Hedera inks $250 million deal with Saudi Ministry of Investment

• Hedera has announced it sealed a five-year, $250 million deal for blockchain and Web3 initiatives in Saudi Arabia.
• HBAR price rose more than 5% following the major development.

Hedera has secured a $250 million investment deal from the Saudi Arabia government, according to details the blockchain platform shared today.

The deal is part of a five-year agreement The Hashgraph Association, a Swiss-based non-profit helping to develop the Hedera blockchain signed with the Saudi Ministry of Investment, Hedera posted on X.

As part of a five-year agreement valued at $250m with the Saudi Ministry of Investment (@MISA), @The_Hashgraph Association has announced the launch of the DeepTech Venture Studio – empowering companies to develop innovative technological solutions. #web3https://t.co/wnqA9H4rm4 https://t.co/Yi6EJWqEh6

— Hedera (@hedera) February 6, 2024

Hedera launces DeepTech Venture Studio

Per the announcement, The Hashgraph Association has launched DeepTech Venture Studio, a venture targeted at empowering local Saudi as well as companies in the technology space. 

In particular, the project will look to promote adoption across blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, and Internet of Things (IoT). Also targeted is virtual reality and quantum computing.

Hashgraph and the Saudi Ministry of Investment officially signed off the agreement for the studio during the Saudi-Swiss roundtable meeting in Riyadh.

With the major deal in Saudi in place, Hashgraph has added to recent initiatives aimed at driving further development of the Hedera network. These include the partnership with Algorand that introduced the Decentralized Recovery (DeRec) protocol. 

Announced earlier this year DeRec is an initiative that seeks to bolster digital asset security and recovery efforts. The program also involves the HBAR Foundation and Algorand Foundation.

Today’s news saw the price of Hedera native token HBAR surge by more than 5% to above $0.076.