Masdar City, Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund partner to cultivate entrepreneurship

Masdar City and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) Monday announced a strategic partnership designed to cultivate entrepreneurship and economic development in the UAE and at an international level.

The initiative will extend support to innovative SME’s, while also sharing industry knowledge and collaborating to develop the entrepreneurship ecosystem at home and abroad. An extra pillar of the partnership will also see the MBRIF Guarantee Scheme and Innovation Accelerator, support Masdar City’s SME development efforts.

Abdulla Balalaa, Executive Director, Masdar City, said, "Our partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund is another step - and a hugely valuable one - on that growth path. It is our aim to not only cultivate entrepreneurship and economic development in the UAE and further afield but drive it and further it through the immense talent emerging from the region. These are exciting times ahead and we look forward to the opportunities that Masdar City and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund can work upon together." For her part, Fatima Al Naqbi, Ministry of Finance representative of MBRIF remarked, "We look forward to working closely with Masdar City by extending support to innovative SME’s and to taking this partnership to even greater heights." Shaker Zainal, Head of Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund, said, "With this new collaboration, we jointly seek to help local, regional and global businesses by giving them greater access to resources, funding, and mentorship in order to succeed in the UAE, through our unique platform." MBRIF’s partnership with Masdar City will include development efforts from post-ideation to scale up, as well as provide domain knowledge and expertise on matters of funding to entrepreneurs interested in the Guarantee Scheme. Both entities will also be able to utilise each other’s human expertise, facilities, and technology where possible.

Masdar City will refer community members interested in either or both, of the Innovation Accelerator and Guarantee Scheme, to join the MBRIF initiative, with the roles reversed for any entities enticed with Masdar City’s proposition to join its respective community.

Since the inception of MBRIF’s Accelerator programme in December 2018, the initiative has brought together 83 members from diverse sectors of the economy, placing an emphasis on nurturing, and growing local entrepreneurs to augment the domestic innovation base.

Masdar City is already home to more than 1,000 businesses, encompassing a variety of organisations - from multinationals and SMEs to homegrown startups - committed to advancing the sustainability agenda and spearheading the innovations to realise greener, more sustainable urban living.