The seven finalists for the prestigious Sirb Award for young entrepreneurs faced the final selection of the “Triumphant Trio” in a glittering award ceremony that was held in Jeddah’s Laylati hall today; Sunday, May 26, 2013 in front of an enthusiastic audience of representatives from national and international
On behalf of His Royal Highness Prince Khalid Al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz, Emir of Makkah Al-Mokaramah Region, His Royal Highness Prince Misha’al bin Majed bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Jeddah, honoured the winners and presented the prizes. They received a substantial cash prize in addition to a full year’s membership to a specialized mentoring programme.
The seven nominated projects were presented to the final judging committee, which consists of seven international and local judges: Prince Saud Bin Khalid Al Faisal, Dr. Ghassan Al Sulaiman, Mr. Adel Dahlawi, Dr. Haidar Freihat, Mr. Usama Fayyad, Mr. Fadi Ghandour and Dr. Lama Al Suleiman.
- From the seven projects to be presented, only three winners came though the grilling process and emerge as winners at the final award ceremony. The winning projects were:
- First Place, Shater educational company project by Mohamed Ashgar
- Second Place, (Jazan Mango shop) Matjar Mango Jazan project by Abdulrahman Alsahely
- Third Place, (Amateur) Hawee project by Anas Dahlawi
Dr. Mohammed Ibn Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel. President, King Abdulaziz City for Science And Technology said, “no matter who the winners are, the real benefit of the competition has been to the future of Saudi business. The business of tomorrow will be created by the young minds of today. These young people whether winners or not have publicly demonstrated that creativity, inventiveness and energy are here in Saudi Arabia in abundance. We just have to tap it. After all their hard efforts, this is for me a very moving moment to see KACST programme’s faith in young people are being justified and properly recognized.”
Sirb is an Angel Investor Network established by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and a part of the Badir program for Technology Incubators. It was designed to encourage technology entrepreneurs to develop distinct technology projects and present them to angel investors in order to build successful partnerships.
The long build up to the final involved the competitors establishing an idea, building a workable business model and demonstrating its viability in the market place. Reflecting the commercial realities of tough decision making and focus on viability, competing programmes fell during the process finally coming down to just seven, and at the final event, only three.
The mentors for the final seven competing projects consisted of personnel from Price Waterhouse Cooper, ESCWA Organization, Qotuf AlRiyadah, and Full Stop Advertisement. On Saturday, the candidates are very much on their own.
“The seven projects are innovative and of high quality,” said Mr. Nawaf bin Attaf Al Sahhaf, CEO of BADIR program for Technology Incubators at KACST. “I do not envy the difficult job of the judging panel that made the final choice. For me, these young people are all winners!”
The selected and nominated projects were:
- (Amateur) Hawee project by Anas Dahlawi
- (My news) Newsy project by Adnan Musky
- (Jazan Mango shop) Matjar Mango Jazan project by Abdulrahman Alsahely
- Sateer educational company project by Mohamed Ashgar
- (Vertical Drilling) Alhafer Altoli project by Haitham Bushnaq
- (Calories) Soarat project by Wael Yar
- Arab Rooms.com project by Hattan Ahmad.
The Sirb Network organised both the qualifying and training phases of the competition through its partnership with specialised local and multi-national companies, including ESCWA of the United Nations, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which specialises in management and financial consulting, Qotuf AlRiyadh Development Company and “Fullstop” advertising.