Eighty nominees across 14 categories have been shortlisted for the 2016 Arabian Business StartUp Awards, with entries ranging from new start-ups to homegrown success stories.
The winners will be decided by the prestigious judging panel consisting of Muna Al Gurg, director of retail at Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group and YAL Board Member; Donna Benton, founder of The Entertainer; Najla Al Midfa, general manager of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center; Prashant K. (PK) Gulati, founder of The Assembly, and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) president; Habib Haddad, CEO of Wamda; and Walid Akawi, CEO of ITP Publishing Group.
The People’s Choice Award: Entrepreneur of the Year is a separate award that will be voted on by Arabian Business StartUp readers. The voting period in this award category will be from Sunday, 16 October, to Sunday, 6 November. The winner will be determined by the highest number of votes received.
The Arabian Business StartUp Awards 2016 winners will be announced and honoured at the 2016 Arabian Business StartUp Awards ceremony, due to take place on Tuesday, 15 November.
The keynote speech of the ceremony will be delivered by Marjan Faraidooni, Vice President of Legacy for Expo 2020 Dubai.
Magnus Olsson, Mudassir Sheikha and Dr. Abdulla Elyas, co-founders of Careem, are to appear as our special guest speakers.
The Arabian Business StartUp Awards are held in partnership with AJSM Investments, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Skyline University College, and Dawaam.
To book tables or individual tickets please contact Joanna Farrer, Events & Marketing Manager at ITP, at [email protected]
For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Natasha Pendleton, sales director at ITP Executive, at [email protected] and Dima Mousseli, Sales Manager, Arabian Business StartUp, at [email protected]
The Arabian Business StartUp Awards 2016 shortlisted nominees are:
Entrepreneur of the Year
Sarah Jones – Mini Exchange
Mai Medhat – Eventtus
Talal Bayaa – Bayzat
Omar Kassim – JadoPado
Jumana Darwish – The Happy Box
Alper Celen and Ritesh Tilani – joigifts.com
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Khaled Zaatarah – 360MEA and 360VUZ
Jihad Kawas – Saily Inc
Abzal Assembekov – Heptagon Multimedia and Propertyin360
Ala’ Alsallal – Jamalon
Ebraheem Al Samadi – Forever Rose & Al Samadi Group
Zain Khan – The Sound Gaarden
Start Up of the Year
Boxit Storage
Falcon Viz
Wrappup
Junkbot
Smart Shelter
Sonate
Insydo
SME Leader of the Year
Dubai Desert Extreme
BMB Group
PropertyFinder
compareit4me
Harmony Cosmetics
The Box
SME of the Year
FitRepublik
CREATIVE ZONE
Dawaam
Fetchr
Right Bite
°CRYO Holdings
Mentor of the Year
Sirine Fadoul, Manager, dTEC
Matt Penas, Pre-accelerator Manager, TURN8 Fund
Gordon T.McConnell, Professor, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KSA
Ameera Amir, Founder, Weyakum
Taghrid Alsaeed, Senior Vice President, Mubadala Group Communications / Flat6Labs mentor
Mourad Mansour, Professor, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, KSA
Intrapreneur of the Year
Nadine Halabi, Business Development Manager, Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC)
Vilma Jurkute, Director, Alserkal Avenue
Catherina Ballout, Managing Director GCC, MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab (MITEF)
New Media Start Up of the Year
MyHubber
TaskSpotting
360VUZ
Propertyin360
CitiSpi
Social Enterprise of the Year
Wild Guanabana
Smart Labour
taka solutions
Weyakum
Ta’leem Training and Skills Development Center
BizWorld UAE
Investor of the Year
Amjad Ahmad – Precinct Partners
Elissa Freiha and Chantalle Dumonceaux – WOMENA
Dr. Mussad Al-Razouki – Kuwait Life Sciences Company (KLSC)
Heather Henyon – WAIN
Dany Farha and Amir Farha – BECO Capital
Influential Woman in Business Award
Hala Fadel – Leap Ventures / MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan-Arab region
Mona Ataya – Mumzworld
Sara Al Madani – Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, shjSEEN
Rana El Eid – RED Design, Café Céramique and Azur Spa
Shereen Tawfiq – Initiativez
Engineer Nermin Fawzi Sa’d – Handasiyat
Start Up Programme of the Year
Innovate for Refugees – MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab
SAP Startup Focus
Microsoft Startup
Endeavor UAE
Collaborative Entrepreneurship
Mowgli Foundation
Incubator/Accelerator of the Year
Dubai Future Accelerators
Sheraa
KAUST (KSA)
Rowad (Yemen)
dTEC
TURN8
Funding Initiative of the Year
Souq.com – $275mn
PropertyFinder – $20mn
Bayut – $20mn (Series C)
The Luxury Closet – $2.2 (Series A) + $7.8 (Series B)
Reserveout – $4mn (Series A)
Movesouq – $3mn
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