Entrepreneurship is thriving in Saudi Arabia — and events like the TAQADAM Accelerator Showcase shine a bright light on this fast-evolving landscape.
On March 10, 23 startups led by 58 founders will pitch their innovations, platforms and solutions to the world, hit the stage, closing out nearly 12 months of planning, learning and development. After completing the rigorous TAQADAM Startup Accelerator, these teams were hand-selected to present to a global audience at the showcase — and, with it, gain visibility, interest and, for 10 teams, $100,000 in follow-on funding.
Harmonizing creativity and innovation
This year’s showcase theme, “Tomorrow, Harmonized,” speaks to the founder’s experience. Able to recognize the possibilities and rich potential in the chaos and clutter that surrounds, TAQADAM founders have worked hard and pushed the limits of human innovation to build out their startups — and, during the showcase, the harmony they’ve created will be front-and-center.
This year’s event also puts more industries and unique journeys in the spotlight. With founders representing 10 countries and 16 areas such as fintech, healthcare, education, sustainability, and food systems, the 2022 showcase is our most diverse and most dynamic yet. The showcase lineup includes:
Omniful
A quick-commerce operations platform (SaaS), Omniful helps retailers and dark-store operators ship orders in just two to seven minutes. This plug-and-play back-office solution integrates with a retailer’s current technology stack and utilizes existing resources, staff and on-shelf inventory for easy integration and quick activation.
Swftbox
The Swftbox marketplace aggregates and crowdsources last-mile logistics for faster, more efficient e-commerce deliveries. Built to be a one-stop shop, the platform plugs directly into retailers’ storefronts, providing a seamless and transparent end-to-end experience while removing the critical last-mile logistics burden from the retailer.
Thya Technology
Thya Technology delivers AI-based computer vision (capturing and interpreting information from image and video data) as a service. Built for automation, users can develop and train deep learning computer vision models using their own data to solve unique challenges — and can do it without any programming skills. This approach helps make computer vision accessible to many industrial and academic partners in agriculture, construction and environmental protection and enables them to focus on their core expertise.
These are just three of the participating startups — all of which, on March 10, will pitch their business models and big ideas to an influential audience of innovators, business leaders, investors, and more.
That, though, is just the beginning. Immediately following presentations and funding announcements, the application period for the 2022 TAQADAM Startup Accelerator officially opens. For the 2022-23 cohort, we’ll be welcoming upwards of 60 new startups into the program — and, in a year from now, they’ll hit the stage to share their emerging innovations.
This constant entrepreneurial development and commitment to a now-thriving culture of innovation in KSA are essential to promoting ongoing entrepreneurship — central to Vision 2030. In its seven years, the TAQADAM showcase has been a sought-after preview into the future of this dynamic landscape, enabling founders to make critical connections while helping investors and business leaders spot the latest game-changing tools, technologies and innovations poised to change the world — and, with that, continue to propel this global-leading entrepreneurial culture forward.