(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Mohammad Shoeb/ The Peninsula
The total number of startups incubated and supported by the Qatar Business Incubation Centre (QBIC) has reached 180. The QBIC initiative, which is in line with Qatar's long-term planning and comprehensive strategy, has been investing heavily on startups and innovative ideas to diversify and transform the energy-rich economy into a knowledge-based sustainable society.
The success stories supported by QBIC have already started generating income and contributing to the county's GDP, and several of them are establishing their footprints in other markets.
'Qatar believes in the power of start-ups to drive innovation. That is why @QBIC has invested millions (of dollars) in start-ups that will change the world, Qatar's Embassy to the USA has tweeted.
The Washington-based Embassy, which has been actively introducing the investment opportunities in the Qatari market and its free zones, has also shared an infograph in its official twitter handle that highlights the total amount of funds invested in, and income generated by, these QBIC-backed startups since 2014. According to the Embassy tweet, the QBIC has invested about $1.29m (QR4.7m) to support and promote these startups which have generated over $16.5m (QR60m) of income so far.
QBIC's LeanStartup Program has been the most successful initiative of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, empowering more than 500 graduates and entrepreneurs by providing them with business tools, hands-on experience and expert know-how to successfully bring their business ideas to life, in line with QBIC's mission to develop Qatar's next QR100m companies.
Within a short period of time, the QBIC has achieved great success, name and reputation in Qatar and beyond. The incubation centre so far has attracted more than 5,200 applications from all over the world.
The QBIC was founded in 2014 by two of the leading entrepreneurship institutes in Qatar, Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and the Social Development Center (SDC) as part of QDB's strategy to diversify the local economy.
The state-owned QDB, which has been mandated to establish a vibrant and diversified private sector to allay its dependence on energy revenues in the future, recently launched its FinTech Incubator and Accelerator programme, Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH), in collaboration with Qatar Financial Centre.
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