(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Deepak John |
The Peninsula
Doha: Qatar is home to many new startups. Finding the right angel investor is a critical step for these startups. The country is one of the great incubation countries and is strategic in terms of startups as it has a lot of growth opportunities.
The virtual event organised by Startup Grind entitled 'Deep dive into Angel Investing' brought together angel investors in the Qatari startup ecosystem with running various businesses successfully. They shared experiences of starting their companies in Qatar to becoming an angel investor and how important is an angel investor for a startup and what can we expect in 2022.
Munera Al Dosari, Angel.qa, Co-founder said,“Startup stage comes from ideation where a startup begins until they have established an idea, the vision, and the mission. We call them startup because they have a solid business plan, at this stage the investment will be small ticket size and an angel investor will help them in order to go to the next stage.”
“As an angel investor, we connect them with the network and try to help them. When we started in Qatar, we saw the country as an opportunity, however there are big challenges like having the right talent and processes that are difficult but there are great success stories in Qatar,” she added
Speaking on how Qatar is developing and why people should go for entrepreneurship, Al Dosari noted, Qatar has many growth areas and is a great place to consider for incubation. She said,“If you have a product that can be easily reached out regionally and globally, Qatar is a great place and also there is a support from government. Entrepreneurship is difficult for the first few years, however in the long term it pays off if you believe in your idea.”
Sara Daniel, Doha Tech Angels, CEO said“At Doha Tech Angels there is a lot of bridging we are doing between different angel networks, we are bridging with Dubai and Saudi angel investors, whenever there is a pipeline in Qatar, we share it with them. We are also making bridges with VCs and investors, so that once our portfolio company gets to that stage, we have the right introductions to make,” she said.
“There are strategic verticals in Qatar where you have best in class and top world class corporates in customer segments, health, sports, education, logistics. If you are able to build a product which works for one of this corporates then it can be used anywhere in the world,” she added.
Speaking about traction looking to the young startups she said,“From Doha Tech Angels point of view we are looking for investing in seed stage and companies that have either started to commercialise their products and customers are using the products or have some kind of revenue traction. We are looking for companies that can prove credibly that they are solving a problem and the value proposition they are offering is needed by the market.”
Highlighting Qatar and the region's Venture Capital (VC) growth she cited Magnitt's report on VC in Mena region.“VC market has reached $2.7bn in Mena region of VC investments in 2021 which is times four of the market size in 2020. Right now, the growth in VC investments in the region is exponential and when there is that kind of growth the best startups get funded before they get to market.
Dr. Tejinder Singh, Managing Director, 360nautica said,“Qatar is one of the great incubation countries, it is a smaller market to address and the expenses in terms of experimenting will be limited as compared to other countries. Once a startup is successful here it becomes easier to lift and drop startups all across the region, the growth and scaling becomes far more easier, we have done it in the past and have seen it works.”
He added“It is important for the startup to know that beyond the money what the angel investor is going to add and do proper research. For a startup to be successful look for the angel investors who can do and perform beyond financial investment into the startup.”
Steve Mackie, Business Startup Qatar, Founder moderated the event.
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