of their workforce based on corporate announcements or public, reliable sources between July 1, 2022 and the list launch, are not eligible. These decisions are made by the LinkedIn News team based on company statements and/or reputable news outlets.
