New Middle East Seed Accelerator Seeking Entrepreneurs for Inaugural Session

Aug. 14, 2012 - PRLog -- i360accelerator, a 60-day innovation acceleration and seed funding program, is currently seeking participants for its inaugural session, scheduled to begin in November 2012.  In addition to offering participants a creative place to meet and work, i360accelerator provides training on entrepreneurship and innovation, mentorship from regional business experts, and 70,000 AED in seed funding.

The program is the brain child of Kamal Hassan, founder of Innovation 360, a global innovation consulting firm, and co-founder of Innovation Machine, the event facilitator behind several regional Startup Weekend events.

Says Hassan, “Our goal with i360accelerator is to bridge the gap between innovative ideas and commercialization in the Middle East. There are many creative people here with great ideas, but most ideas never launch because people don’t have early funding, they don’t know how to form a team, and they don’t have any experience in building or running a business. i360accelerator will help them overcome these obstacles, and turn their ideas into business ventures.”

Hassan hopes to host several i360accelerator sessions per year, with the first session beginning in November in Dubai and additional sessions in 2013 for Abu Dhabi, Beirut and Amman. The theme of the November session will focus on “Digital Technologies for Customer Experience,” which received 38 percent of the vote during a recent online competition where people were invited to vote for the theme of the first accelerator session. Other themes in the contest included “Mobility and Healthcare” (22 percent of the vote); “Disruptive Social Change through Technologies” (18 percent); “Future Transportation and Logistics Technologies” (12 percent); and “Emission Trading Technologies” (10 percent).

To apply for admission to i360accelerator, young entrepreneurs, early stage startups, researchers and others with a business idea must attend a one-day “Innov-a-thon” event and pitch their idea to the audience. The best ideas selected by the event attendees can be nominated for i360accelerator and will potentially win their share of a 3500 AED prize. Innov-a-thon events are scheduled for September 8 and 29 and October 20 in Dubai.

To register for an Innov-a-thon event, go to http://i360accelerator.eventbrite.com.

To learn more about i360accelerator, visit http://i360accelerator.com.

About i360hub

i360accelerator is part of i360hub, a regional framework and infrastructure to support budding entrepreneurs in Middle East and North Africa. In addition to a web portal, the i360hub network includes a social hub where entrepreneurs can network and attend events, a 60-day innovation accelerator program, and a fully-fledged 18-months business incubator. It is the goal of i360hub to enable the next Middle East entrepreneurial success story.