Source: arabnews.com
A lack of resources to support growing women-led startups in Saudi Arabia prompted Eman Shakoor to establish Blossom, a Jeddah-based accelerator that focuses on female-led technology startups in the Kingdom. Her aim was to help other women to overcome the challenges she faced herself when she tried to build her own startup. Blossom is the first and only start-up accelerator that aims to empower and enable female-founded startups in Saudi Arabia.
Shakoor said: “I realized the growing potential and ambitions among Saudi women to start their own businesses. However, I also noticed the need to provide more access to resources and networking for them to really build up something amazing and sustainable.”
She continued: “We are looking for early-stage existing startups that have at least one female founder, an innovative tech-product that solves real problems and is backed up by market research, with a good understanding of competition, scalable future growth and, finally, the team’s experience and commitment to the business, and its product.”
The accelerator gives early-stage startups the opportunity to participate in a boot camp and a demo day, while providing them with resources, knowledge, networking, and access to nearly 35 mentors in various business fields over a two-week program. Applicants are evaluated on the experience of the founding team, the product’s value, the business’s scalability and its current stage of operations
