The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority “Monsha’at” signed a memorandum of understanding with Standard Chartered Saudi Arabia during the Biban 2025 forum, which Monsha’at organizes from November 5 to 8 at the Riyadh Front Exhibition and Conference Center under the theme A Global Destination for Opportunities.

The memorandum of understanding aims at cooperation on the Futuremakers Women in Tech program, a global acceleration program to empower ambitious women entrepreneurs who lead technology-based or technology-enabled startups.

In its third edition in the Kingdom, the program embodies a firm commitment to supporting gender diversity, strengthening women’s participation in the technology sector, and building a more inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Kingdom.

This cooperation comes as part of Monsha’at’s efforts to empower women in the entrepreneurship sector and strengthen their participation in the national economy, by building quality programs that contribute to developing women-led entrepreneurial projects and opening channels of cooperation with global institutions that support innovation and entrepreneurship.

The memorandum was signed on behalf of Monsha’at by the Vice Governor of Entrepreneurship, Saud Alsabhan, and on behalf of Standard Chartered Saudi Arabia by the Chief Executive Officer and Head of Banking, Mazen AlBunyan.

This partnership embodies Monsha’at’s drive to strengthen cooperation with global financial institutions to empower national talent and support women’s entrepreneurship, in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 to raise women’s contribution to economic development and expand the SME base.

The third cohort of Women in Tech was launched in May 2025 as part of Standard Chartered’s global Futuremakers initiative, which aims to close the gender gap in technology entrepreneurship. The Saudi Arabia program has so far supported 30 startups through guidance, with 9 of them receiving co-funding of $145,000 as equity-free seed capital to scale their projects.