On Monday the 7th of December in Riyadh, STC and its new startup incubator/accelerator InspireU hosted the Saudi Arabia National Final of Get in the Ring 2015, part of the startup competition Get In the Ring, held in 80 countries around the world. The champion jury members chose the startups Vanoman and Myndplay as the national light- and middleweight winner.
The goal of Get in the Ring is to provide startups the opportunity to connect to resources like capital, talent, and expertise to grow their company. To get a spot in the national final startups need to sign up and be pre-selected. For the Saudi Arabian final 20 startups were pre-selected and battled on the Monday afternoon for one of the 4 spots on the final stage later that evening. During the afternoon sessions startups got an in-depth pitch training, valuable feedback, and network introductions from invited investors and experts.
Fadi Almaghrbi from Vanoman, winner of the lightweight battle: “Get in the Ring will give Vanoman great exposure, everyone is talking about my startup right now!” It’s not just about winning says Tre Azam from Myndplay “Get in the Ring is about meeting the right people”.
Over 300 spectators witnessed 4 finalists battle in the Ring to become the national winners of Saudi Arabia. After a heated battle the expert jury chose startup Vanoman as the Lightweight winner and Myndplay as Middleweight winner. Winning this battle grants them the opportunity to represent Saudi Arabia during the Regional Finals of the Middle East in February next year. In this Regional Final both startups will battle against winners in their weight class from the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, and Qatar on February 15th 2016.The finalists, including the runner-up startups Fix Tag and Maharah went home with a lot of new fans that can support the growth of their company and a total of 7.500,- in prize money.
A keynote during the finals was given by Sawerly, the winner of Get in the Ring Saudi Arabia 2014. They shared with the audience how they have overcome challenges and their view on how to further improve the startup scene in Saudi Arabia.
Thamer Elrayes, Champion jury member and director of digital innovation at STC, commented “The startup scene is growing in Saudi Arabia, InspireU & Get in the Ring are leading to boost this scene”