News Dubai Featured

18 Sep 2018

Ramallah, Palestine – Oct 7th – MENACatalyst successfully held the Dubai Pitch Challenge, the follow-up to the highly received Santiago Pitch Challenge. The event received an overwhelming amount of support and interest within the Palestinian business community and startup scene. Competition was fierce, and despite over 100 applications received only 15 tech based startups where selected as finalists to pitch in front of a panel of judges. Finalists participated for the opportunity to meet with high-profile investors and business leaders and mentors from Dubai to propel their startups to become global game changers breaking barriers for Palestinian entrepreneurs.

The event opened with MENACatalyst sincerely welcoming all attendees and expressing the importance of creating collaborations between local based entrepreneurs and the Palestinian diaspora to work together and build a resilient Palestinian virtual global economy.

Rafique Gangat, former South African ambassador to the Palestinian Territories and author of best-seller, Bending the Rules, then took the stage. Gangat gave a motivational address which stressed that while innovation and creativity are essential for emerging startups, it is the human connections that we create that allows us to transcend boundaries and reach people with our ideas.

Afterwards, the Pitch Challenge commenced to an eager crowd of passionate entrepreneurs as they seized the opportunity to take their startups to the next level. From ecommerce engines and platforms, to mobile game development, and health and wellness apps, the scope of participating startups was extensive revealing great innovation and groundbreaking new strides Palestinian entrepreneurs are taking to compete in global markets.

Winners of MENACatalyst’s Dubai Pitch Challenge include the following:

Play 3arabi: https://www.play3arabi.com

All MENACatalyst international demo events are in conjunction with the DAIMN Project (Diaspora Angel Investors and Mentors Network), co-funded by Welfare Association (Taawon) and KOICA (Korean International Cooperation Agency), and in partnership with Wamda and MBC Al Amal.