The entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem in the State of Qatar is expected to further develop in 2021 and was recently ranked third in the world and the best in the MENA region.

The progress is down to many factors including the efforts of different semi-governmental and governmental institutions such as the Qatar Development Bank (QDB), Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MOCI), Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), Ministry of Transport & Communication (MOTC), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and many others in the public sector as well as the private sector.

The stakeholders have developed platforms for more information, training and financing or funding as well as opportunities and possibilities to go to markets with access to procurement and clients or customers.

Qatar Sports Tech (QST), which became an essential player in sports tech, is another example for these efforts. They have been working to bring the best expertise to help the growth of the start-ups and scale-ups nationally, regionally and internationally. Another important component is the engagement or involvement of partners in the private sector including venture capital firms and angel investors.

With the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and other major sporting events approaching there are many promising sports tech start-ups and scale-ups with the potential to impact the industry.

The graduates of the third cohort include LAIFE (Germany), YooMeDoo (Spain), GymStory (Netherlands), Fancision (Spain), GymCraft (United Kingdom), Armony (United Kingdom), Golazzos (United States), HotSwitch (United States), Dronur (United States) and FATE (Jordan).

Apart from the financing or funding that has already been raised, they have already entered into fifty partnerships with blue chip companies including such as Microsoft, Samsung, McDonalds, Spotify, AT&T and Orange among others.

Please click on the link and reach out to learn more about entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem in the State of Qatar and the initiatives of Business Start Up Qatar.