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Saudi Arabia is investing in a three-year-old start-up that designs digital theme parks inside buying centres, within the Gulf kingdom’s newest transfer to interrupt into the know-how and leisure industries.

Riyadh Season, a government-backed leisure initiative below the auspices of the sovereign wealth fund, has offered many of the $55mn of debt and fairness raised by HyperSpace. Riyadh Season is led by Turki al-Sheikh, who chairs the General Entertainment Authority.

Shopping centres should discover that “cool factor” to attract shoppers in, Alexander Heller, co-founder and chief govt of HyperSpace, instructed the Financial Times. “Today, within that ecosystem, you’re looking at something that’s much more experience driven.”

Saudi Arabia is in search of to scale back its dependence on oil revenues and is investing in different areas, equivalent to electrical automobile manufacturing, sports activities groups and tourism. It has set out a goal to develop into a world gaming hub, and this yr spent $4.9bn to amass the US-based video games developer Scopely.

The nation is spending closely on offers to pursue these targets, however there are questions on whether or not it could possibly entice foreigners in massive numbers. Saudi Arabia, which isn’t a conventional tourism vacation spot, desires to lure 100mn visitors yearly by the top of the last decade.

HyperSpace creates elaborate parks that characteristic a mixture of digital and bodily leisure together with gaming, an attraction for Saudi Arabia’s comparatively younger and digitally savvy inhabitants. Nearly half one million fans paying $34 every have flocked to its first location in Dubai, a 40,000-square-foot park, because it opened there 9 months in the past.

The Riyadh-based firm plans to broaden in Saudi Arabia and past to the US. “There’s a big focus on expanding the business” to the remainder of the world, Heller mentioned.

Riyadh was a uniquely enticing companion, Heller mentioned, given the significance of buying centres to Saudis, who’re additionally extremely engaged in social media. HyperSpace is eager to be behind the push to draw shoppers again to buying malls, which have been hit by an increase in on-line buying.

“We saw an opportunity in the location-based entertainment space and how that fit into the future of the retail ecosystem,” he mentioned.

Galaxy Interactive, a New York-based enterprise capital agency centered on gaming, led the newest funding spherical, which incorporates different worldwide traders.

HyperSpace plans to open a park in Riyadh in six weeks and one other one in Dubai over the subsequent few months.