Startup Week competition winners receive $100m

Manama : Startups that won competitions during the just concluded Startup Bahrain Week have received more than US $100,000

Competitions were held during Startup Bahrain Week mainly during the GCC Game Jam and Unbound Bahrain. Both GCC Game Jam and Unbound Bahrain featured ‘hackathons’, where game developers and startups worked towards completing a technical project within 48 hours. Unbound Bahrain also featured other competitions which rewarded innovative start-ups.

Winners included Saudi startup Morph who came out top at the 48-hour Game Jam at the first GCC Game Conference organized by Infiniteware in collaboration with Bahrain Polytechnic. At unbound Bahrain, PaySync was victorious at American Express Middle East’s Hack @ the Track Hackathon, and Widebot and Inagrab won the fiercely competitive Face-Off on the Track competition in the Seed Startup and Scale-up Startup categories respectively, judged by accelerators C5 and Brinc.

During the week, more than 50 speakers from government, the private sector, investors and startups, led discussions and workshops across six events. They explored the achievements and future potential of Bahrain’s burgeoning startup scene, which is underpinned by pro-business regulation, technology-centric infrastructure, and a strong talent pool. 

Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the EDB, commented: “Entrepreneurship has a major role to play in accelerating diversification, encouraging growth and creating valuable jobs. Bringing together the brightest minds from across our region and globally is essential in finding new ways to collaborate and map a bright future for our region’s young innovators.”

Dr Ebrahim Janahi, Chief Executive of Tamkeen, said, “The question of how to unlock the potential of young and entrepreneurial populations has been a central theme of Startup Week Bahrain. It has been inspiring to see many promising startups come together with investors and private sector players to share, collaborate and learn. These principles are at the heart of Tamkeen’s commitment to support emerging companies in Bahrain through resources, training and access to funding.”