In partnership with twofour54, Flat6Labs will launch the first start-up accelerator in Abu Dhabi at the ADMS 2014.
Designed to support a generation of entrepreneurs from the UAE and abroad, the accelerator aims to launch digital businesses in Abu Dhabi and help to scale them regionally and globally. Flat6Labs provides seed funding, strategic mentorship, workspace and direct support for start-ups through an expansive network of partners and entrepreneurial activities.
Nina Curley, Managing Director of Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi stated, “Accelerators have proven to be one of the most effective vehicles today for helping to build scalable, investment-ready companies. At Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, in partnership with twofour54 and United Markets International, our main mission is to launch a generation of growth-oriented technology businesses that solve global challenges.” She added, “We also intend to seed a culture of entrepreneurship here in Abu Dhabi that supports youth to transform their talent into economic opportunity. We look forward to working with media, technology, and education partners to channel the expertise of the ecosystem towards the growth engines of the future.”
Commenting on the opening, Noura Al Kaabi, CEO of twofour54 said: “twofour54 and Flat6Labs share the goal of developing talent in the UAE and across the entire Middle East. I am very pleased with the opening of Flat6Labs and working together through this partnership will help us to achieve our common goal. twofour54 has become the region’s driving force behind media and entertainment entrepreneurs in Abu Dhabi and we look forward to giving more young talent the opportunity to grow and thrive with the support of Flat6Labs.”
The Abu Dhabi Media Summit will also host two fun design thinking workshops run by Flat6Labs on Day 3. Entitled “Monetizing Digital Content” and “Scaling Online Education”, the workshops will see leading experts– including Kaswara Alkhatib of UTURN, Firas Otaibi of Kharabeesh, Mohamed Bassiouni of Tayarah, and Hesham Mansour of El 3elm Wel 2emaw in the session on digital content, and Badr Ward of Lamsa, Fouad al Farhan of Rwaq, Muhammad Habib of Nafham, Ammar Khayyat of Nibras, and Lamia Tabbaa-Bibi of Little Thinking Minds in the session on online education– present the biggest challenges they see in the industry today.
Since its inception in 2011, Flat6Labs has directly led to the creation of 57 companies across Egypt and Saudi Arabia with more than 160 entrepreneurs attending its programme. The companies it has graduated have helped to create more than 400 jobs in both countries, and more than half have secured follow-on funding from over 40 different investors across the globe.
The accelerator program from Flat6Labs will leverage twofour54’s local expertise combined with insights from Emirati business leaders, global technology experts, local and regional investment experts, and United Arab Emirates Governmental leaders and figures to help entrepreneurs.
The Abu Dhabi Media Summit will run from 18-20 November at the Rosewood Hotel, Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi, and this year’s edition will focus on ‘Driving and Sustaining Future Media in MENA and Beyond’.
The full programme of ADMS 2014 and list of speakers can be found on the Summit’s website: www.admediasummit.com