The 1st Saudi Forum, organized in the period from 15 to 17 Safar 1439 H, by Umm Al-Qura University represented by Wadi Makkah Company under sponsorship of the Advisor to Custodian of Two Holy Mosques, Emir of Makkah HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal and inaugurated by the Governor of Jeddah HRH Prince Misha'al bin Majid, witnessed signing of 6 agreements and memos of understandings with the startups’ owners participated in the forum.

The first two agreements were signed for the benefit of Umm Al-Qura University by the President of UQU, the Chairman of Board of Directors of Wadi Makkah Company, Dr. Bakri bin M'atooq bin Bakri Assas with Lucidya, one of Wadi Makkah's a high-tech startups which provides space-time analysis for Twitter posts in order to monitor all positive and other opinions about the university with the intention of enhancing positive sides and avoiding goofs.  

He also signed the agreement of buying Bio Kubes platform for medical laboratories which provides an integrated and automated platform to screen microbes removed from various samples such as food, soil, and blood samples in an attempt to upgrade medical services of the University Medical Center.

On the other hand, Dr. Assas witnessed signing of Memo of Understanding between Wadi Makkah Company and Aim Startup Initiative which operates under the umbrella of UAE Ministry of Economy to support owners of startups by enabling them to showcase their companies to investors at the local and regional levels. He also witnessed signing of investments contracts of the startups participated in the Saudi Startups Forum with one of Saudi Investment Funds belonging to the private sector specialized in startups investments.     

Further, Dr. Assas praised the sponsorship of the Advisor to the Custodian of Two Holy Mosques and Emir of Makkah Prince Khalid Al-Faisal and the honorable attendance of the Governor of Jeddah Prince Misha'al bin Majid in the opening ceremony thus contributing to the success of the forum. He also valued the confidence of businessmen and venture capital funds and their investments in the forum’s startups amounted to more than 150 company specialized in several fields related to the community requirements and needs.   

For his part, the UQU Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship Dr. Hani Ghazi said the keenness of the UQU President Dr. Bakri Assas in purchasing Wadi Makkah Startups products comes as part of the support provided by the university to entrepreneurs to motivate them to exert much effort in turning their innovations into tangible products.      

He added that the sidelines of the forum witnessed signing of agreements with the venture capital funds in the fields of agriculture and modern technologies to keep pace with the Kingdom Vision 2030 in line with the National transformation plan 2020 by producing agricultural and animal  products locally by such means of limiting water consumption and the environmental damage of the chemical materials used in agriculture, besides other projects including; Bebi Mamool,  one of the successful projects of the productive families in the last six years and has become prepared for marketing  at the local and regional levels. That is to be added to Mazadar restaurant, a local project dedicated to serve different types of food in special potteries. The project, he added will start marketing process at the regional level in the coming period.   

Similarly, one of the representatives of Venture Capital Funds, Dr. Hassan Jabarti said these agreements come within the social responsibility and to support entrepreneurs and owners of startups to achieve their aspirations so as for their products to be available in the local and regional markets.