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The fifth edition of the Mashroo3i Youth Business Awards have wrapped up, with the top three entrepreneurial endeavours, as chosen by experienced judges, rewarded for their exciting ventures, writes Kristian Harrison.
The competition, which first began in 2012 and is organised by Tamkeen, is open to Bahrainis between the ages of 18 to 30.
It aims to teach participants to develop their ideas into a successful business through learning the fundamentals of entrepreneurial success and gaining practical experiences. It also allows participants to build their network in the business world so that their product or service can expand.
Over a period of six months, 30 teams cultivated their ideas and presented them to the panel of judges, who, after much deliberation, elected Telp to be the winner.
As previously featured in FinTech Focus, Telp is a service that provides tutoring help through an online platform providing a ‘transparent, knowledge sharing community’ where students can find and book sessions with tutors in a matter of minutes.
It’s the brainchild of former Kanoo International School pupil Ameena Bucheeri and, as of last month, had attracted more than 300 tutor applicants, 400-plus students and had already completed 1,300 hours of tutoring.
These numbers are set to grow further after the Telp mobile app was launched on iOS and Android last week. Ameena said: “We’re absolutely delighted to win. It was a tough process, from the initial three-month pitch to the financial forecasts, to the exhibition we hosted and, ultimately, the final pitches before the judges.”
Telp received a cash prize of BD2,500, a sponsored incubation facility for a year, and an international training opportunity whereby Telp can choose any relevant company around the world and Tamkeen will plan an educational visit.
“The perfect scenario would be going to Silicon Valley in California,” Ameena said. “It’s the epicentre of business and it would be an extremely valuable experience.”
“Winning the Mashroo3i award was not only a great honour, but it gives us much more exposure and recognition. A lot of entities now know who we are, which is great from a marketing standpoint. Furthermore, the cash prize and having an incubation for a year saves us a lot of costs, which can now be reinvested straight into our company.”
In second place was Newton’s Apple Learning Centre, which labels itself as ‘an interactive space with passionate teachers that aim to make children enthusiastic about maths and physics’.
It offers maths and physics education through animations, stories, visuals, games, labs, hands-on activities and more. The team behind the project said it was ‘delighted’ with the award and that it was the ‘beginning of a long journey.’
In third-place came Doctoric, an online platform that helps patients in finding doctors and booking appointments.
CEO Albaraa Alkhan, who co-founded the service alongside Rashed Alnabhani, believes that a place on the podium is a huge step for his start-up. “It feels great to have achieved third place in the competition, because it took place over six months so we put so much effort and time into it.
“The prize money and the incubation offer gives us a significant boost to help us in the early stages of development, as well as the exposure and mentorship we’ve received. We learned so much during the competition and we are going to apply this going forward to grow Doctoric.”
More information can be found on Instagram @doctoricapp, and a smartphone app is set to launch in beta after Eid, with a view to a full launch in September.
Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi, the chief executive of Tamkeen, said: “I would like to express my pride and admiration for the creative business ideas I have witnessed during the competition. It included a number of innovative projects which have revealed the potential of the young business minds in Bahrain. These projects are able to compete at a global level, not just regionally or locally.”
The judging panel consisted of Fareed Bader, chairman and managing director of the Bader Group, Dalal Al Qais, general manager of retail banking at Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), Trey Goede, head of portfolio management for Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures (Wa’ed) and Paul Lalley, head of product at Brinc Batelco IoT Hub.
