The Labour Fund (Tameen) held a successful demo day event for the finalists of its Young Entrepreneur (Mashroo3i 2.0) program, where ten teams of budding entrepreneurs pitched their concepts to a group of potential investors and ecosystem stakeholders. The purpose of the event was to support participants to showcase their concepts and establish connections that can lead to partnership, mentorship, and business opportunities to accelerate their growth and development. This demo day event followed a six-week training bootcamp that helped participants enhance their entrepreneurial skills and develop their ideas into viable businesses. The 10 finalists will receive grants through Tamkeen’s Young Entrepreneur (Mashroo3i 2.0) program, which are subject to the program terms, to support the launch and growth of their businesses.

Tamkeen launched the Young Entrepreneur (Mashroo3i 2.0) program last year to empower Bahraini youth to pursue entrepreneurship and get the knowledge and support required to launch a business. The program aims to foster youth-driven economic growth by developing future business leaders and promoting innovation. The program kicked off with 66 teams who went through a six-week bootcamp comprising of two phases. The first phase focused on refining and validating business ideas, while the second phase provided an intensive startup advisory program to equip the participants with the skills and connections required to set up and launch their business ideas. As a result, ten teams have qualified and participated in this demo day event.

Commenting on this, Her Excellency Ms. Maha Mofeez, Chief Executive of the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) emphasized Tamkeen’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurship and fostering an enabling ecosystem that provides the support required for startups to launch and expand. She stated: “We designed the Young Entrepreneur program to foster an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age and enable Bahraini youth to bring their business ideas to life. The program sets the foundation for the younger generation to get into entrepreneurship equipped with the skills and competencies required to succeed as entrepreneurs.”

She added: “entrepreneurs have the ability to mobilize the economy and by empowering them and enabling them we are aiming to drive positive impact on Bahrain’s national economy, as entrepreneurs contribute to increasing job opportunities and driving change and innovation”

The innovative concepts presented during the demo day event spanned various economic sectors that included technology, healthcare, retail, tourism, agriculture, and real estate. In addition, the concepts tackle a wide range of relevant problems and provide solutions needed in the market, thus giving them high potential for success in the future. Commenting on his participation, Naser Yousif Omran, co-founder of Hero’s Punch hailed Tamkeen’s role in supporting idea stage startups and enabling them to kickstart on the right path. He stated: “The Young Entrepreneur (Mashroo3i 2.0) provided us with the fundamentals of starting a business and helped us proof our concept ahead of launching. Through the advisory program, we developed a comprehensive business plan and outlined the way forward for our business. Additionally, the Demo Day provided a platform for us to showcase our business to a relevant audience and gain access to a network that will enable us to grow further in our journey. ”

Over the years, Tamkeen supported the startup ecosystem in Bahrain through its programs and initiatives, which included supporting more than 19,000 entrepreneurs to launch their new business ventures, as well as partnering with leading financial institutions to facilitate financing solutions which supported more than 7,000 small and micro enterprises. The Young Entrepreneur (Mashroo3i 2.0) program is part of Tamkeen’s commitment to empowering the startup ecosystem.

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