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Nine startups compete at Entrepreneurship World Cup 2022 national final in UAE

Winning Startups will advance to global competition and will compete for share of $1 million

The UAE final for the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) organised by Startupscale360 will be held in in5 TECH Dubai.

Startups featuring in finals under Idea Stage are Manhat, Equevu and Wemax. The Early Stage category include EVA, Ahad and PlainTiger. Finally, the Growth Stage category nominated ProvenMed, FoodATM and Desert Control.

In the UAE final, one winner from each category will be advanced to EWC Global competitions. All startups will be gauged on the product value, impact and solving a global problem, team and scalability potential.

Global Finalists will face off against one another in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2023, and compete for a share of $1 million in cash prizes. In addition to the cash prize, the top 100 Global Finalists will receive $100,000 worth of in-kind services and support from service providers such as AWS, Freshworks, Oracle, Hubspot, Stripe and Segment. Global finalists also gain automatic entry into the GEN Starters Club, an invitation-only community of talented founders from around the world.

"Startups generally go through a metamorphosis process at every stage of their life cycle, and there are challenges at each stage. EWC provides these startups an excellent ecosystem to ensure they overcome the challenges and focus of delivering their core product globally,” said Swethal Kumar, CEO & Managing Partner, StartupScale360 FZCO.

EWC is backed by global sponsor Misk Foundation and the initiative is led by Global Entrepreneurship Network and Monsha’at, with support from a collection of national and global partners including One Valley, The Global Education and Leadership Foundation (tGELF), Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, KAUST and Startup Genome.

Since launching in 2019, the EWC has attracted 400,000 registrations from 200 countries and connected founders with over $3 million in cash prizes and another $256 million worth of perks and free support and services.

Swethal Kumar added that Startupscale360 is the UAE national organizer of EWC. In order to ensure fair evaluation and correct governance, Startupscale360 established three independent committees who come from companies such as BP Venture, Flat6labs Abu Dhabi, Hub71, Alvarez & Marshel, Al Ghurair Investment, Fintech Galaxy, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, KPMG, and Gen Global. The applications were screened by 20 Judges from different parts of the world who come from companies such as International Financial Corporation, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Landmark Group, Mashreq Bank, Stride Ventues, and a mix of physician, venture capitalist, innovation lab head and many more.

Speaking about the Semi-Final, Swethal Kumar mentioned that two semi-finals were hosted successfully at WeWork Dubai and Intelak Hub last week. The Semi-Finalist startups pitched to 18 Judges who come from companies such as Panthera Capital, Dana Venture, Founder Institute, Gems Education, Wami Capital, DHL Innovation, Virgin Hyperloop, MBRIF, Careem, Plug and Play, Dubai SME, Dubai Holding, Shorooq Partners, Dubai Cultiv8, Aditum Venture, 8X Ventures, Thaely and KappAfrik Group.

The UAE final will take place on October 6, 2022 in In5 Tech Dubai, who is the main sponsor and the ecosystem partner. In5 is home to hundreds of techpreneur startups and their tech innovation centre is strategically located in the heart of Dubai Internet City and enjoys access to other media and educational hubs.

Sharing about the plan for the UAE Final, Swethal Kumar said that will be a series of panel discussions and 3 pitching sessions. The UAE Final will have speakers and judges from large corporations. Some of the confirmed speakers and Judges are from Abu Dhabi Investment Office, Mubadala, Tencent, Dubai Future District Fund, Dubai Future Foundation, KPMG, Scality, Plus VC, India’s largest fund IvyCap Ventures, and London Business School.

He added that the UAE Final event will be different to any other competition and it will conclude with a Rock Show with a key message that age is a number when it comes to startup ecosystem, and everyone is young and can start their venture at any given point of time in their life.

Swethal Kumar thanked other sponsors who continuously supported throughout the journey. This includes Al Dafrah TV, Broadcast and Media Partner, Kapturise, Photography and Media Partner, Meraki Global Energy, WeWork, Intelak and Biteme Burger.

business@khaleejtimes.com