The Sharjah Entrepreneurship centre (Sheraa) is offering a unique new opportunity to university students and fresh graduates in the UAE to transform their impactful ideas into businesses through a structured six-week incubator programme, from July 18 to August 25, 2022.

Sheraa has announced the opening of registrations for Startup Dojo – Summer 2022 Incubator, an intensive, experiential learning opportunity that aims to empower young graduates and students to build businesses.

For six weeks, participants will work in a hybrid setting with Sheraa’s team of experienced innovators, mentors, and entrepreneurs to build, develop, and market their business ideas and apply it to diverse real-world challenges. The Startup Dojo – Summer 2022 Incubator will focus on specific topics such as Team Building, Market Sizing, Product Development, Marketing, Business Modelling, Storytelling and Pitching. During the last week of the programme, the top three teams with winning ideas will be awarded cash prizes respectively.

Registration is open for students who are currently enrolled in university or have graduated within the past year and have an idea for a business designed to tackle various challenges using technology. Each team must have at least two members and commit to attending the hybrid programme for its entire duration, from July 18 to August 25, 2022.

Aspiring entrepreneurs in the UAE can register through the following website https://sheraa.info/startup.

 The programme will admit 12 to 15 startup teams. The last day to register is Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre in January hosted a group of students from the IESE Business School in Spain on a virtual forum organised under the theme, ‘Framing the Future of Entrepreneurship in the Middle East’.

The forum provided unique insights into Sharjah’s stature as a vibrant startup hub and Sheraa’s founder-focused approach in cultivating a world-class entrepreneurship ecosystem in the emirate.

Two panel discussions were held at the forum on January 20th with students of the graduate business school at the University of Navarra from Spain. They discussed challenges and opportunities for early and growth-stage companies in key markets in the MENA region and drew attention to Sharjah’s success in attracting several high-impact ventures Najla Al Midfa, CEO, Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa); Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO, Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP); Mohamad Juma Al Musharrakh, CEO, Sharjah FDI Office (Invest in Sharjah); and Housam Raydan, Director of Corporate Communications and Customer Experience, Air Arabia Group, participated in the first panel discussion that focused on Sharjah’s reputation as an ideal market to serve as a launchpad for startups.

The session, moderated by Lina Hamdan, Director of Partnerships, Sheraa, also outlined the innovative sectors and services driving Sharjah’s transformation into an entrepreneur-friendly and impact-driven entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Expanding on the role of Sheraa in successfully offering support to entrepreneurs since 2016, Najla Al Midfa, CEO, Sheraa, shed light on how the founder-friendly policies and regulations in the emirate are attracting fledgling and established startups and SMEs to Sharjah and helping them gain access to new markets.

Al Midfa said, “Sheraa is on a mission to build an ecosystem that harnesses the potential of the region’s exceptional talent and strengthen Sharjah’s status as a leading destination for startups. In Sharjah, young entrepreneurs have access to a wide variety of resources, accelerators, incubators, infrastructural facilities and mentors. Sheraa connects and creates opportunities to empower the region’s youth and foster an entrepreneurial mindset to grow the next generation of passionate innovators and changemakers.”

Outlining the importance of future-based technology projects undertaken at the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, Al Mahmoudi said, “The UAE government has prioritised innovation as the way forward for creating a knowledge economy. SRTIP plays a pivotal role in accelerating the move towards supporting the growth of entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of advanced technologies. We do this by building a holistic innovation ecosystem, strengthening our focus on developing talents and human capital, and onboarding students from around the region to support their enterprise activities by enabling access to a host of programmes.”

For his part, Al Musharrakh credited the UAE as a key player in creating an exponential growth in opportunities for startups and investors worldwide. “Last year, despite the pandemic, we managed to attract investments worth $800 million in Sharjah and more than 1,800 businesses set up operations in the emirate in 2021.”