TAQADAM Startup Accelerator, one of Saudi Arabia’s most established and well-resourced startup acceleration programmes, has opened applications for Cohort 10 with a deadline of June 21, 2026. Interested founders can apply directly at taqadam.acceleratorapp.co/apply/program/taqadam-cohort-10 before the deadline closes. The programme is backed by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and SAB, Saudi Arabia’s first bank, and operates from NTI, KRTP in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, giving it the dual institutional grounding of one of the region’s most research-intensive universities and one of its most established financial institutions.
TAQADAM has built a track record across its first nine cohorts that positions it among the more consequential accelerators in the Gulf and broader Middle East region. The programme’s alumni community and investment network have collectively raised over 450 million United States dollars, and the accelerator has built a network of more than 600 founders, investors, and mentors that participants gain access to upon joining. The jobs created through TAQADAM-backed ventures number in the thousands, reflecting the programme’s impact not just as a vehicle for individual startup development but as a contributor to the broader economic diversification agenda that Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has placed at the centre of the kingdom’s development strategy.
For startups looking to establish or deepen their presence in the Saudi and Gulf markets, TAQADAM’s institutional connections, investor network, and market access support provide a structured pathway into one of the region’s most active and well-capitalised startup ecosystems. The programme’s association with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is particularly relevant for deep technology and science-driven ventures, given the university’s research infrastructure and its positioning as a hub for advanced technology development across artificial intelligence, energy, biotechnology, and materials science. SAB’s involvement adds the financial sector’s perspective and network to the programme’s institutional backing, creating connections to the banking and financial services relationships that growing businesses invariably need as they scale their operations within the Saudi market.
Pakistani startups and founders from across the region who are building ventures with market potential in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf are well-positioned to benefit from a programme of this calibre, particularly those in sectors that align with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 priorities including energy technology, health innovation, financial technology, education technology, and advanced manufacturing. TAQADAM’s Cohort 10 represents an opportunity to join a community that has demonstrated its capacity to produce funded, employment-generating ventures at scale, and to do so with the institutional backing of two of Saudi Arabia’s most credible organisations in research and finance. Founders with the ambition and the product to compete in the Saudi and Gulf markets are encouraged to apply at taqadam.acceleratorapp.co/apply/program/taqadam-cohort-10 before the June 21 deadline.
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