57 countries Sign up for Sharjah Advanced Industry Accelerator Programme

July 13, 2020

253 1 minute read

Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park Park will award startups with market access support and grant prizes from a pool of USD $450,000

Programme is focused on supporting ventures to grow in the MENA region and access new business opportunities

The Sharjah Advanced Industry Accelerator (SAIA) programme initiated by Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) Park has received overwhelming applications from global startup community.

Over 500 companies from 57 countries signed for the online programme that support companies that are wanting to scale-up their operations in the MENA region.

The announcement comes on heels of Sharjah being ranked as among the Top Five in the world with high growth activation phase ecosystems as listed in the 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER).

The SAIA programme was launched on March 20. It has attracted hundreds of startups in Advanced Industries, Manufacturing Tech, Smart Cities, Sustainable Design, Construction Tech, Smart Materials, Drone and Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Gree Building and more.

Next phase

A panel of judges from top companies and government entities will evaluate the startups that will qualify for the incubation programme.

After the initial screening,shortlisted startups will participate in an online conference to pitch their ideas. then, the Top startups will be selected to join the program.

The qualified startups will then join the program that will start from July 29 and run until November 4. All eight startups will be selected to participate in the virtual accelerator and will benefit from local incubation support and venture scaling beyond the accelerator program.

Disruptors and innovators

Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of SRTI Park, said: “The Sharjah Advanced Industry Accelerator (SAIA) program was conceived a response to the challenges the world is facing.”

“We launched the unique accelerator on March 20 and startups that are disruptive and innovative have responded. These companies are in advanced industries that want to access the MENA market. These startups will disrupt the construction, manufacturing and production industries in the region,” he underlined.

Al Mahmoudi said: “Sharjah occupies a distinguished position as a leading global center in the field of innovation, research and entrepreneurship. It is geared towards becoming a smart city, based on its orientation towards knowledge economy and by supporting applied and technological scientific researches”

Al Mahmoudi added more international companies have started operating from SRTI Park as the complex is host to one of the largest laboratories and scientific research centers in the region and around the world.SRTI Park ecosystem is thriving with Industry 4.0 success stories and has fostered the launch of the concrete 3D printing startup MEET, as well as the ITD, a Virtual Reality Experiential Center, both operating within the Industry 4.0 space. In addition, the park will host the Sharjah Open Innovation Lab, a rapid prototyping makerspace for the community to build capacity.