67% of Saudi VC funding in H1 2026 went into FinTech. 🇸🇦 (Source: @SheetVenture) That is a lot of capital going into one sector. FinTech has done incredibly well in Saudi. But I would love to see more capital moving into AI, DeepTech, Robotics, Biotech and Defense. These companies are harder to build.

Some startup sectors are quietly losing venture capital. Not because the companies are disappearing, but because over the last 18 months, investor attention and capital have been shifting elsewhere. At @SheetVenture, we track these movements across private markets, and five categories stand out: 1. Traditional SaaS AI is putting pressure on horizontal SaaS. Investors increasingly want proprietary data, strong moats and products that cannot easily be replicated by AI. 2. D2C & E-commerce High acquisition costs, low margins and expensive logistics have made the traditional D2C growth model much less attractive to venture investors. 3. Traditional MarTech AI-native platforms are consolidating workflows that previously required multiple marketing tools, putting pressure on standalone MarTech products. 4. Consumer Apps Capital is increasingly concentrated around breakout companies with exceptional retention, organic growth or network effects. Being another consumer app is no longer enough. 5. Generic Web3 & Crypto Capital hasn’t disappeared, but it has become much more selective, concentrating around payments, stablecoins, institutional infrastructure and companies with real technical advantages. The bigger signal: Capital is becoming more selective and increasingly moving toward AI infrastructure, defense, robotics, energy, advanced computing and biotech. #SheetVenture #VentureCapital #PrivateMarkets #StartupFunding #MarketIntelligence