Riyadh — On September 30, The Garage (الكــراج), Saudi Arabia’s flagship startup hub, unveiled its 8th cohort at a packed demo day. Eighteen early-stage startups took the stage, not with simple apps but with bold solutions for water scarcity, HR compliance, healthcare, cloud adoption, and hospitality AI — sectors central to Vision 2030.
Unlike earlier batches, this cohort reflects a shift toward infrastructure and regulation-heavy challenges, showing how Saudi founders are building the backbone of the Kingdom’s next economy.
Below, we break down the top 13 startups from The Garage’s 8th Cohort, what they do, and why investors are watching them closely.
Bites
Founders: Yazeed Alsulayhim , Ibrahim Alkathiri
Industry Focus: EdTech / RetailTech
What they do: Bite-sized, gamified learning modules to train frontline employees quickly and effectively.
Their Edge: Retail turnover is costly. Bites reduces onboarding time and boosts employee retention.
SalesFine
Founders: Haytham Ibrahim
Industry Focus: SaaS / SalesTech
What they do: SalesFine is a B2B payments platform enabling wholesalers, suppliers, and marketplaces to offer flexible payment terms, automate collections, and gain real-time visibility into cash flow and transactions.
Their Edge: In a market where small businesses struggle with cash flow and payment delays, SalesFine bridges the gap — turning receivables into predictable revenue streams. Their focus on automation, transparency, and flexibility gives vendors and buyers confidence and unlocks growth potential across supply chains.
DiSTY
Founders: Ahmed Abu Alasal
Industry Focus: RetailTech / Supply Chain / Electronics
What they do: Disty connects suppliers and wholesalers with small retail shops via a mobile/ web platform that provides real-time inventory, ordering, payment flexibility, and logistics support.
Their Edge: Disty replaces phone calls and middlemen with a digital platform that brings speed, transparency, and better margins to Saudi’s retail supply chain.
Estajer
Founders: FARIS Waleed , Mohammed Yousfan
Industry Focus: Rental Marketplace / Sharing Economy
What they do: Estajer is a Saudi rental marketplace that lets individuals and businesses rent (rather than buy) tools, electronics, event gear, furniture, and more. Users can list items, specify durations, handle delivery, and transact through the platform.
Why they’re a favorite: Many assets lie idle for most of their life. Estajer taps into underutilized inventory, allowing owners to monetize and renters to access without full purchase cost. Their “verified + guaranteed” model also helps build trust in a market where casual rentals often carry risk.
ID Water
Founders: Alan Yu
Industry Focus: AgriTech / Climate Tech / Aquaculture
What they do: They run a hybrid system combining smart indoor shrimp farming with mangrove-based carbon sequestration (MAPS), using AI, IoT, sensors, solar power, and wastewater reuse.
Why they’re a favorite: Their model tackles sustainability, food security, and climate goals simultaneously — aligning closely with global ESG trends and regional environmental priorities.
Otida
Founders: Ayman Mostafa
Industry Focus: HealthTech / Wellness
What they do: A chronic disease and nutrition management platform, with a focus on diabetes.
Their Edge: Diabetes affects 1 in 5 Saudis. Otida offers tech-driven personalized care.
Motto Vest
Founders: Zeeshan Shahid
Industry Focus: SafetyTech / Wearables
What they do: Motto Vest builds smart airbag vests that inflate instantaneously upon collision to protect vital organs, spine, and torso. Their protective gear is designed for motorcyclists and delivery riders.
Their Edge: In markets with high road accident rates and limited rider safety infrastructure, Motto Vest offers life-saving technology that blends hardware, sensors, and rapid response — making it a differentiated and mission-driven product
Dentolize
Founders: Mostafa Dawood
Industry Focus: HealthTech / SaaS
What they do: Practice management software for dental clinics — bookings, billing, and lab workflows.
Their Edge: Private healthcare is expanding fast, but dental clinics lack specialized tools.
Bus14
Founders: Mohamed Hussein Bakeir
Industry Focus: MobilityTech / EdTech
What they do: A smart transport solution for schools with optimized routes, driver tracking, and parent alerts.
Their Edge: School transport is inefficient and unsafe in many cities — Bus14 is a timely fix.
Vast Group
Founders: Adel AlOtaibi
Industry Focus: FinTech / Payments
What they do: Vast Group provides QR-based payment and post-payment digital solutions — including VastMenu (ordering + payment) and VastPay — enabling businesses to accept payments, engage users, deliver offers, and manage loyalty without requiring customers to download an app.
Their Edge: In a market where mobile payments and digital ordering are critical, Vast’s frictionless, integration-friendly QR tech gives businesses a low-barrier entry into digital commerce. Their claim of 300+ locations already using their platform shows decent adoption in competitive verticals like F&B, retail, and hospitality.
CloudStation
Founders: Oumnya Benhassou
Industry Focus: loud / DevOps / SaaS Infrastructure
What they do: A developer platform that fast-tracks cloud deployment — letting creators deploy websites, AI apps, or backend services with minimal configuration. They handle the underlying infrastructure (scaling, security, multi-cloud), so founders can focus on product logic.
Their Edge: Many startups struggle with cloud setup, DevOps, and multi-cloud orchestration. CloudStation reduces that barrier, making deployment frictionless. Their template library, automation, and abstraction give them strong appeal among resource-limited startups.
Reachware
Founders: Maysarah Mashaal, Hamza Abusitta
Industry Focus: Integration Platform / iPaaS / Automation
What they do: Reachware is an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) that enables disparate SaaS systems (ERP, CRM, POS, HR, etc.) to communicate seamlessly. Their solution offers an integration marketplace, system connectors, workflow automation, and extension capabilities across finance, sales, e-commerce, HR, and delivery functions.
Their Edge: In a market where many businesses run multiple siloed tools, Reachware’s promise is simple but powerful: keep existing systems and make them talk to each other. That saves cost, reduces duplication, and accelerates digital workflows. Because they focus on integration (rather than replacing systems), their barrier to adoption is lower. Also, their depth in MENA (localization, regional connectors) gives them a competitive edge.
SuperButler.ai
Founders: Syed Ansar Gillani
Industry Focus: AI / Hospitality Tech
What they do: AI-powered concierge for hotels and hospitality businesses, integrated with PMS/POS.
Their Edge: Saudi Arabia wants to host 100M tourists a year. SuperButler is building the digital concierge backbone.
13 startups from Saudi Arabia’s Garage 8th Cohort Demo Day catching investor attention