• Saudi Arabia-based NFT marketplace Nuqtah has closed its pre-Seed round led by Shorooq Partners and joined by strategic angel investors. The amount raised was not disclosed.
• Founded in 2021 by Salwa Radwi, Nuqtah allows artists to register and trace their artwork with full details available on a public ledger that cannot be manipulated.
• Nuqtah plans to utilise the funding to grow its presence in the Mena digital creative economy.

Press release:

Nuqtah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s first and leading NFT marketplace, has closed its pre-Seed round led by Shorooq Partners and joined by strategic angel investors. The Company founded by Salwa Radwi plans to become the de-facto platform for the Saudi and Mena digital creative economy.

NFTs represent a major transformation for artists to safely register and trace any of their productions, with full details available on a public ledger that cannot be manipulated. The ability to trace original creators, and future line of owners, create a solution for the artist and talents to generate royalty payments for each time the asset changes ownership.

As a local first platform, Nuqtah enables local creatives to publish and sell their work seamlessly and will serve as a global platform for buyers keen on acquiring the latest NFTs by renowned and emerging Mena artists. Nuqtah plans to build on the thriving NFTs space, and utilise the underlying blockchain technology to spearhead innovation in other verticals such as media and entertainment.

Shane Shin, Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners, said, “Ever since moving to Saudi, I have witnessed first hand the tremendous evolution of the creative and cultural landscape, led by passionate young Saudis. The Kingdom is on an ambitious digital transformation journey, and the creative economy is one of the core pillars of the nation's long term vision. As we continue to back daring founders and support them in building enduring and sector-leading companies, we are privileged to join Nuqtah as the Kingdoms first NFT platform. We believe in the Nuqtah team’s vision, and are humbled to work with them to take Nuqtah to the global NFT arena, representing the region’s vibrant and rich creative depth.”

The NFT global market has witnessed tremendous growth between 2020 – 2021. In 2020 the NFT market was valued at just over $250 million and reached $2 billion in Q1 of 2021. According to Dapp Radar, as of Q3 2021, the total sales volume reached $10.7 billion. Other NFT global platforms include OpenSea, which as of July was valued at $1.5 billion. Now other centralised crypto exchanges are jumping on board, with Coinbase and FTX.US launching their own NFT marketplaces as well.

Amal Dokhan, Partner at 500 Global said, “We are ecstatic to have Nuqtah be a part of our second cohort at Sanabil 500 Mena seed accelerator. Seeing more female founders take lead in Saudi is truly refreshing and more so in such an exciting intersection between the arts & blockchain in an Arabic enabled NFT platform, we believe in Nuqtah's founding team and are surely privileged to support their journey towards Growth.”

“Our goal is to create the ultimate environment for creators in the Kingdom, where they can sell their masterpieces at the value they deserve safely and securely. The Nuqtah founding team are from the core of the creative community in the region, hence, they truly understand what it means to be creative in the kingdom. We are here to transform the industry,” says Salwa Radwi the CEO at Nuqtah.