JEDDAH — Leading entrepreneurs from seven countries in the Middle East have been selected to be part of the third edition of the Silicon Valley Program organized by MIT Enterprise Forum (MIT EF) Pan Arab in collaboration with Bab Rizq Jameel, a Community Jameel initiative.
The entrepreneurs, who hail from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon, represent a variety of innovative projects from a wide range of sectors including fintech, augmented reality and robotics.
‘From the Arab World to Silicon Valley’ program, taking place on Sept. 8-14, is in partnership with Tech Wadi and LebNet and is supported by Google for Entrepreneurs, 500Startups, Endeavor and Uber. It will provide entrepreneurs from 11 startups and established companies with training from venture capital firms and successful entrepreneurs as well as opportunities to interact with the world’s most prominent industry experts. The program will also provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to take part in an investors’ day in order for them to pitch their startups to leading international investors.
The selected entrepreneurs will present their companies in San Francisco at the Arab pavilion of one of the world’s most renowned tech conferences, TechCrunch Disrupt.
“‘From the Arab World to Silicon Valley’ program is an opportunity for entrepreneurs in the Arab region to benefit from the best education and training services provided by global subject matter experts, in addition to the potential investment in their businesses,” said Fady Jameel, president of Community Jameel International. “We are excited about the third edition of this program as we identified 11 companies from the Arab world operating in cutting-edge fields and are providing them with the exceptional opportunity to gain international exposure and profit from the expertise of leading industry experts. We are also thrilled to have 5 Saudi teams joining us as guest entrepreneurs,” said Hala Fadel, chairman of the MIT EF Pan Arab.
“This year, we will see 5 MITEF Saudi 2015 winners as guests to the program, including B8tak app for home maintenance, winner of the MITEF Saudi 2015 Startup Track and holder of third place at the 2016 MITEF Forum Arab Startup competition. We also welcome Artistia, runner-up at the Startup competition, Every drop Counts, winner of the Ideas Track at MITEF Saudi 2015, runner-up Re Braille, third-placed Kool Snack, and the Saudi company, Tam” added Jameel.
To qualify for the program, companies must meet three of the following four criteria: legally registered for at least two years, have been through at least one investment cycle, access to regional and/or global markets, and a minimum of $500,000 in annual revenues.
