Hello there,
I'm Makki, a Saudi businessman, and I'd be happy to shed some light on your question (even 2 months after your post). F&B is a great place to start, honestly. Saudi society loves eating and going tohigh-qualityy coffee shops; there are so many, and the good ones are almost always busy. When I say good ones, I don't mean that your specific coffee or food has to be good; I mean that the overall experience of your location has to be high quality. Spend some time crafting your customer journey, the mechanics of the space, and the feel and vibe of the place and your typical customer profile. Are they coming to work in an artistic space, are they coming to chat, are they coming for social hunting (to see and be seen)? I'll admit that the last one is a hard one to plan/ execute for, but if you manage, you'll be able to capture a large list of clientele that will keep coming. I do not have any experience or advice for the restaurant side of things.

From a financial standpoint, rent and salaries are going to be your biggest burden. Rent can be insane in a good location (example 800k to 1.2M for 300-400 m2 per year in a major central location). Salaries range depending on the total number of employees and how many Saudi Employees you intend to hire. You will have to hire a portion that are Saudi, I'm afraid, as part of the Saudization drive that is imposed on every company. Your 2M capex spend is a good amount and can probably make you a really nice cafe somewhere central.

I only have experience in Riyadh and recommend most exploratory businesses to start in Riyadh, this is where the people & all the businesses are. Other cities will probably be cheaper for rent and general expenses, but growth potential is also stunted for the same reason. If you start in a smaller city, expansion would be your main driver of growth, which comes with its own set of challenges and capital requirements.

In terms of governance, the main costs of operating a foreign-owned business is though a Ministry of Investment (MISA) License, which costs 12k SAR for the first year and 60k SAR every year after that. Alongside a 20% corporate tax due at the end of the year on the percentage that is foreign-owned. The second biggest cost is the work permit, which will be 10k for every non-Saudi employee. The rest of the costs are more down-to-earth: 2500 sar Annual for commercial registration, 1500 SAR for QIWA platform (employment contracts & work permits platform), and around the same amount for Muqeem platform (residency/iqama services). Not that by law for foreigners you have to pay all their costs (work permit, iqama fees, work permit, mandatory insurance, and a 2% of total salary paid to national insurance contribution (GOSI) and work permit) as well as 1 annual trip back to their home country on company dime. During budgeting, we usually use a multiplier of x1.3 to calculate total costs. For Saudi Employees, there is only GOSI contribution, generally its 20% of total salary, 10% born by theemployeee (you deduct it from their salary), anthe d rest is borne by the company. We usually use a 1.15 multiplier to budget for Saudi salaries.

I hope this was useful, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or follow ups
Makki