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The MIT Enterprise Forum (MITEF) Pan Arab will host the award ceremony rewarding the winning Ideas, Startups and Social Entrepreneurs of the MIT EF Arab Startup Competition on April 14, 2016 at the Bay La Sun Hotel & Marina in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. This event is in partnership with founding partner Community Jameel and for the second consecutive year, with the Zain Group. This year’s event is supported by government partner the Economic Cities Authority and hosting partner the King Abdullah Economic City.

The Award Ceremony is preceded by a conference entitled Time to Invest in Arab Youth and Their Innovations organized by MIT Technology Review Arab Edition. The conference will address the tremendous opportunities for regional and global players to invest in an increasingly innovative Arab youth. The event will also announce MIT Technology Review Arab Edition’s five Innovators under 35 in the Arab World, which were selected by a solid lineup of judges.

Several high-profile entrepreneurs, investors and government officials from Saudi Arabia, the region and beyond will be sharing insight during the conference and judging the competition. These include HRH Saud K Al-Faisal, Executive Director for Investment Policy at SAGIA, HH Reema Bint Bandar, founder and CEO of Alf Khair, Fady Jameel, President of Community Jameel International, Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia, Fahd Al Rasheed, Group CEO and Managing Director of Emaar Economic City and Wassim Khashoggi, vice secretary general operations of the Economic Cities Authority. Speakers and judges from several leading organizations in the finance and technology space such as Google, Facebook, Oak Investment Partners, 500 Startups and MBC Group will also be sharing insight during the event.

A total of 76 teams from 15 countries have qualified for the advanced rounds of the MIT EF Arab Startup Competition, which received a record 5,967 applications (comprising over 16,500 entrepreneurs) from 21 countries across the Arab world. The three tracks that entrants applied for are: Ideas, Startups, and Social Entrepreneurship, with a total of US$130,000 to be awarded amongst the winners.

Ahead of the training sessions held in Saudi Arabia on the 11th and 12th of April, pre-bootcamps were held in four different countries: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. During these pre-bootcamps, the 76 semi-finalists underwent design-thinking sessions and practiced their pitching to mentors from different institutions in order to perfect their deliverables which they will present to judges on the 13th and 14th of April. Previous winners of the MIT EF Arab Startup Competition shared their experience with the semi-finalists and held inspirational talks.

The national origins of the groups and the corresponding number of semi-finalists who made it to the second round include: Egypt (19), Jordan (8), Lebanon (7), Tunisia (7), Saudi Arabia (6), United Arab Emirates (6), Palestine (6), Morocco (4), Kuwait (3), Bahrain (2), Qatar (2), Sudan (2), Syria (2), Algeria (1), Yemen (1).