The Digital Incubation Centre (DIC) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) has announced the 25 winners of the fourth edition of IdeaCamp, held virtually for the first time in line with the precautionary measures for Covid-19.
The announcement was made at a virtual ceremony attended by Reem Mohamed al-Mansouri, assistant undersecretary of Digital Society Development Sector at MoTC. The ceremony also marked the graduation of 17 startups that completed their incubation in 2020.
The announcement of the 25 IdeaCamp winners comes after a round of pitching by 40 shortlisted startups in front of a distinguished jury panel that included experts in the field from Ooredoo, Qatar Development Bank, Tasmu Smart Qatar, QRDI, Bedaya Centre and AppLab.
The winning startups for the fourth edition of IdeaCamp are eHaris, Spendwisor, PayWise, NARR, PickUp, Tailory, Short-term load forecasting, ElevateMe, Endrogn, Turismo, Farha, VastumLab, ValApp, BizPlanner, Ceena Lab, Karty, Tahado, Qreceipt, Storimart, Keyrism, Info Tech Hive, Aljadwal, Telerehab, Traff-Easy and Almachla.
The ideas harnesses emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and the Internet of things to serve the sectors of education, health care, sports tourism, agriculture, environment and transportation.
Al-Mansoori said the Digital Society sector has an integrated strategic vision that aims to support digital innovations that harness emerging technologies and create a fostering environment for them to continue their success in the Qatari market.
Duha Ali al-Buhendi, acting manager, said DIC is committed to providing support to digital entrepreneurs in Qatar. “We are proud of the success of the virtual edition of IdeaCamp and our incubation of 25 new digital startups, which brings the total number of incubated startups to 57. Our incubated entrepreneurs benefit from operational and technical support, working office spaces, as well as regular training and mentorship sessions to accelerate the growth of their enterprises,” al-Buhendi said.
In order to ensure that entrepreneurs have easy access to DIC and get answers to their pressing questions about IdeaCamp, the DIC organised nine orientation sessions before the start of IdeaCamp, through which entrepreneurs were encouraged to register for IdeaCamp.
A total of 150 ideas were selected. The entrepreneurs behind these ideas have met DIC’s criteria to attend IdeasCamp training workshops, over the course of six weeks with over 33 training hours and mentoring sessions for entrepreneurs to build and integrate their business models.
The virtual ceremony also celebrated the graduation of 17 startups that have completed their incubation period at DIC in 2020, which brings the total of graduated startups to 100, these startups are: Raeyi, Baqaala, Tomoh, Qertas, Saakin, EButler, PMOBytes, Bonocle, Spas Go, Medline Arabia, Xpander, ESmart Academy, Greenhat, Skilancer Solar Solar, NewsAmp, The Real Estate CRM and Artist Qatar.
DIC was established in line with MoTC’s vision to create a supportive ecosystem for the digital startup sector in Qatar. Since 2011, a total of 100 startups have successfully graduated from DIC, 18 of which have expanded internationally. Through partnerships with leading local and international institutions, the total investments in the incubated startups in the last three years has reached QR23mn.
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