Enable.. Support.. Benefit

A few weeks ago, I attended a gathering of about 30 regional startups that are within the portfolio of 500 Falcons - the 500 Startups' MENA fund. Not only was the gathering a great opportunity for the participants to network, learn, share best practices and celebrate successes, but it was also a very powerful representation of an emerging MENA innovation ecosystem, which Qatar Science and Technology Park (with the full support of Qatar Foundation) played a crucial role in enabling and supporting.

A bit over a year ago, Qatar Foundation, through its strategic venture fund managed by Qatar Science and Technology Park, decided to become the anchor investor in 500 Falcons - in effect, enabling the fund to come into existence. Our objective was and remains to help the MENA startup ecosystem accelerate its development so that it will one day soon become competitive to other global innovation ecosystems. By being the first and largest anchor investor in the fund, we predicted that others will quickly follow. Sure enough, 500 Falcons announced its first closing last May and immediately started investing. To date, 500 Falcons has made seed investments in more than 25 regional startups, and the numbers are climbing rapidly - a great testament to the skills and abilities of its two main general partners Hasan Haider and Sharif Al-Badawi.

But in addition to being an enabler, we - at Qatar Science and Technology Park - also decided that we need to provide support. In the spring of 2017, we sponsored, hosted and funded 500 Startups Growth Accelerator program (nicknamed "Doha Dojo") for the first time on MENA. The "Dojo" program was an intense 3-month program which provided coaching and mentorship to nine MENA startup companies to learn how to grow their customer base and revenue using the most modern growth hacking tools and techniques that are used by silicon valley growth experts. The goal of the program was very specific: to help the nine startups grow their revenue and customer base by at least threefold - enabling them to secure series A financing from regional VCs. The program was successful beyond our wildest imagination: five out of the nine companies secured series A investment. Here is the growth chart of one of the startups: Eat. The graph clearly demonstrates the growth traction that started right after the team began to execute what they learned in the Doha Dojo program which ended in late May 2017. Shortly after the program, Eat closed a $3.2M in investment from VCs and business angels.

Following the success of the first round of Doha Dojo, this year's Dojo program is hosted in Kuwait under the name "MENA Dojo" and will provide coaching and mentorship to 12 regional startups. QSTP remains the main sponsor and supporter of this year's program.

By enabling and supporting the regional ecosystem to grow and prosper, our Qatari tech innovation ecosystem will benefit in a number of ways:

Firstly, we believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. An emerging strong regional startup ecosystem will surely help the local Qatari one. Global partnerships and foreign investments will flow to any region where new economic growth opportunities arise. Therefore, enabling, supporting and being part of a strong regional innovation ecosystem will have mutual benefits to both Qatar and the region.

Secondly, local Qatari startups will directly benefit from the existence of a regional cross-country ecosystem builder such as 500 Falcons. Last year, a Qatari startup - Meddy - participated and benefited from the program. This year, another Qatari startup - At-Home-Doc - is participating. These companies are now part of a strong regional and global innovation network and they are bringing home a know-how and connections which will benefit our local ecosystem.

Thirdly, innovation is a wealth-creation engine. By tapping into the innovation talent of our region and investing in it, we believe that new wealth will be created - with some of that wealth being captured by Qatar, which will hopefully be invested further in building the local innovation ecosystem.

Last week, Abu Dhabi Financial Group announced that it is making a substantial investment in the San Francisco based 500 startups - the parent company of 500 Falcons. We hope that this investment will be a further enabler and supporter to bring innovation talent, know-how and abilities to MENA, so that our region will find new ways of wealth creation, prosperity and pride for its people. It is also an excellent validation of the strategy we started pursuing over a year ago at QSTP and Qatar Foundation to partner with global innovation enablers to bring innovation to Qatar and the Arab World.