MIT enterprise forum Saudi Arabia opens registration for Saudi entrepreneurs

• The 45 teams qualified to the semi-finals will be announced on January 16, 2020
• The closing ceremony of the competition will be held on March 7, 2020 in Jeddah
• Cash prizes for the winners totaling more than SAR 325,000

Jeddah: The MIT Enterprise Forum (MITEF) Saudi Arabia, part of MIT Enterprise Forum global network, in collaboration with Bab Rizq Jameel, an initiative of Community Jameel, the global philanthropy, has announced its fourth annual edition of the Saudi Startup Competition dedicated to the promotion of Saudi entrepreneurs and providing a platform to present their projects and ideas and enhance their role in the future innovative business environment.

Registration for the 4^th edition of the competition will opened on September 10, 2019 on the official website of the competition, and will continue until December 21, 2019. Applications will be evaluated by a specialised panel of judges from the entrepreneurial community, with the names of the 45 teams qualified to the semi-finals of the MITEF Saudi Startup Competition announced on January 16, 2020.

The competition runs for more than six months, during which e-induction briefs will be organised in selected universities and educational institutes throughout Saudi Arabia starting from September to mid-December 2019. Preparatory activities, orientation sessions and a boot camp under the supervision of specialists and experts in all commercial and social fields will be held throughout the competition for the teams qualified for the semi-finals.

Finalists will have the opportunity to participate in the Saudi StartSmart Forum, a programme of the global network of MIT Enterprise Forum, which will be held before the winners are announced on March 7, 2020 in Jeddah. Saudi StartSmart aims to encourage, motivate, and guide entrepreneurs in terms of ideas creation and commercial and social enterprises through workshops and seminars focused on technology and innovation. In addition to cash prizes totaling more than SAR 325,000, the nine winning teams will be invited to participate in the 13^th edition of MITEF Arab Startup Competition.

Speaking at the launch of the fourth edition, Hassan Jameel, President, Saudi Arabia, Community Jameel said, “The MITEF Saudi Startup Competition demonstrates the values at the heart of Community Jameel's mission. We continue to drive excellence within Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial environment, in line with Vision 2030, by promoting technical projects, smart ideas and creating jobs for young Saudis.

“We invite all aspiring Saudi entrepreneurs to put their projects forward for the competition, and use the platform to help drive their ideas into reality and scale from small businesses into global companies.”

Registration for the fourth edition of the MITEF Saudi Startup Competition is open to all Saudi and non-Saudi entrepreneurs from all age-groups and business sectors in one of the three tracks: Ideas Track, Startup Track and Social Enterprise Track. For more information on how to participate and judging Criteria for the MITEF Saudi Startup Competition, In addition to the scheduled induction tour, please visit: http://www.mitefsaudi.org/

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MIT Enterprise Forum (MITEF) Saudi Arabia is part of a global network of chapters dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation worldwide. MITEF informs, connects, and coaches Saudi entrepreneurs—enabling them to rapidly transform ideas into world-changing companies.

Founded in 2015 with the goal of promoting and enriching the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, MITEF aims to celebrate and support all potential startups and entrepreneurs in the Kingdom through Startups and Ideas Competition.

The MITEF Saudi startup competition has three tracks: Startups Track, Social Track and Ideas Track. The competition offers over SAR 325,000 cash prize, in addition to workshops and training and guidance sessions supervised by specialists and experts in all economic and social sectors. The finalists will have the opportunity to participate in StartSmart, one of the MIT Global Forum’s programs which is organized before the announcement of the winners and attended by specialists from MIT University, USA. The aim of the program is to encourage, motivate and guide entrepreneurs to achieve success at the level of the three tracks: ideas, social enterprises and business enterprises through workshops and enrichment programs directly related to technology and creativity. 

As a part of the MITEF Pan Arab Region, the 9 winning teams of the MITEF Saudi Arabia Competition will be invited to participate in the MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition.

Community Jameel

Driven by a commitment to creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, and youth, Community Jameel works across major fields of development: livelihoods, the arts, education, health, climate, and evidence. Community Jameel is active worldwide, by directly implementing programmes and by collaborating with major international institutions and grassroots organisations.

Community Jameel was established in 2003 to continue the Jameel family's tradition of supporting the community, a tradition started in the 1940s by the late Abdul Latif Jameel, founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel business, who throughout his life helped tens of thousands of disadvantaged people improve their lives.

The term “Community Jameel” refers broadly to several distinct, separate and independent legal entities. Community Jameel is not itself a corporate entity, association or conglomerate run by an overarching parent company but merely refers to a group of distinct and wholly independent separate legal entities that are collectively referred to as “Community Jameel”.

For more information, please contact:

Abir Bin Bechir

Email: abir@communityjameel.org 

© Press Release 2019