Khalid bin Bader Al Saud

Khalid bin Bader bin Saud bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is a Saudi prince, born in September 1994, the son of Bader bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud,¹ and the founder and managing director of Echelon (company), a Riyadh-based artificial intelligence company, the founder of the family investment firm East40 and a venture partner at RAED Ventures.²³⁴⁵

Names in the register

Companies House, the UK register, records him as Khalid Bin Bader Bin Saud Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz AL SAUD, born September 1994, with Saudi Arabian nationality.¹ A second officer record carries the same name and birth month and year, and a third, under the spelling Badr with a middle initial, shows the same birth month and year.⁶⁷ Arabic-language press uses the spelling بدر (Badr) for the same name.⁸ A 2025 release names him Prince Khaled bin Badr Al Saud.⁹

The Keko companies

Keko Hospitality Ltd was incorporated on November 8, 2021, and its registered activity is licensed restaurants.¹⁰ The register records his appointment as a director of KEKO HOSPITALITY LTD on the day of incorporation, with Saudi Arabia given as his place of residence at that entry.⁶ The company was struck off by compulsory strike-off, with the final Gazette notice on June 17, 2025.¹⁰¹¹

Keko Group Ltd was incorporated on June 17, 2022, as a holding company.¹² Khalid was appointed a director the same day, with England given as his place of residence.¹ The register lists him as the sole person with significant control, holding 75 percent or more of the shares, notified June 17, 2022.¹³ The company applied for voluntary strike-off on August 6, 2025 and was dissolved on November 4, 2025.¹²¹⁴

Keko Group Ltd was recorded as a person with significant control of KEKO HOSPITALITY LTD from July 13, 2022, holding 75 percent or more of the shares and voting rights. On January 12, 2024 the register recorded Keko Group Ltd as ceasing in that role and recorded Khalid in it, with 75 percent or more of the shares and voting rights and the right to appoint or remove directors.¹⁵ Resolutions adopting new articles of association and authorising a share transfer are dated January 26 to 31, 2024.¹¹

A third company, KEKO LC LTD, lists him as a director from July 5, 2023, under the Badr spelling.⁷ Keko Group Ltd became its person with significant control on March 1, 2024, when Arrow UK Ventures Ltd ceased in that role, and a co-director, Neha Beriwala, resigned the same day. The company applied for voluntary strike-off on July 3, 2024 and was dissolved on October 1, 2024.¹⁶

Echelon

An Arabic-language release on Zawya dated October 1, 2026 gives him the title "مؤسس Echelon ومديرها التنفيذي" (founder and managing director of Echelon) and quotes the "الأمير خالد بن بدر آل سعود." It is the Arabic version of an English release distributed on September 30, 2026 by IFS, which titles him Founder and Managing Director and quotes him: "Ever since we founded Echelon, our aim was to bring the most exciting AI solutions to Saudi Arabia."²⁸¹⁷ Wamda, a regional startup outlet, dates the founding to 2025.¹⁸

On the company website he is the only person named, as Founder and Managing Director, beside the line "Saudi Arabia should be among the nations that define AI, not the nations that consume it."³ A founder's letter dated Riyadh, October 2026 and published on the site and on LinkedIn has him write that he spent "most of my life between Riyadh, London and the US" and came home "a few years ago," and that "alongside a few members of my family, I founded East40 to make long-term, high-conviction bets on the sectors that will shape our country's future. AI was one of them, and we wanted to found and operate an AI business from the ground up." The letter credits the Crown Prince's leadership and names H.E. Abdullah Alswaha and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology as having "made adoption a national priority." It describes the company as "founded here in Riyadh and backed early by East40, Raed Ventures and Avra, alongside Ben Horowitz and others."⁴

The letter says the Technologies unit brings AI companies "into the enterprises and government customers that need them" and is "focused on Energy, Industrials, Government, Telco, Defence, Aviation, Financial Services & Insurance and Healthcare." It lists Echelon Defense Industries, launching in the first quarter of 2027, as built "for the scale of the defense opportunity ahead," with the purpose "to help the Kingdom build sovereign defence capability."⁴ The partner section of the site describes the Applied Intuition partnership as covering "physical AI in the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining, and agriculture industries," the IFS partnership as "across defense, energy, industrial and telecommunications," and Rubrik as "data security and resilience for enterprise and government."³ Scott Stedman wrote on X on October 13, 2026 that Khalid founded Echelon, an AI company serving Saudi government and defense customers.¹⁹

Echelon Digital

Releases from November and December 2025 name him in an earlier form of the company. On November 3, 2025 a release from Echelon Digital Group, "the Saudi technology holding company," announced a partnership with Elutions to deploy its Maestro AI platform in industrial and energy enterprises, naming "His Highness Prince Khaled bin Badr Al Saud, Chairman of Echelon Digital" and Omar Saleh as chief executive of Echelon Digital Group.⁹ On December 2, 2025 Rubrik announced its entry into Saudi Arabia through a partnership with Echelon Digital Group, quoting "H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, Executive Chairman of Echelon Digital," and planning data protection and cyber recovery for "enterprises in energy, financial services, and government sectors." The Echelon website lists that release among its own news items under the heading "Rubrik enters Saudi Arabia through a strategic partnership with Echelon."³²⁰ The site's terms of use name the operator as Echelon Digital Solutions Company, a Saudi company, and the owner of the site content as Echelon Digital Holding Group Ltd, registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre.³

The UK register lists ECHELON DIGITAL GROUP LTD, incorporated June 6, 2025 and active, with a director born December 1997 and recorded as British.²¹

Investors

Wamda reported on October 7, 2026 that Echelon had raised an undisclosed round from East40, RAED Ventures and Avra, "alongside Ben Horowitz and other investors." Dealroom published an item on October 8, 2026 titled "Saudi AI company Echelon launches with backing from Ben Horowitz, Avra and others," which gives no amount or valuation. Both reports say the company had spent about ten months in development.¹⁸²² Dealroom describes Khalid as founder of East40, co-founder of ClearGrid and an adviser to Andreessen Horowitz.²²

Ben Horowitz is a co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. Andreessen Horowitz led the 2021 seed round and the July 2022 Series A of Nash, the delivery-logistics company where Abdulrahman Alfozan, now a venture partner at RAED Ventures with Khalid, worked as a founding engineer from 2022.⁵²³²⁴

RAED Ventures and other ventures

The RAED Ventures team page lists Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud as a Venture Partner, alongside Alfozan and Kushal Shah.⁵ Dealroom lists him as co-founder of ClearGrid, described there as an AI debt-collection company.²²

Father and paternal line

The Companies House name "Khalid Bin Bader Bin Saud Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz AL SAUD" is an Arabic nasab, a name chain that states parentage: Khalid, son of Bader, son of Saud, son of Mohammed, son of Abdulaziz.¹ Scott Stedman was the first to report the link, writing on X on October 13, 2026 that Khalid "appears to be the son of Brigadier General Prince Bader bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud," formerly in the special operations section of the General Intelligence Agency.²⁵

Bader bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud is a brigadier general of the Ministry of Interior special forces and was assistant commander of the force that guards the Grand Mosque in Makkah. Arab News wrote on September 23, 2019 that "after his graduation, Prince Bader worked as an officer, detective and search officer with the Riyadh provincial police department before being posted to the Saudi General Intelligence agency to join its special operations section."²⁶ The agency is the General Intelligence Presidency.

Bader's brother is Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud, president of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology from 2015 to 2021 and an adviser to the Saudi Royal Court with ministerial rank from December 2018, and so Khalid's paternal uncle. Al-Jazirah listed Turki and Badr among the sons of Saud bin Mohammed on January 22, 2016.²⁷

Same-name records

Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the defence minister, is named on the General Authority for Military Industries website as vice chairman of its board.²⁸ The names share only the first name and the Al Saud surname,.

A Companies House search for the name returns an officer named Prince KHALID AL SAUD, born September 1994, with a Mayfair service address, which matches the birth month and year of this subject.²⁹ Other officers of the same name have different birth dates: Khalid Bin Sultan AL SAUD (born September 1949), Khalid Bin Khalid AL SAUD (born November 1959), Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz AL SAUD (born August 1977) and Khalid ALWALEED BIN TALAL AL SAUD (born September 1976).²⁹

For the Saudi banker of the same first name, see Khalid bin Mahfouz.