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Seven tech startups have been chosen as winners for the 12th wave of the Qatar Business Incubation Center’s (QBIC) LeanStartup program which culminated here yesterday.
After 10 weeks of training under the program and a series of business pitches in front of a panel of judges, the QBIC awarded QR100,000 worth of seed funding to each of the seven startups. They will also receive rent-free office space for two years in addition to continuous coaching and mentoring to help support and grow their business. The winners who can now start to develop their businesses as incubated startups were GBus, QutSheet, Not Busy Now, Print-Le, AY Tec, Alternative Operations, and Mawud.
AY Tec, which was founded by Abdulla Yaya, an aerospace engineer specializing in unmanned aircraft systems design seeks to automate the drone industry, while Muwad, an online shopping platform developed by Qatari entrepreneurs Lulwa and Asma aims to attract the best Qatari designers in one website.
Not Busy Now, a marketing app which was founded by marketing student Fahad and Peter Robinson, an instructor at the College of the North Atlantic Qatar, targets business owners who use booking systems to organize and schedule their services for customers.
Other winners were the fibre optics management system ‘Alternative Operations’, mobile app ‘GBus’ which tracks school bus in real time, ‘QutSheet’ which seeks to digitize the construction procurement system, and online platform ‘Print-Le’ where local printing suppliers can input their rates into the system.
Speaking during the event, QBIC General Manager, Hamad bin Dashin Al Qahtani said: ‘The past ten weeks have been a rewarding experience for all the participants in QBIC’s latest wave. To succeed, entrepreneurs require passion and determination to reach pivotal business growth and we’re here to help them reach their potential.
Since its establishment in 2014, the QBIC, which is fully owned by the Qatar Development Bank (QDB), has already incubated more than 160 companies with total revenues exceeding QR55m, said QDB CEO Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Khalifa. He added: ‘Our strategy has always been to develop a proactive mindset for young nationals towards entrepreneurship. Indeed, we have begun to reap the fruits of our efforts. It is no secret that the new generation’s vision of Qatari entrepreneurs is different and that they are eager to join the entrepreneurial system by establishing startups which are designed to succeed locally and internationally.
QBIC’s LeanStartup Program is the most successful program of its kind in the MENA region, empowering entrepreneurs by providing them with business tools, hands-on experience and expert know-how to successfully bring their business ideas to life, in line with QBIC’s mission to develop Qatar’s next QAR 100 million companies.
