04/01/2021

Tech Partnership Between MCIT And TechStars Global Accelerator To Back Up Digital Projects In KSA

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology announced inking a partnership agreement with the Global TechStars Accelerator today, Thursday April 1, 2021. Global TechStars Accelerator specializes in technical acceleration, in partnership with Raed Ventures Investment Fund, which is a bold capital fund that focuses on investing in Initial stages projects from starting to rapid growth, with the aim of enhancing the success of emerging companies in the Kingdom. The two companies also aim to support the commercial growth of Saudi emerging companies, accelerate their adoption of digital technologies and branch out into different markets.
 
The three entities will invest their vast expertise and huge potential in stimulating, accelerating and maximizing the effectiveness of the performance of emerging companies in the Saudi society. This will be through an integrated back-up program for entrepreneurs, under the supervision of a group of mentors and international experts. The program includes a series of workshops and training courses under which the experts of the program will work side by side and along with entrepreneurs to discover the strengths and elements of success and how to strengthen them in their projects. They will also work to overcome the obstacles they may encounter during the project launch phase.
 
It is scheduled that this accelerator will adopt 10 start-up companies in its first program in order to allow them to expand their various businesses and partnerships. Projects involved in the programs will also receive funding of 450,000 riyals ($ 120,000), provided that the project meets the conditions for obtaining the funding that will be explained in details later.
 
On this partnership, Dr. Ahmed Al-Thunayan
Deputy Minister for Future jobs and Digital Entrepreneurship at MCIT, underscored the Ministry's keenness derived from the Kingdom's Vision 2030 to support and stimulate emerging companies. The Ministry believes in the importance of digital entrepreneurship, as an important source for the digital economy. He also pointed out that emerging companies are the engine of the fourth industrial revolution and the real investment in the journey towards realizing the all-out digital transformation.
 
Al-Thunayan Added that the capabilities and expertise that this accelerator possesses made the ministry conclude this qualitative partnership, noting that the ministry will continue to make great efforts to support digital startups and meet all their needs.
 
For his part, the co-founder of Raed Ventures Talal Al-Asmari affirmed that empowering entrepreneurs is the way to create a growing economy that contributes to the realization of Vision 2030, explaining that the program will stimulate the creation of new local and regional entrepreneurs to reach knowledge horizons full of global experiences over the next few years.
 
 
It is worth mentioning that "TechStars" platform, with a very wide network that extends to 150 countries, and includes 20,000 experts and mentors, has invested in more than 2,500 startups with a value of $ 204 billions. The partnership will provide an opportunity to branch out the business of emerging companies in the Kingdom, especially in light of the estimated government support for the startup ecosystem. The Kingdom has become a market that provides access to capital and talent and offers a wide range of opportunities.