Nurturing Local Talent

GROWING EARLY-STAGE ENTREPRENEURS INTO HIGH-POTENTIAL STARTUPS

KAUST and SABB conclude another successful TAQADAM program

HATTAN AHMED Director of KAUST Entrepreneurship Center

SAUDI ARABIA IS WITNESSING UNPRECEDENTED ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES AND TRANSACTIONS, AND THIS YEAR’S TAQADAM SHOWCASE WAS AN INCREDIBLE PREVIEW OF WHAT COMES NEXT.

In March 2022, the fth TAQADAM Startup Accelerator Showcase came to a close, capping another successful six-month entrepreneurial support program. Hosted by KAUST in partnership with Saudi British Bank (SABB), the program is one of the university’s most important innovation funding initiatives. Since 2016, TAQADAM has supported more than 130 local, regional and global startups, and awarded more than $10 million in nondilutive funding to startup founders.

During the six-month accelerator program, startup teams learn the key elements of successful entrepreneurship, with workshops and sessions focused on product design, market t, business model planning, team development and fundraising. The overall aim is to develop early-stage entrepreneurs into high-potential startups. Participants receive $40,000 in funding, plus access to co-working spaces across Saudi Arabia, a diverse international community, and a wide network of experts and mentors. TAQADAM graduates were the most diverse cohort to date, bringing together top startups from the Middle East and beyond that offer gamechanging innovations spanning nancial technology, health technology, sustainability and more. It was also one of the largest groups yet, comprising 37 startups and 100 founders. Of these, 23 startups – eight from Saudi Arabia and 15 international – and 58 founders were invited to present at the TAQADAM Startup Accelerator Showcase.

This year’s showcase theme, “Tomorrow, Harmonized”, spoke to the chaos in the global entrepreneurship landscape, and founders’ unmatched ability to turn that noise into meaningful, purposeful, high-potential innovation with the capacity to change the world. Following presentations by startup founders, the global judging panel, which included investors from Sukna Ventures, Falak Investment Hub and HALA Ventures, selected 10 startups to receive $100,000 in funding each.

The winning companies were a diverse group of startups that have developed a range of innovative solutions to address global challenges. Among them were ve Saudi-based startups, including NQOODLET, a Riyadh-based company that has developed a spending platform that provides instant issuance to multiple corporate cards for team members; Omniful, another Riyadh-based startup that offers a plug-and-play back-of ce solution that integrates with client software and utilizes existing resources to help retailers and dark stores ship orders faster; and local startup Osool, which provides property owners with tools to manage maintenance projects on a single cloud platform. Algerian, US, UK, Egyptian, UAE and Omani startups were among the other winners.

SABB

“We are proud to continue our commitment to driving the future of Saudi – and global – entrepreneurship forward, and TAQADAM is one of the leading initiatives in this area.”

CREATING VALUE-ADDED SOLUTIONS FOR ORGANIC WASTE

KAUST startup Polymeron wins $1-million sustainability award

NOOR ZAOURI KAUST Alumna and Co-Founder of Polymeron

RECEIVING THIS RECOGNITION IS A GREAT MOTIVATOR FOR US. IT HAS GIVEN US A PUSH TO TAKE THIS TO MARKET AND RAISE FURTHER AWARENESS IN SAUDI ARABIA ABOUT PLASTIC WASTE, AND HOW BIOPLASTIC SOLUTIONS CAN HELP THE COUNTRY TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

TANMIAH FOOD COMPANY

“We’d like to congratulate Polymeron on winning this challenge. It is not just a win for them, but also a win for our communities and the planet. We are proud to play a part in enhancing the Kingdom’s march of innovation toward environmental excellence in the poultry value chain.”

Zulfiqar Hamadani, CEO of Tanmiah Food Company

Polymeron, a 2020 graduate of the KAUST-Saudi British Bank TAQADAM accelerator program, was the winner of a $1-million sustainability prize awarded by the Omnipreneurship Sustainability Challenge for Inclusive Leadership. Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli awarded the prize at a ceremony in Riyadh in March 2022.

Tanmiah Food Company, a Saudi poultry processor and supplier, launched the challenge as part of a strategic plan to enhance its leadership role and provide innovative solutions for sustainable development in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy. The challenge invited proposals for solutions that would help process chicken farm waste in a cost-effective, commercially viable manner, with a view to generating a positive impact on the company, the broader environment in Saudi Arabia and, ultimately, the global ecosystem. It received 93 proposals, of which ve were short-listed for the nal. Two were Saudi companies, and the others were from China, South Korea and the US.

Polymeron took home the grand prize for its proposed technology, which can make environmentally friendly biodegradable composite material from biochar, a waste byproduct of date palms. This innovative material addresses both plastic pollution and poultry waste, while at the same time enriching soil quality, which will help Tanmiah reduce its overall carbon footprint.

Martin Ibarra, a doctoral student in bioscience at KAUST’s Computational Bioscience Research Center, co-founded Polymeron along with fellow KAUST PhD student Rodrigo Jimenez Sandoval and KAUST alumnus Noor Zaouri. Polymeron, one of 10 winners of the TAQADAM Startup Accelerator Showcase in 2020, went on to compete at the 2021 Entrepreneurship World Cup.

Aided by the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the KAUST Research & Technology Park, where it is currently based, Polymeron has grown into a fully edged company with a global footprint. It now produces 100% biodegradable polymeric materials using organic waste from the date industry, reducing plastic pollution and contributing to environmental protection.