MENA Region's First Accelerator Program Dedicated to Growth Stage Food and Beverage Companies

Dubai-UAE: 26 April, 2015 - Aseel F&B, a Dubai based consultancy dedicated to providing turnkey solutions for start-up and established businesses in the food and beverage (F&B) space, today announced the launch of its new initiative Imago - the MENA region's first accelerator dedicated to growth stage food and beverage companies.

Imago is a growth stage accelerator that works with upcoming F&B entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. The program provides a strong course curriculum, growth stage financing, affiliation with strategic partners, as well as access to the best minds in the regional F&B industry.

Speaking about the initiative Naaz Noor, the Founder and Managing Partner of Aseel Group said: "Working with F&B concepts in the GCC over the last four years, we realized that there are a number of high growth potential start-ups that haven't been successful in scaling their operations. Some reasons for this have been factors such as: entrepreneurs having an unfocused growth strategy, allocating capital in the wrong areas, lack of funding to support growth objectives, lack of internal processes and systems to successfully grow, difficulty in finding the right talent, and sometimes unwillingness of the founder to grow beyond the first location.

However, we believe that with the right attitude, knowledge, mentors, investors and partners, F&B companies can rapidly scale to achieve high growth. Imago has been created to fill this gap and to provide F&B entrepreneurs with high growth potential the right tools, contacts and techniques to truly take their businesses to the next level. We have some great mentors already supporting the program and we are looking to reach out to many more who can provide their expertise to upcoming entrepreneurs."

Imago is a 3-month program commencing in May 2015 which will allow participants to learn, plan and grow their businesses. Candidates from categories such as café and beverage concepts, fine dining, fast food concepts, desert concepts, bar and lounges or any other unique food and beverage concepts can apply for the program.

Featuring regular talks from industry experts throughout the program, the first four weeks of the program will aim at refining candidate's business plans and laying a solid foundation for growth. Candidates will work hand-in-hand with Imago's mentors and partners to create systems and processes that will help in the execution of their growth strategies.

The next two weeks of the program will involve candidates pitching their idea to potential investors with the aim of securing funding in exchange for a percentage of the business, arranging debt financing, or securing a deal with one of Imago's partners.

In the last month, with the funding in hand, participants will begin implementing their plans to reality with a team of mentors, advisers, and partners guiding them through their first practical steps towards growth.

Currently in its initial stages, the program aims at inviting candidates from different sectors of the F&B industry to apply to the program. Candidates looking to join the program will have to fill in an application form and fulfill certain criteria such as their business needs to be locally based, candidates should have been in the business for at least 2 years or more.

Mentors already part of the program include: Mohammad Yousuf, Director of Emerging Products and Innovation, Visa; Srinivasan Arun, Partner, Venture Consulting; Mehdi Mourtada, Managing Partner, Nexa Omnicard; Murtaza Manji, Business Coach, Action Coach; Rajeev and Simran Samtani, Co-Founders & Managing Partners, Xcel Accounting; Amit Vyas, CEO, Nexa; Shahram Safai, Partner, Afridi & Angell; Nabil Al Sayed, CEO, Masar Training & Startup SWAT; and Tariq Hameed, Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal.

As one of the mentors, Tariq Hameed, Senior Director, Alvarez & Marsal, said: "This is a much needed initiative for early stage and start-up entities in the F&B sector and I am keen and excited to help breed success through my contribution. We need to see more of such initiatives that foster innovation and entrepreneurship, across other sectors too."

All candidates applying to Imago Accelerator would have to pay a fee of $300. Candidates who are selected for the Imago Accelerator program will have to pay a nominal course fee of $3000.

About Imago
An initiative by Aseel F&B, Imago is a growth stage accelerator providing food & beverage entrepreneurs in the region with a strong course curriculum, growth stage financing, affiliation with strategic partners, and access to the best minds in the regional F&B industry.

Aseel F&B is a Dubai based consultancy dedicated to providing turnkey solutions for start-up entrepreneurs and established businesses in the food and beverage space. Conceptualized with the aim of providing high growth potential F&B startups that haven't been completely successful in scaling their operations with solutions, the Imago program aims to help F&B entrepreneurs by providing them with benefits such as: access to industry renowned mentors and exclusive talks, a strong action-oriented program with hands on support, as well as funding and networking opportunities.

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© Press Release 2015