The institute is an initiative of Eng Sobhi A Batterjee President and CEO of the Saudi German Hospital Group Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , to facilitate "Young Potential Saudis to develop as Business Persons", keep up with Saudi Tradition and start New Ventures , become job Providers rather than seek Jobs. Eng Sobhi A Batterjee commissioned the UNIDO to conduct the feasibility study for starting such an institute, in 1999 and later signed an technical support agreement with UNIDO for establishing the Institute in 2002.The Batterjee Medical Company provided the initial funding the Institute.

SEDI started its operations from October 2002.