The Information Technology Authority (ITA), represented by Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship, celebrated yesterday the graduation of the first cohort from the Sas Accelerator programme, which is powered by Google Developers Launchpad programme and aims to boost and speed up with the growth of tech startups locally to bridge the gap between the idea stage and the implementation stage.

The event included a demo day along with an investor roundtable with the presence of Dr Salim Sultan al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, investors from inside and outside the Sultanate, businessmen and entrepreneurs.

During the demo day, which is the last day for startups in the accelerator programme, Each of the startups prepared and presented a brief about its products/services to an audience which includes venture capitalists, other potential investors, and industry leaders across many fields.

The event also included an investor roundtable which began with a talk by an international angel investor, Paulo Andrez. Paulo is an angel investor with an active portfolio of 14 companies. One of his investments reached 25 million euros in revenues within the first year of operations, for which he received an award “Best European Angel Investment” in 2012.

Commenting on the Sas Accelerator Programme, Paulo Andriz, the international Angel Investor, said: “Sas Accelerator is an excellent initiative and I’m highly overwhelmed with the level of professionalism it is implemented and operated.”

He further added: “It is impressive to see how this accelerator is changing the business and tech ecosystem in the Sultanate. It is important that entrepreneurs and tech startups get support from such entities like ITA and others in order to be ready for investment from business angels and venture capitalists. Without this kind of support from these entities, it would be very difficult for angels investors and venture capitalists to invest in these startups.”

“During the accelerator period, the startups got prepared to mitigate risks they might face while implementing their projects. The accelerator helped them to understand what business angel and venture capitalism are and how they are important along with helping them to pitch in front of investors.”

Seven tech startups were selected for the 10-week-long, intensive business and technology-based accelerator programme, facilitated by 40 renowned experienced international Google Developers Launchpad mentors and selected local subject matter experts who covered 11 business topics and offered 200 hours of workshops and coaching.

The Sas Accelerator programme started in last march when ITA’s Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship teamed up with Google Developers Launchpad to launch an accelerator programme for the startup companies available in the market.

The programme aimed at connecting Sas Centre for Entrepreneurship, its startups and mentors, to an elite group of the world’s top accelerators. It also enabled them to access Google’s global network, knew the company’s Silicon Valley-based startup programmes, and twenty years’ valuable research of Google, as well as the best practice insights on businesses foundation, products, and teams on a wider scale.

Source: https://www.omanobserver.om/7-tech-startups-complete-sas-accelerator-programme-2/