KAFO to host ‘Investor Day’ event with US 500 Startups
Leading youth initiative of Amiri Diwan
KUWAIT CITY, May 13, (KUNA): Kuwait Achievers and Future Opportunities (KAFO), a leading youth initiative of Kuwait’s Amiri Diwan, has held an “Investor Day” event in cooperation with US 500 Startups, it was announced Sunday.
KAFO initiative has been launched in a bid to achieve His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s vision to establish a national platform to enable young achievers to search, connect and collaborate with each other, in line with recommendations of the National Project of Youth, Dr Fatima Al-Moussawi, Project Manager of KAFO said in a press statement on the event held Thursday.
She voiced pleasure for cooperating with the Silicon-Valley based 500 Startups, most active early-stage Venture Capital Fund in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
KAFO aims to empower Kuwaiti youth, and to offer national efficiencies the opportunity to enhance their skills, help them launch their own ventures, and to grow on the local and the world level, she noted.
500 Startups invests in 12 startups in the MENA region, Egypt, Lebanon, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. They were hand-picked and mentored by a team of international experts from 500 Startups as part of the MENA Dojo Series A.
According to Al-Moussawi, a second batch of new startups received up to $150,000 funding from the 500 Falcons, a 500 Startups MENA fund.
These new 12 include Eyewa, online glasses and contact lenses retailer; GymNadz, fitness app for millennials; Keno, on-demand car wash app; La Reina, marketplace for renting dresses; at home doc, medical service app; Melltoo, second hand goods marketplace app; Draper, personalized clothing stylists for men; MyU, education platform for parents, teachers and students; Nawah, scientific outsourced laboratory ser-
The 118th Supreme Petroleum Council meeting in progress.
His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah presided over the 118th Supreme Petroleum
vice; Plantshop, online nursery commerce; SocialDice, HR platform for recruiters; and VBOUT, marketing technology platform.
The 500 Startups Venture Partner for Middle East, Hassan Haider said the ventures were picked according to “our experts’ ability to help progress and grow,” and not on the viability of investing in them.
The MENA Dojo Series A growth hacking program was held in two modules for the 12 seed and post-seed regional companies in Kuwait.
The first module was held from April 1-12 and the second module is currently underway from April 29-May 9. The topics discussed during the intense training program involved developing a scale-able growth machine to boost exponential growth, Haider said.
With the first investment in the MENA region in 2012, 500 Startups has since committed to investments in over 80 startups across the region.
With the launch of 500 Falcons in 2017, 500 Startups plans to invest in approximately 100-150 companies over a three-year period in addition to follow-on investments into the top performing companies. Council meeting at Seif Palace on Sunday.
The Council discussed the items on its agenda. (KUNA)
KUWAIT CITY:
The committee tasked to prepare the conditions booklet for the labor cities project will soon finish its work and the booklet will be forwarded to the Fatwa and Legislation Department for review, reports Al-Rai daily quoting a knowledgeable source from the Public Authority for Public-Private Partnership Projects.
According to the source, the Supreme Committee will send the booklet to the world unions and local companies qualified to compete for the project after the Fatwa and Legislation Department’s review of the conditions.
The source explained that the qualification of companies for this project is in accordance with financial standards and technical experience in developing, implementing and operating similar projects.
Meanwhile, other sources said the Ministry of Electricity and Water has asked the authority to adopt the new solar panel technique in implementing the Al-Abdally stations project; such that the BV technique will be used instead of ISCC (Integrated Solar Combined Cycle) – the old technique.