Saudi Arabia Backs Investment in Wireless Sensors to Forecast Floods, Weather Conditions, Natural Disasters

Two Saudi investment funds have revealed financing a promising wireless environmental sensor project.

This step comes in line with the Kingdom’s attempt to support and bolster technical innovations and exerted efforts by private financing entities to benefit from startups that are specialized in scientific fields and innovation.

Sadeem, a wireless environmental sensing systems spinout company, has provided the world’s first multi-patented sensor solution for flood, traffic, weather, and air quality monitoring.

It secured $2.6 million (SAR10 million) of co-investment from the KAUST Innovation Fund and Saudi Aramco’s Waed Ventures fund.

This joint funding round will support Sadeem in pioneering crucial sensor technology that helps in solving the growing global problems of natural disasters, especially those with a developmental benefit to the Kingdom.

KAUST Vice president Kevin Cullen expressed the thrill to be co-investing with Waed Ventures in Sadeem, one of the Kingdom’s leading deep tech startups.

“What started as an idea between KAUST students is now a fast-growing company with a strong IP position, R&D and a talented local team,” he said.

Managing Director of Waed Ventures Wassim Basrawi, for his part, echoed these sentiments saying Sadeem is a great example of a diverse Saudi-based startup that is transforming collaborative research efforts into commercial solutions and addressing environmental challenges through sensible smart-city applications.

“We are looking forward to seeing Sadeem gain further business opportunities and support the Kingdom’s road and environmental response infrastructure.”

Sadeem will use this investment to update the existing Equa and Aura sensors, develop new technologies (for monitoring ice, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes) and businesses, and acquire new customers.

It is noteworthy that Sadeem is a member of the UN Disaster Management Community, ranked 13 among the “Most Promising KSA Startups” in Forbes Magazine 2016 and has been recognized with Best Global Startup from GITEX 2017 and Best IP-Based Startup KAUST 2016.