Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group and NEOM (a planned city being built in Tabuk Province) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support the Kingdom’s gaming startups throughout their journey from incubation to acceleration. The partnership aims to strengthen the nation’s end-to-end gaming ecosystem, apart from advancing the objectives of the “National Gaming” and “Esports Strategy” under the “Saudi Vision 2030” economic diversification agenda.
“The agreement formalises a coordinated approach between Savvy’s Nine66 Incubator Programme and NEOM’s ‘Level Up Accelerator,’ ensuring that startups graduating from Savvy’s Incubator have the training, resources and support required to progress efficiently into NEOM’s Accelerator,” reported the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) about the development.
Chief of Staff at Savvy Games Group, Amr Sager, during the MoU’s signing, said, “As the games industry continues to grow at a rapid pace in Saudi Arabia, there is an increasing number of programmes and initiatives designed to help emerging studios and entrepreneurs to build, run, and scale their businesses.”
Sager added that while this momentum is encouraging, the next step would be to create stronger synergy and alignment across these efforts, so that the journey is smoother and clearer for startups to identify and source the support they need.
While the strategic Savvy Games-NEOM collaboration builds upon the rapid evolution of both programmes and will ultimately support a stronger pipeline of investable gaming studios, it’s worth mentioning that Savvy’s “Nine66 Incubator Programme” has already helped early-stage studios validate prototypes, build foundational capabilities, and prepare for investor engagement. Through the latest initiative, Savvy now aims to help Kingdom’s startups achieve readiness to move into the subsequent stages of development and scaling.
NEOM’s “Level Up Accelerator,” on the other hand, provides funding and mentorship to scale incubated studios into self-sustaining businesses. Since 2023, the programme has developed into a multi-phase platform that supports over 45 Saudi startups. It has also achieved significant milestones, including making 15 investments and maintaining a 100% survival rate within its portfolio, surpassing many global benchmarks in the process.
“With 17 international partners offering publishing and support, Level Up has enabled more than 170 jobs and facilitated a historic milestone: the Kingdom’s first international publishing deal for a domestic gaming start-up, signed between Fahy Studio and UK-based publisher Kwalee,” SPA noted.