Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi began its first cycle of acceleration in United Arab Emirates this past week. The accelerator, which is the third such property of Flat6Labs, with other offices in Cairo and Jeddah, aims to bring media based companies to fruition.
“The programme is looking to have two cycles a year and more than 10 companies in each cycle. The programme will be six months long with an additional six months incubation after graduation," Founder of Flat6Labs Hany Al Sonbaty told The National . Over the next four years, Flat6Labs hopes to jumpstart 80 companies.
Starting out with team-building exercises and a venture assessment, the goal is to work with the entrepreneurs to develop their ideas for a regional and eventually a global market. Providing both mentorship by successful industry professionals, office space, workshops, seed funding and access to investors the Flat6Labs program in Abu Dhabi is part accelerator and part incubator.
According to its webpage, the program has a particular focus on "media and digital content, including media and film production, e-commerce, social media, online education, gaming, mobile apps, and big data and analytics."
Having first started in Cairo and adding operations in Jeddah, Abu Dhabi is the third city to benefit from the accelerator program. Successful projects to emerge from Flat6Labs efforts in Cairo are Instabug and Integreight . Instabug works with apps as a way for users to immediately communicate problems or issues directly to the app company, instead of going through an app store. Integreight "develops novel products for the electronic hobbyist and education market," according to its page on Flat6Labs Cairo's website.
“At the end of the day, we at Flat6Labs are ultimately building a community to improve the chance of a startup’s success in real time,” Nina Curley, managing director of Flat6Labs told Wamda .
“A founder-friendly and customer-driven culture is something I have worked to cultivate since day one."
Several promising start-ups getting noticed from this first cycle are Flip Technologies, Pavilion 33 and Sakkini. Flip Technologies has created a small device that can be placed under a rider's skateboard. It then monitors the rider's fitness and displays the information on its dashboard. Pavilion 33 is a website that works with 15 art galleries throughout the MENA region, displaying and selling regional art online. The site also plans to educate prospective buyers on things to know before purchasing. Sakkini is a real estate venture that utilizes unique geospatial technology that allows users to better virtually navigate prospective property purchases and showcases the surrounding area.
It is clear from this sampling of participants in the first cycle that Flat6Labs in Abu Dhabi will support a diverse range of entrepreneurs. With previous success stories under its belt, we are excited to see many new start-ups rolling out of the UAE in the next few years.