The Chicago to Riyadh corridor, as I see it from both ends
A market observation from someone at Kellogg and in Al Khobar: where Chicago venture and Saudi capital meet, and what kind of seats that creates.
By Ali Asif,
I spend term time at Kellogg in Evanston and the rest of my working life running a company in Al Khobar. That gives me an odd view of two ecosystems that talk to each other less than they should.
The Chicago side
Chicago's venture scene doesn't have the volume of San Francisco or New York. What it has is industry. Healthcare, logistics, industrial software, fintech and manufacturing are everyday customers here, and many founders sell to large operating companies. Kellogg sits in the middle of that. The Venture Capital Lab and the AI Club are two of the rooms where I hear deals discussed informally, well before anyone funds them.
I'm a member of those groups, nothing more, and I mention them for the same reason I'd mention a neighbourhood: it's where I hear things.
The Riyadh side
Saudi capital is moving into venture in a visible way. MAGNiTT's 2025 report shows $1.72 billion invested across 257 deals in the Kingdom, the most active market in the Middle East by both measures. Sanabil, the PIF venture arm, has published a list of almost 40 venture and growth funds it backs, with US managers among them. And family offices, which are quieter, tend to look for direct deals in sectors they know from their own businesses.
Many of the Chicago strengths line up with what the Kingdom is building. Industrial software, logistics technology, health systems and supply chain tools all connect to Vision 2030 programs. A Chicago founder with a product that fits might find a Saudi buyer or a Saudi co-investor, and neither side may know the other exists.
What's missing
Two things slow the corridor down.
First, translation. A US fund describes itself in terms of strategy and track record. A Saudi allocator thinks in terms of mandate, fit and local presence. Both are reasonable, but the vocabulary differs, and an introducer who speaks both saves months.
Second, boots on the ground. A Saudi regional headquarters rule that took effect in January 2024 links many government contracts to a local office, so a US company that wants to sell there benefits from a partner who already operates in the Kingdom.
The seats I find interesting
I look at this as a market structure question: what roles would make the corridor work, and who is paid for what? A few I watch.
A venture partner at a US firm with Saudi limited partners, part time, working across both. A scout writing small checks on the fund's behalf. Then there's the retained advisor, who tells an institution how a sector looks from the US side. These roles already exist in various forms. Institutions fill them in different ways, and there's no single template.
The structure matters. The clean version is a fee for services such as sourcing and diligence, or carry on the fund's own investments. Anything tied to introducing capital raises securities-law questions, and that line is firm. I'd want a US securities lawyer involved before any role like this became real.
Where I come out
I run an operating company in the Kingdom, I'm a student in Chicago and I read both markets daily. I'm not asking anyone for anything with this note. I'm writing down what I see, because writing it down is how I find out whether I still believe it a few months later. If you're building something in this corridor, I'd like to hear how it looks from your end.