Ooredoo, a Qatari telecom company, has renewed its partnership with Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), a Qatar Development Bank Incubator, for further three years, to continue to provide support and care services for startups, through its affiliated Digital & Beyond Incubator.
The renewal of the partnership was announced during the presentation of the Digital & Beyond projects, which was held in the Ooredoo Tower, with the participation of HE CEO of Ooredoo Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al-Thani, QDB Acting CEO Abdulrahman Hesham Al Sowaidi and a number of other officials.
Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani CEO – Ooredoo Qatar
“We have a firm strategic commitment to investment in innovation and technology and fully support our country in Qatar National Vision 2030, a key aim of which is complete digitalization, partnering with entities such as QBIC enables us to make a solid contribution to our country’s development by supporting and building the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.”
Mr. Sowaidi said that the bank’s partnership with Ooredoo’s has gained momentum over the years, “transitioning from a pure development-centered initiative towards an investment-oriented one that helps startups expand and grow. Since 2016, Digital and Beyond have graduated 116 startups from QBIC’s Lean Startup and Lean Acceleration programs, and we are fully committed, through this partnership, to empower the next wave of tech startups, providing them with access to capabilities development, coaching and mentoring essential funding to grow their business, and enabling them to adopt industry-transforming technology, such as A.I. & IOT.”
The Digital & Beyond Incubator offers training programs and competitions such as hackathons, the Lean Start-up Program, the Lean Acceleration Program and the Investment Readiness Bootcamp, as well as showcasing events such as Demo Day where start-ups pitch for investment from the Digital & Beyond fund. Selected start-ups receive investment and incubation from QBIC for a one-year period, with the incubation covering coaching, exposure opportunities and access to the market.
Ooredoo’s partnership with QBIC was cemented in 2016 with the establishment of Digital & Beyond, aimed at enabling entrepreneurs to launch new technology-focused businesses in Qatar.
