Savvy Games Group and NEOM announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to streamline the journey of Saudi gaming startups from incubation to acceleration, aiming to strengthen the Kingdom’s end-to-end gaming ecosystem and advance the goals of the National Gaming and Esports Strategy under Saudi Vision 2030.
The agreement formalizes a coordinated approach between Savvy’s Nine66 Incubator Program 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. This Savvy-NEOM collaboration builds upon the rapid evolution of both programs and shall ultimately support a stronger pipeline of investable gaming studios.
Savvy’s Nine66 Incubator Program has helped early-stage studios validate prototypes, build foundational capabilities, and prepare for investor engagement. Through this initiative, Savvy aims to help startups achieve readiness to move into the subsequent stages of development and scaling.
NEOM’s Level Up Accelerator provides funding and mentorship to scale incubated studios into self-sustaining businesses. Since 2023, it has grown into a multiphase platform supporting more than 45 Saudi startups, deploying 15 investments, and achieving a 100% survival rate within its portfolio—outperforming many global benchmarks. 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.
Group Chief of Staff at Savvy Games Group Amr Sager said: “As the games industry continues to grow at a rapid pace in Saudi Arabia, there is an increasing number of programs and initiatives designed to help emerging studios and entrepreneurs to build, run, and scale their businesses. This momentum is encouraging, and 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.”
