The Dubai chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE Dubai) has selected 18 startups to be part of its TiE Dubai Mentorship Program Class of Summer of 2021. The mentorship program spans over 12 months starting in September 2020 and provides a one to one platform between a startup founder and an experienced mentor to help guide the mentee in specific areas that they need guidance with to achieve their business objectives.
This year’s Class of Summer 2021 received over 80 applications from across the Middle East and North Africa region through an online selection process.
The list of startups that made the cut as mentees of the Class of Summer 2021 include (in alphabetical order):
- Arbitary Solutions
- Dreemzrock Ventures Private Limited
- Gokaddal Technologies FZCO
- Hybella FZ
- Ioletics (TiE Young Entrepreneur Middle East finalist)
- Key2enable Assistive Technology
- Kregzo
- Lock & Stock
- Ninopay (TiE Young Entrepreneur Middle East finalist)
- Octoos
- One Moto
- Qafila FZ LLC
- Smartdirham FZLLC
- Walayem
- Wannago Cloud
- Yovza Technologies
Ivan Fernandes, Director of Mentorship at TiE Dubai, said, “The TiE Dubai Mentorship Program is an important pillar of the chapter’s activity and is sought after by many startups in the region. We were very pleased with the caliber of entrepreneurs that applied including those through our Ecosystem Partner in5 and our Academic Partner Skyline University College. We are looking forward to helping these select businesses thrive over the next 12 months as the world slowly gets back to business.”
The TiE Dubai Mentorship Program team applied an online selection process that considered key criteria including assessment of the business’ ability to identify the problem, value proposition, credibility, financial understanding, and success viability. 35 of these applicants were selected to pitch to potential mentors from whom 18 were selected for this year’s Mentorship Program which included some businesses from TiE Dubai Partners such as in5 as well as, for the first time, two of the finalists from the recent TiE Young Entrepreneurship university competition which we organize in collaboration with Skyline University College.
Ivan Fernandes added, “TiE Dubai has a strong commitment to the entrepreneurship ecosystem, including startups, small businesses and partners across the region to help offer best-in-class programs to support innovation and growth through our own regional and global resources. Mentorship is a key ingredient that can make the difference to any business whether that is getting off the ground to scaling it. Our TiE Dubai Charter Members cover a wide sector of the business world and functionalities and can add great value to any entrepreneur in the region.”
The TiE Dubai Mentorship Program Class of Summer 2021 has officially kicked off in September 2020 for a period of 12 months. The mentees and mentors will meet at least once a month to discuss the status of the business, challenges, areas they need help and take advice and guidance as required. The progress will be monitored and tracked by the TiE Dubai team.
The selected businesses have undergone a mentee orientation program where they were informed on what to expect from the mentor, how to plan to get the best out of this program, what is not a part of the mentoring process. A similar orientation was held for the mentors to reinforce and help them understand the responsibilities and expectations based on input from the various mentees.
TiE Dubai are currently also running a Sustainability Class of the mentorship program in partnership with HSBC as well as providing mentorship for the winner and 3 runner ups of the TiE Women 2020 pitch competition for the MENA region.
