Oasis500 entrepreneurship programme to focus on female talents

AMMAN — The British embassy in Amman will support the local investment company Oasis500’s technology entrepreneurship training boot camps for the next six months under a partnership announced on Monday.

The embassy will also provide assistance to Oasis500 to expand its outreach across Jordan, Usama Fayyad, executive chairman of Oasis500 and former executive vice president and chief data officer of Yahoo! Inc., said at a press conference on Monday.

Fayyad said the partnership would focus on female entrepreneurs in particular.

“We have seen great demand and success by companies founded by women and we continue to over-index on female entrepreneurs in attendance at the entrepreneurship training boot camps as well as in the companies selected for investment by Oasis500,” he noted.

UK Ambassador Peter Millett said Oasis500 played a key role in helping young entrepreneurs across the Kingdom succeed and create job opportunities in today’s challenging business environment, noting that the embassy has supported the venture fund in the past.

Also at Monday’s press conference, Fayyad announced that Oasis500 would assign ambassadors for different parts of the country to attract entrepreneurs from the Kingdom’s governorates to the company’s training and incubation programmes.

Fooq Al Sada, an online entertainment channel that originated in Irbid, will be the company’s first ambassador in the northern governorate.

Oasis500 ambassadors will also include ME Graduates, a company that connects students in the Middle East with universities abroad, and facilitates the application and relocation process through an online service and software. Both Fooq Al Sada and ME Graduates were accelerated by Oasis500.

Fayyad also announced that Oasis500 has launched a new business investment track for established technology companies, in partnership with venture capital and investment firms Accelerator Technology Holdings, WAMDA and MENA Ventures.

The new business track is aimed at enabling established companies to further accelerate and grow their businesses locally regionally and internationally, as well as receive follow-on and Series A investments from Oasis500, Fayyad said.

Founded by local venture capital firms, technology companies and angel investors, Oasis500 launched its operations in August 2010 by announcing that it was accepting applications for its entrepreneurship programme with the goal of helping fund 500 ideas from the Middle East and North Africa by the year 2015.
Author: Mohammad Ghazal

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