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Watch our alumni pitch and check out their investor deal rooms!
Who is Qatar SportsTech?
With over a decade of experience in startup investments and acceleration, we are now in Doha to accelerate the sports industry to new heights. We are one of the frontiers in disrupting this vibrant market by facilitating partnerships between the most promising SportsTech startups and leading brands and organizations. Qatar SportsTech is initiated by Qatar Development Bank, powered by Startupbootcamp and supported by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, Qatar Stars League, beIN Media Group, Qatar Financial Centre, Aspire Zone Foundation, MBK Holding and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Our Accelerator Program
Our vision is to transform Doha into one of the leading sports hubs and contribute to Qatar’s diversification goals through the facilitation of corporate startup collaboration through our accelerator program.
Following a rigorous recruitment process, 10 selected startups are invited to participate in the three-month intensive accelerator program in Aspire Zone, the beating heart of sports in Qatar. Each startup is incentivized and invited to register their company with 100% ownership in Qatar.
Leveraging over a decade of experience within Rainmaking history, a 12 week, part-time program has been created to develop and accelerate the entrepreneurship journey.
read moreRecruitment
Every nine months, we run an accelerator program in Qatar, which requires the founding team to relocate to Qatar full-time for three months. We travel the world to find and engage with startups that use cutting edge technology to reshape the industry of sports. The goal is to accelerate the startups’ growth and is applicable for early and/or seed-stage startups, who contribute to one of the categories in our thesis (below).
After this intensive recruitment period, we invite the top 20 startups to Doha for our Selection Days event.Here we lay the fundamentals for collaboration between the startups and our corporate partners for the duration of the Accelerator program. During the event decision-makers from leading local and global organizations inquire which startups can help them obtain their strategic objectives, which results in selecting ten startups.
Timeline
Cohort 3 Accelerator Program Starts
Sep 27th
Cohort 4 Applications Open
Nov 1st
Cohort 3 Demo Day
Dec 6th
Cohort 4 Applications Close
Feb 6th
Cohort 4 Selection Day
Feb 25th
Cohort 4 Accelerator Program Starts
Mar 14th
Cohort 4 Demo Day
Jun 3rd
Thesis
Click on each category below for more details.
Ibrahim Al Mannai
Executive Director of Advisory & Incubation
Hamad Al Qahtani
General Manager
Heba Almasri
Managing DirectorStartupbootcamp
Salman Surti
Operations ManagerStartupbootcamp
Joumana El Naggar
Marketing Manager
Ali Khadjavi
Pearls Of Qatar ManagerStartupbootcamp.com
Sheikh Ahmad Al Thani
Incubation Advisor
Tahani AlHajri
Senior Incubation Advisor
Abdulla Rashid Al Khater
Incubation Advisor
Rayane Fodil
Program Associate
Shayma Ben Brahim
Events & Community Associate
Sarah Al Habibi
Operations Coordinator
Anwar Patel
IT Specialist
Adam Majeed
Marketing AssociatePartners
Sportstech is a fast-growing domain that is complex. The business activities are ranging from ticket sales, sponsorships, and merchandising to media rights and more. That’s why we’ve partnered up with the very best in the industry, to give our startups the full backup that they need! These individuals have made the industry into what it is today and they’re eager to embrace new technologies to take the world of sports to the next level! Therefore, through these essential partnerships with leading organizations and brands below, startups participating in our Accelerator Program have the support of the entire sports and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Qatar.
Founding Partner
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Strategic Partners
Mentors
Are you passionate about innovation in the sports industry?
Do you want to share your expertise with entrepreneurs and help put their ideas into practice?
We’d love to connect with you and discuss how we can take this forward!
Click on a category below to filter through our mentors
Mentor
Adel Saad
Founder and CEO. Deep experience in the world of Profession Soccer as a Licensed FIFA Agent and youth coach. He worked with Bob Bradley (former USMNT Head Coach) to build his initial pipeline in Egypt. He is the President and Owner of Kora Stars, a sports agency based in San Francisco with a focus on placing international players from Africa, MENA and North America.
Mentor
Alireza Moravej
I founded a digital health startup incubator and also I was mentor & advisor of more than 200 startups in healthcare and lifestyle area.
Mentor
Francisco André Alves Moura
I’m a Brazilian trained lawyer, and currently a master’s candidate at UC Berkeley. Before going to the Masters, I worked with startups in Brazil, especially regarding governance matters, fundraising, and investment agreements. Nowadays, I’m also building relations with startups from the Silicon Valley and the Bay Area in general, having advised a fintech accelerated in the Berkeley Accelerator on their first institutional round with Brazilian VC Funds.
Email:andremoura@berkeley.edu
Mentor
Sandy Zinn
Sandy is an award-winning sports industry executive with extensive experience overseeing ball- and player-tracking technologies, data quality and analytics, and broadcast interfaces. A long-time recruiter and project manager, Sandy is a well-traveled, dynamic and motivated person with a passion for all sports, innovation and collaboration. Sandy started his own company, Zinn Sports Group, LLC, in February 2020, piggybacking off 25 years of running high-profile programs and building relationships at Major League Baseball and ESPN. His primary areas of focus are business development, strategy and operations.
Mentor
Annie Haeger
Annie Haeger is a 2016 Olympic Athlete who has 7 years of Marketing/PR experience in both agency and in-house roles. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Boston College where after graduating, trained full-time as an athlete and worked for a Venture Capital firm in Chicago as a Junior Analyst. Since moving to Vancouver in 2017, she has worked as a Marketing Specialist at a Major League Soccer Team (Vancouver Whitecaps FC) and as a Digital Campaign Manager at Major Tom, a B2B, CGP and eCommerce based marketing agency. She now runs her own firm, specializing in helping small business define their brand identity, create digital sales funnels to attract qualified leads and craft strategic inbound marketing campaigns. Annie excels in in developing full funnel marketing strategies, lead generation and identifying opportunities for growth in crowded markets. She is certified in Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics and HubSpot Inbound Marketing.
Mentor
Benjamin Coleman
I’m an Australian Chartered Accountant with considerable experience working for leading financial investment firms across Australia, the UK and the Middle East. These firms include ADIA, Apollo, Citi and CBRE in various capacities. I also am a lifelong sports fan having played many sports including cricket, tennis, golf and soccer amongst others.
Email:bennyccoleman@gmail.com
Mentor
Bijan Martin
Email:bijan.martin@intertec.io
MENTOR
Dr. Ayse Agar
Ayse is the Senior VP of Business Development and Strategy of Digiturk, the leading pay-TV service provider in Turkey owned by beIN Media Group. Prior to joining Digiturk, she held executive positions at Vodafone and Turk Telekom TTNet. She enjoys working in the converging world of information technology, telecommunications and media sectors, creating new products and building business models that fuel revenue growth. She also enjoys sharing her business acumen with entrepreneurs and students. She holds a graduate certificate in management science and engineering from Stanford University and an executive MBA from Koc University. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University. She received her B.S. degrees in electrical-electronics and mathematics from Bosphorous University. She is the inventor of 3 U.S. utility patents.
email:
MENTOR
Danyel Surrency Jones
Danyel Surrency Jones is a proclaimed “Vision Chaser”, business strategist and philanthropist, with two decades of executive leadership and sales & marketing experience. She is the Founder and Principal Business Strategist of Danyel Surrency Jones Consulting and the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of POWERHANDZ Inc., a global product tech company that designs innovative solutions for athletic training and rehabilitation. In 6 years, its core athletic training products have been sold to consumers in >86 countries, established a digital footprint with millions of youth and professional athletes, skills trainers and professional sports organizations. These milestones have captured the attention of major media outlets like Forbes, CNBC, Sports Illustrated, Essence and Bloomberg Business; positioning POWERHANDZ has one of the most innovative companies in multiple sports verticals, healthcare and technology.
email:
MENTOR
Enri Chantal Strobel
“Enri Chantal Strobel is currently working as an Innovation Project Manager at GERMANTECH GmbH in Berlin, Germany GERMANTECH is “Germany’s ‘One Stop Collaboration Shop’ For European Startups” (Forbes) supports companies and society to shape the digital transformation actively and sustainably with the help of technology and entrepreneurship. GERMANTECH offers Innovation sourcing, executive education, company building, and consultancy.
As the former Founder and CEO of HorseAnalytics GmbH, she empowered equestrians to monitor and improve the health and training of horses by allowing them to make advanced data-driven decisions alongside their whole life cycle, fusing proven IoT applications and AI with cutting-edge equine science. For HorseAnalytics she has raised nearly one million euro and reached up to 11,000 monthly active users. She was invited as the first female founder of Germany to “South by Southwest Accelerator”, and her startup was under the top 10 sports tech start-ups worldwide invited by Qatar Development Bank and Startup Bootcamp to “Qatar Sportstech Accelerator”
Prior to that, she worked as a project lead for “Apartimentum”, “Germany’s most intelligent house” of XING-founder Lars Hinrichs, member of the Startup Europe Leaders Club of the European Commission and of the Supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom AG.
She received education by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Hoffenheim in partnership with WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, German Football League (DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga) and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Holds a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Management and Economics from Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen at Lake Constance
She is a Polo Player, horse enthusiast as well as a strong believer in technology, Social Busines and our responsibility towards protecting the biodiversity of our planet.”
Email:enri@german.tech
Mentor
Fabio Puntillo
My previous engagements in sports management have been with IMG-Endeavor, Infront and the UAE FA. On behalf of IMG, I have licensed major sports programming from the 30,000 hours portfolio (TV and new media) and managed several sports events (football and tennis).
At MediaPartners (Infront Italy), I was the Head of Business Development for the new media department.
At the UAE Football Association Management Academy, I designed and delivered training programs for sports managers, players, international Summer and Winter camps, set up the UAE Football Schools League.
I have also held a career as a lecturer and International Programs Head at the University of Rome in International Business and Marketing with a focus on the entertainment and sports industry.
I hold an MBA from the University of Southern California and a DBA from the University of Rome.
Mentor
Fabricio Forchino
Fabricio is a Sports Dietitian within the Research and Scientific Support Department at Aspetar who has been working in the field of sports nutrition since 2003. During this time, he has worked extensively with high performance athletes, coaches and teams across a number of sports and from different countries.
Mentor
Fatimah Rahim
Fatimah Rahim is a recent graduate of a Juris Doctorate at Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) Law School, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development. Studying law has been a long-established goal as there are two generations of lawyers in her family. She is the second oldest of 21 siblings and is used to wearing multiple hats simultaneously. After fulfillment of her full-time responsibilities as a business development consultant, Fatimah reads arduously to absorb knowledge and be prepared for her clients. During her time in Doha, Fatimah has clarified how she would like to contribute to the Qatar National Vision of 2030-especially as it pertains to the educational entrepreneurship and the start-up, SME company establishment and growth as well as the financial sector objectives for the country as a whole. Her 10 years of experience in education coupled with her affinity for business and innovation provides a unique perspective through an atypical American Muslim’s perspective. She moved to Qatar in 2013 in an unintended manner. During her evacuation from Syria, a Saudi company asked her to go to Qatar for the processing of her visa. During her transit time, Fatimah was able to explore the gems of Qatar and experience Qatari hospitality. The appeal of being in a progressive and innovative environment was too great to pass up and so she sought employment and settled in. She teaches and researches in the areas of Educational and Entrepreneurship Reform, Business Development and Organizational Improvement, Management Consulting and Administrative Practices and Protocols, Organizational Culture Strategy and Innovative Eco-System Growth: impact on Students, Educational Innovation, and Service Leadership in Educational Environments. Ms. Rahim obtained her initial degree at 16 in New York State, where she completed her AS in International Business Administration, which she followed with a BA (magna cum laude) in Applied Linguistics with a K-12 TESOL teaching qualification and honored in business applications. Her MS was completed in 2017 in Dubai and her Juris Doctorate was completed in 2019. She has extensive experience establishing company formation documents, strategy and supporting budding Entrepreneurs.
mentor
Francisco Miguel Sousa
Scaling business experience in 9 Countries of EMEA and South America. Dedicated the last years leading business growth International based TechFood and e-Commerce companies. Lead by bringing together multi-cultural team, training, orientating and challenging them to provide the best market service and help people make better decisions and heading it’s operations.
Mentor
Gertruda Fon Narcco
As the UX Expert I combine an intelligent compilation of cold analysis and a well-tailored sharp taste of art. My main focus is to help with development of a product delivery strategy, user expertise and a proper communication strategy to the end-audience, in other words helping a product to be bold enough to speak for itself. On the other hand, I help to maintain a healthy atmosphere on a team in order to avoid burnout when rushing to complete certain challenging tasks, as well as help people develop their strong interpersonal skills, appropriate communication skills, while being that motivation sidekick, and as a matter of fact, reaching a goal that has been set on behalf of assisting with obtaining promising connections.
Mentor
Garrett Klugh
Garrett Klugh is the COO of Falk Ventures, the venture capital arm for the family office of legendary sports agent, David Falk. Garrett is also the co-founder of Huddle Sports Partners, a high-touch sport-tech advisory firm. Garrett formerly served as the Managing Director of STAR Angel Network, providing professional athletes access to early-stage investment opportunities. Prior to STAR, Garrett worked for the US Olympic Committee during the Beijing and London Olympic and Paralympic Games. A six-time US National Rowing Team member, World Champion, and Olympian (2004), Garrett holds an MBA from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree from San Diego State University.
Mentor
Giorgi Khubua
I’m a a SportsTech / FitTech entrepreneur since 2017. I founded SOLOS in 2017 in Munich – a digital fitness mirror that measures the movements from distance and shows on the mirror surface if the users are training right or wrong. SOLOS raised high six-digit investment, won ISPO & FIBO (3x nominee) awards, participated in 4 accelerators, and applied for several patents. I gained experience in the areas of FitTech / SportsTech, B2B and B2B2C, Software-Hardware product development, go-to-market strategy, MVP, financing, and M&A, product-market-fit, Business Development and cooperation with large corporations. Furthermore, I have a broad network in the fitness industry as well as the startup/investor ecosystem of UnternehmerTUM, ESA BIC, and Telefonica Open Innovation Hub – Wayra. I’m based in Munich and looking forward to supporting the entrepreneurs and shape the future of sports technology.
mentor
Hadi Attaran
Graduated in Electrical Engineering and MBA (Strategy). Founded two company one is for R&D services another for IoT.
Mentor
John Peters
John is a results-focused business development executive, operating in the active lifestyle, youth sports/fitness technology industries. John is the founder of BPT Works, an advisory and angel network who helps entrepreneurs and companies in the following areas: youth sports, venture capital, private equity, sporting goods, fitness and sports technology companies, and retail.
John has been immersed in innovations driving the fitness and sports industries forward, largely due to launching the Sports Technology Marketplace for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2014. John is an advisor to several sports technology accelerators, angel groups, venture capital funds and startups. John also created the SFIA Startup Challenge in 2016 – an international pitch contest that has attracted 300+ companies to apply and in just 3 years, the 16 companies who have been selected as finalists, have raised $135M+ in venture funding. John is a frequent keynote speaker on innovation and trends in fitness, technology and youth sports. John also was responsible for launching the ‘Future of Sports’ event franchise for UBS Group on Wall Street.
John recently launched the Sport Lifestyle Podcast with a focus on the industry, featuring influencers driving the sports, footwear, fashion, retail and sports tech markets forward.
In 2016, John was named a 40 Under 40 by Sporting Goods Business, an annual award that has featured industry leaders such as Kevin Plank, Sarah Robb O’Hagan, Josh Luber and many other industry executives.
Mentor
Hamed Bahmanpour
Over 10 years of experience in manufacturing, quality, and advance material processing. Co-founded a start up in the field of smart wearable medical devices. Hamed has knowledge and experience in various stages of product life cycle from early concept design up to mass production and manufacturing optimization for increased efficiency.
Mentor
Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan
I have been working on product development and manufacturing for the past 10 years. Having founded and scaled a startup myself, I have been through the same challenges any startup goes through. Now I have been working with startups to help develop their initial run and scaling roadmaps as well as organize mold making and manufacturing through my company’s in-house services.
I bring more than 10 years of experience in product development and manufacturing. An approach that would support a technology that pushes boundaries with a manufacturing approach that would do the same in mechanical performance. Every industry has its challenges, sports tech particularly require high performance considering its primary purpose is to push what is humanly possible.
Email:hamit@gamaarge.com
Mentor
Henrique Ortigao
“UEFA B C License Football Coach
BSc in Sports Science, MSc in Sports Management
Worked for 5 years as a Sports Scientist at SL Benfica (PT) and for the past 5 years have been doing sales for Catapult in regions such as LATAM and EMEA”
Mentor
Hemant Dua
An accomplished Sports & Media management professional with 20 plus years of experience. The hands-on approach has helped me understand the critical aspects of the sports and media industry. My exposure to global markets and sensitivity towards human relations has helped me successfully manage relationships with key decision-makers and lead large teams. I have been successful in turning around businesses and have demonstrated revenue growth, year after year.
mentor
Inga Stasiulionyte
“Olympian, Founders coach, Sports Business Consultant
Years of experience in being a competitive Olympic athlete, working as a business analyst, and building startups provided me a great understanding of the challenges and needs in the strive for self-realization on and off the field.
For the past decade, I used sports as a performance lab to test new technologies and techniques to develop Olympian mindset training programs. I work with professionals in the most demanding positions and institutions focusing on innovations. My clients include surgeons from Brigham And Women’s Hospital, managers and executives at Oracle, LinkedIn, Kayak, Yesware, HubSpot, Hall Capital, Akamai, and others. I prepared athletes to become European Champions, Olympians, National Record Holders, and the top marks in the world owners.
I lead a startup Ofounders.com that specializes in mind coaching that helps startup founders, teams, and professional athletes achieve superior results by using Olympic-standard mindset development techniques. I am also part of the Performance Coaches team as an Elite Coach at valorperform.com.
Since 2016 I was a coach for the MIT Entrepreneurship Bootcamps help all around the world. I also organized and headed the 1st MIT Sports Entrepreneurship Bootcamp with cooperation of WHU and sponsored by Bundesliga in 2019.
Mentor
Ian Seltzer
Ian Seltzer is currently the lead for Business Development at Pierce Yates Ventures, where he has developed eSports, media, entertainment, sports betting and AI verticals for early-stage investment. Previously, he led Content & Business Development for Rogue Sports, one of the top-ranked eSports teams in the world. He has worked at Hulu, Vuguru (Michael Eisner’s digital studio), and Paramount Digital Entertainment covering content creation, licensing, distribution and digital marketing. While there he developed, licensed and launched 30 original titles for TV, film and the web in over 110 countries worldwide. Ian graduated with a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently earned an MS with Merit in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics with a research focus on monetizing streaming media content in the U.S.
Mentor
Ida Bjerga
Digital strategy, branding, and design for sports and outdoors.
Mentor
Indica Amarasinghe
Indica has been working with startups in different roles for the past 5 years. During this time, he has headed a government tech incubator where 30 plus startups and idea stage teams were incubated. During this period, he was instrumental in launching new training and technology enablement programmes for the startups.
He is a certified lean startup coach and is actively involved in coaching and mentoring startups with the incubators and accelerators in Qatar. Indica is closely connected to the local angel investor network and has been a judge and mentor for many local, regional and global startup initiatives. For the past 20 years he has been working in the technology industry in both Sri Lanka and Qatar. His last assignment was with the Ministry of Transport and Communications for 8 years, where he was part of many national programs related to technology, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Indica currently works for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. He is part of a team that drives the Challenge 22 program, which is an startup innovation programme that opens the door for entrepreneurs and innovators to explore solutions that directly enhance and address the challenges related to mega events, and bring benefits to Qatar and the wider region.
Mentor
Ishveen Anand
Ishveen Anand is the founder and CEO of OpenSponsorship is the largest Sports Sponsorship marketplace, covering over 150 sports and 6,000 professional athletes, teams and events. Having completed over 3,000 deals, OpenSponsorship provides brands with its software-enabled sponsorship tools that are powered by AI, Google Analytics, IBM Watson, Shopify integrations, APIs and ROI tracking. Ishveen, is a British native who graduated from Oxford University, she was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2015 Sports List, and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, NASDAQ Private Business, Sports Business Daily, SportsTechie Elle, ISPO and other publicans. Prior to starting OpenSponsorship, she was a sports agent working with top teams and federations such as Mumbai Indians, Tottenham Hotspur, ICC, FIH and brands such as Hero MotoCorp, Mastercard and Castrol.
Mentor
Jorim Holtey-Weber
Jorim is passionate about sports and people. He has an MSc in Sports Sciences and an MSc in Talent Development and Creativity. Already before getting certified as a Sports Psychologist, he got interested in entrepreneurship and founded a language school. Nowadays, Jorim coaches, mentors, and consults on topics such as leadership, communication, and mental health.
Mentor
Jose Dominguez
Jose Dominguez (EMBA, MsC) has developed his professional career within the Sports industry, with a special focus on Media, Marketing, Digital, Broadcast and Business Development. Currently, he is the Business Service Manager at Olympic Channel (OTT platform of the International Olympic Committee), where he supports Stakeholders in different areas. Other previous experiences include Broadcasting Manager at the International Paralympic Committee and Marketing & TV supervisor for the European Handball Federation. Also, he has developed an academic profile being a lecturer at MEMOS degree (https://memos.degree/), publishing articles in reputed journals and participating in international events related to Media and Digital.
Mentor
Jeff Seltzer
Jeff Seltzer, Managing Partner of Pierce Yates Ventures, has nearly 40 years of experience developing new businesses and products across the global capital markets as well as advising entrepreneurs, corporations and governments.
Pierce Yates provides early-stage funding and advice to emerging companies with a focus on the FinTech and SportsTech verticals. Jeff is on the board of directors/advisory boards of Kasisto, Rogue Sports, New York Angels, GameCo, Motus, ResonanceX and REDD Intelligence. He is also a Mentor at the Barclays/Fintech Accelerator, Startup Bootcamp Fintech and Cyber, Qatar Sports Tech and Parallel 18.
Jeff has extensive experience in the sports business. He is one of the first investors in GameCo (an innovator in esports which is bringing the world’s first skill-based video game gambling machines to the casino floor), Sports Technologies (one of the first websites dedicated to fantasy sports), Rogue Sports (competing globally in multiple esports games), Tifosy (a specialized platform connecting sports teams and investors globally), KonekTV (a commercial streaming platform bringing sports betting analytics and esports to sports bars) and Motus (a leader in advanced biomechanical analysis and wearable technology for athletes at all levels).
He has served as chairman of governmental economic development agencies and as a director of a sports commission in the New York area and has been involved in efforts to acquire professional sports franchises. As deputy chairman of CIBC World Markets Corp., he created CIBC’s sports co-branding programs with Wayne Gretzky, the New York Rangers and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
He is an active alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania where he is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Penn Libraries and the Advisory Boards of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative and the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business.
Mentor
Lise COSIMI
A sports broadcast & media industry professional with over 25 years experience in the sector worldwide. Throughout my career I have worked for some of the biggest names in the industry whether it be for TV channels such as Eurosport, international sports federations such as UEFA, FIFA, IAAF, football clubs such as Paris Saint Germain. I have covered the last 6 FIFA World Cups (full cycles) for Host Broadcasters like TVRS98 and HBS. I have also covered numerous multisports events like SEA Games and Asian Games including the 2006 Doha Asian Games. In Qatar, I have also audited the AL KAAS Doha TV channel and delivered training.
I am now heading my own company and offer audit, consultancy, training, coaching and other turnkey assistance services to worldwide clients (Sports federations, Clubs, media, Local Organizing Committes, governments, etc.)
I am an IBC (Amsterdam) Council member, SVG Europe Advisory Board Member &
SVG Europe Women -External Head of the Advisory Board.”
Mentor
Miguel Ramos
Former semi-professional tennis player, U12 and U14 national champion in Portugal. 8 years in Sports Marketing & Talent management with experience on commercial deals, sponsorships, activations, sports events and social media for athletes in football, tennis, athletics, surfing, esports and Olympics. Great network in those sports and with brands activating in sports. 5 years experience in strategy consulting. Projects in P&L maximization for retail gas stations focusing on operations and sales, and on innovation funds from Europe. 7 years experience in finance controlling. Budgeting, controlling and keeping focus.
Mentor
Mohammed Seedat
Helping startups with their marketing strategy. Connect and build relationships with customers.
Mentor
Mazin Al Naamani
Mazin serves as Portfolio Impact Lead at IDO Investments. Prior to that, Mazin was at Oman’s largest sovereign wealth fund, State General Reserve Fund, where he worked on sourcing, analysing and closing deals in the Private Equity department, as well as develop the local angle for PE deals. Mazin also occupies the role of Non-Executive Director at Oman Energy Development, a greenfield renewable energy developer and IPP in the Sultanate. Mazin is a Harvard Business School (USA) accredited Private Equity & Venture Capital professional and hold a Bachelor of Business degree from Bond University (Australia) and a Master of Science degree in International Business & Entrepreneurship from Kingston Business School (London, UK), where he also developed an internationalisation strategy for a MedTech startup, and mentored founders with their business. In addition to his professional memberships, Mazin is a Global Shaper, an initiative by the World Economic Forum which recognises young leaders who catalyse projects of high value in their communities to create a global shared value.
Mentor
Monèm Jemni
Professor Monèm Jemni is a well-established and one of the world leading authorities in Sport and Exercise Science with 23 years career between France, the USA, Qatar, Germany and mostly in the UK. He undertook cutting edge research and published over 150 manuscripts including original research, textbooks and conference abstracts. Active member in several scientific and academic societies. He acted and still a reviewer and a mentor for several projects such: Challenge 22, The Stars of Science TV show, EU tempus and Horizon programs.
He is currently a consultant and tutor at the University of Cambridge, UK and Chair of the ISAFA (International Science And Football Association www.isafa.info). He is fervent to provide quality-controlled programs that socially and academically impact individuals and key stakeholders. Expert in planning, budgeting, negotiating and leading of small to big international projects from conception to deliveries.
Monèm was the Chair of the Qatar Olympic Committee Sport Science Program based at Qatar University from 2014-18. He was also the Director of the Sport Science with Professional Football Coaching BSc Degree at the University of Greenwich, London (2008-12).
He is a specialist in the optimisation of human health and performance, using a cross-disciplinary projects that engage local government, exercise scientists, nutritionists, health specialists and the fitness industry. He provided services to Olympic Winners and professional football clubs in the UK, such as Arsenal FC, Charlton Athletic, West Ham United, Crystal Palace and Gillingham FC.
Mentor
Motasem El bawab
I like to call myself a globetrotter, I moved from country to country in my youth which taught me English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish. I picked up a basketball at the age 6 while playing against my older brother Mazen, and my passion was cemented at 12 when I played three years at the Wehda Club in Tripoli, Libya. Later I pursued careers in both basketball and marketing, including playing for the Flamengo Basketball Club in Rio de Janeiro and graduating with honors from the John Molson School of Business.
Some of my previous work included projects for the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), I led the daily content distribution strategy for social media and delivery of video content for broadcasters. Currently, I am working as the digital projects manager for the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) leading the creation of new digital products and event-specific products.”
mentor
Muhammad Jafar Ali
Working in various capacities for the last 8 years to innovate Sports Tech, rehabilitation and wellness through wearable. Partially involved in a green initiative towards zero carbon footprint future cities and energy management systems. To achieve this, innovations and startups are the future and Data Science is the wisdom behind it.
MENTOR
Nick Randall
Nick is the Regional Director for CSM Live based in Qatar, where he leads a team that delivers projects in country, regionally and globally across the sporting and events environment.
With 15 years of experience of specifically branding, signage and wayfinding, Nick has worked worldwide on some of the world’s largest sporting events. These include Olympic Games, FIFA Football World Cups, FIBA Basketball World Cups and multiple other multi-venue, multi-sport type projects. His experience is focused on delivery, project streamlining and efficiencies, integration of technology into final deliveries and team management.
Regularly liaising with Federations, Governing Bodies and Local Organising Committees alike, means he has a strong understanding of pitching services, responding to tender and procurement processes as well as developing long term relationships.
Email:
MENTOR
Oz Arie
I am a media, communication and marketing professional with 12 years of experience. Skilled in Digital Marketing Strategy, eCommerce and Media Relations. Data-driven and analytical with a multi-channel approach who has acquisition, retention, and scalability on the mind and user experience at heart.
Email:oz@atlanticaccess.co.uk
mentor
Oscar Omegna
I’m the co-founder of SavvyBI & L.O.L C & C . I was an adviser for INCSUB, and founded and exited a few little projects
Mentor
Peter Lazou
For the last 25 years, I have been venture building and investing in early-stage startups and scale-ups, whilst also advising startups at various levels as well as mentoring across various accelerator and incubator programs. My passion is building new meaningful and enduring technology companies and over the years I have designed groundbreaking & award-winning technologies in FinTech, Automotive, IoT/Wearables, with three successful company exits.
I am genuinely passionate about supporting entrepreneurs in any way I can, creating stories that bring alive the power of tech startups and along my journey across 4 different continents, I have been privileged to have worked with some amazing and brilliant people. Joining Qatar SportTech as a mentor is a pleasure for me because it’s a sector I know extremely well from being involved in sports from a very young age but also as I have a very exciting tech startup in this space that will disrupt the status quo over time. However, it’s my collective experience and passion for building startups that excites me to be involved.
Technology is certainly impacting the world of sports and as mentioned before I have a tech startup in this space which is very exciting and will definitely disrupt the status quo over time. However the advances in technology have had a profound impact on sport such as analysis of sport performance and enabling coaches to greatly improve the quality of feedback to players/athletes, increasing accuracy in time measurements of sport performance, enabling referees, umpires and sport officials to make better decisions on rule infringements, improvements in the design of sport equipment and apparel as well as providing spectators with better viewing of sport performance. Sport is now a business with so much at stake!
Most and foremost is for them to know that I’m available at any time during their journey. They will definitely get to witness my passion, energy, and commitment for helping them get their ventures off the ground. My support will also be focused on helping them with understanding customer experience, design thinking, visual storytelling, the art of creative pitching, how to present themselves and understanding what investors really look for in founders, last but not least their vision meaning their future scalability.
mentor
Robin Dohmen
As the former Head of Design at Startupbootcamp, Robin worked with more than 175 startups worldwide and is well known with the global SBC organisation. He’s helping startups within the program with their pitch and investor decks mostly.
mentor
Roger Essoh
Entrepreneur, venture partner, CTO, startups advisor, and Open Source advocate since 1995.
With a strong and proven expertise in FinTech, GovTech, EdTech, AdTech, SportsTech, SaaS businesses, blockchain, open-source technologies, online video platform, and digital transformation.
24+ years’ experience in the IT & Consulting industry tailoring, designing, and building complex platforms, and solutions.
Several years’ experience as CEO/COO/CTO/Chief Business Officer/Chief Innovation Officer for startups and large companies.
Visionary, results-driven, strategic, and creative thinker with the ability to balance short-term operating needs with longer-term strategic imperatives.
Proven expertise in implementing complex technologies and driving innovation, operations, and business development for very large to middle size companies and early-stage startups.
OKR expert with management and an execution-style that consistently transforms teams (including remote) into high-performing squads.
Mentor
Peter Fitzboydon
Pete has spent almost 20 years working throughout the sports industry and has been a pioneer of SportsTech. Pete spent much of his career in football, holding the role of COO of the Football Foundation before leaving to become CEO of London Sport, which was set up in the afterglow of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to deliver a lasting community legacy. Much later he took the lead of UK’s largest leisure companies, Parkwood Leisure, increasing their turnover to over £100m. Pete has always been an advocate of SportsTech, having run a start-up (Upshot) before opening the UK’s first dedicated SportsTech Incubator (SportTech Hub) and instigating the sector’s move to Open Data (OpenActive), which is helping to make the sports industry easier to find and book online.
Mentor
Saorabh Sharma
MBA from Mannheim Business School in Germany and an undergraduate degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from Pt. R.S. University in India Owing to my extensive experience of working with different assets (clubs and tournaments) across countries and continents on a multitude of problems (commercial, marketing, financial, operational), I can support startups in understanding how different assets think, how can they pitch and navigate different stakeholder expectations. I can further support in terms of product improvement, shaping business models for assets, creating a promotional strategy to gain traction, all of which impact the funding prospectstechnology. Worked globally across Europe (Germany, Spain, UK, France, Sweden, Hungary, etc.) and Asia (India and China). 6 years of experience at Lagardère across sports (football, tennis, golf, eSports, etc.) and entertainment (concerts, festivals, family events, etc.) projects
Snapshot of responsibilities:
- Commercial strategy development (product, pricing, KPIs definition, reporting framework, etc.) and implementation across projects ranging from ticketing, hospitality, and sponsorship, F&B, corporate events, etc.
- Cross-channel marketing strategy development (product innovation, content, communication, and customer management) and implementation across projects ranging from fan engagement to digitalization to internationalization, etc.
- Financial strategy development with CXO’s across topics ranging from long term business planning to due diligence to stadium financing to new business development etc.
- Operational strategy development (event, F&B, facilities management, etc.) and implementation across stadiums such as Groupama arena (24,000 seats) in Germany, Anoeta Stadium (42,000 seats) in Spain, etc. and multifunctional arenas such as Friendsarena (65,000 seats) in Sweden
- Driving innovation via strategic partnerships (LiveNation, PMY Capital, etc.) and customizing solutions for Lagardère universe by working closely with the product (sponsorship innovation), sales, digital incl. analytics, new sports (eSports) teams
Mentor
Sandeep Mehta
Sandeep comes with a rich background in tech and entrepreneurship. He was a founding team member at Boomerang Commerce (now commerceiq.ai) and has since mentored multiple startups and startup founders. His area of expertise lie in customer discovery, product market fit, financial modeling and Investor pitches. He is well connected in the Indian and European startup ecosystems.
Mentor
Sara Daniel
Startup and technology specialist, Sara’s expertise lies in private company transactions and growth strategies. Sara is currently advising family-offices and financial institutions on private technology investments. Previously, as investment manager at Leap Ventures (a venture capital firm investing in Europe and the Middle East), she oversaw the entire investment process of two funds and worked on transactions from deal sourcing to portfolio management. Prior to that Sara worked as associate director at Endeavor, where she handled the selection and services program for high-impact businesses.
Mentor
Siddharth Deshmukh
A seasoned business leader with 16+ yrs of progressive experience in leveraging solution consulting & program management to Fortune 1000 clients, in the FMCG, Hi-Tech, Sports & Media vertical. Experienced with tech-startups across Sports, Healthcare, Hospitality & Media verticals. Have assisted over 80 technology startups with go-to-market strategy & thriving operational efficiency.
While my Head is in Technology, my Heart is in Sports… Sport is an integral part of my life. From being a competitive athlete to a game-changer in #SportsBusiness. Continuously working on building “Sport-as-a-Brand” through Talent Representation, Brand Marketing & Positioning Strategy, Commercialisation of Sports using Fan Engagement, Smart Connected Arena & Sports Development & CSR.
Sports is my greatest teacher, and it has taught me one important thing: “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get…”
Working on “CxO-as-a-Service” model in Sportertainment, Technology & Management Consulting areas towards Brand Marketing, Business Strategy & CSR
Champions keep playing until they get it right.. and hence More I Play… More I Learn!!!
Mentor
Webster Tai
Hands-on creative entrepreneur, specializing in the field of UX, branding, and building digital business models; with experiences in Australia, Cambodia, Qatar, South Korea and Singapore.
Through a broad strategic and art direction background, I have developed innovative, cost effective and compelling user experiences—from strategy to content, design and execution.
My ultimate aspiration as a designer is to use the idea of branding to create engaging and meaningful experiences to tell stories that are relevant in tomorrow’s context.
Lets chat about about strategy, innovation, and design!
Mentor
Tom Sears
A sports industry professional with over 25 years experience in the sector worldwide. I have held CEO and senior roles in the UK, Australasia, Africa and Europe with professional clubs, NGBs, international venues and provincial associations. I am now Managing Director of Kinsey Sears, an executive search organisation specializing in the sports industry worldwide. I am also Chair of the Professional Body of Sports Leadership – the membership body for professionals in the sports industry providing professional develop and individual support.
Mentor
Zied Abbas
A former professional athlete, coach, and senior management into my current role as a techncial and scientific expert with Qatar Swimming Association. A PhD level in sport science and masters in sport and facility management. Strong networking, people management, and communication skills.
Mentor
Tauqeer Hassan
Tauqeer has over 6 years of experience in investment and finance roles across the private and public equity markets. He has been based in Doha for the past 2 years where he works in investing and advising technology startups. Given his VC background, Tauqeer likes to help startups craft pitches that make VCs want to invest and also help young companies through the process of fundraising.
Mentor
Ramzi Hasan
Certified from Australia as Business Coach, Ramzi work with Executives and startups around the world to help take their Business and leadership, life to the next level. Ramzi will equip you with practical and strategic approaches to empower yourself and those around you. Chatting with the right person at the right time can make all the difference.
Mentor
Siddhesh Surve
I am a finance graduate who works in sports! I currently work at Rajasthan Royals, a leading franchise in the Indian Premier League. Previously, I worked as an investment & strategy consultant at Matter, where I led the development and execution of India market entry and growth strategies for marquee global corporations in media, entertainment and sports sectors. Prior to Matter, I worked at Firstenergy in the US. I was a member of the regulated commodity sourcing group and my role was focused on implementing AI tools to improve our load consumption forecast. I have a masters degree in finance from Villanova University.
Cohort 2021
Ai Abacus
BBox Sports
ComeTogether
Field of Vision
Juego
Navbuddy
NSAtech
Sentio Sports
StretchSkin
Stable Innovations
Alumni
Armony
Dronur
Fancision
FATE Esports
Golazzos
GymCraft
GymStory
HotSwitch
LAIFE
Yoomedoo
ClassTap
Sponix Tech
Fridai
12th Player
Golee
MoodMe
Torq Labs
HiQ Nano
Wisify
Horse Analytics
Find a Player
Creative Bot
Matchat
Minglvision
Moduu
Olympia
Performance by P.U.R.E
TieSports
Stars League
Chant Unite
News
QST signs MoU with Qatar Stars League
Read The Peninsula article here The Qatar Stars League (QSL) has announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies. As part of this exclusive partnership, QSL will support upcoming sportstech startups by offering mentoring sessions and running proof…
QST launches EntelaQ program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced the launch of its new pre-accelerator programme, EntelaQ. EntelaQ will prepare entrepreneurs, or teams residing in Qatar for QST’s upcoming fourth cohort of its highly anticipated Accelerator program.
QFC hosts webinar on opportunities in digital sector
Read The Peninsula article here Qatar Financial Centre co-hosted a webinar with Invest Qatar entitled “Crisis as a Catalyst: Emerging Opportunities in Qatar’s Digital Sector” to discuss the strength of the Qatari market for foreign investors as well as the role of digital transformation as a driving force for new opportunities in Qatar’s digital sector….
QST opens applications for its Accelerator Program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies, has opened applications for the third cohort of its Accelerator Program in Qatar, set to start in September 2020.
QST hosts first Virtual Hackathon
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Hackathon, which hosted about 70 participants from all over Qatar, including tech professionals, engineers and entrepreneurs.
New milestones to position Qatar as regional sports tech hub
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar has not ceased in achieving a series of milestones in a wide range of sports-related activities and programmes, and is well on its way to become a leading sports technology destination. During yesterday’s online launch of Qatar SportsTech’ (QST) inaugural ‘Digital Demo Day’, Hamad al-Qahtani, SME Incubation &…
QST to hold 1st Digital Demo Day
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced that it will host its first ‘Digital Demo Day’ on June 8 to celebrate the completion of the second cycle of its highly-acclaimed Accelerator Program. QST ran its second cycle between January and March 2020, comprising pioneering sports tech startups from eight countries out of…
Gulf Times interviews Fridai
Read the Gulf Times article here Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder of Fridai, was interviewed by Gulf Times to discuss their innovative SportsTech and the growth of E-sports in Qatar. Fridai, which is a startup from our second cohort, has developed an AI-powered voice assistant, tailored specifically to gamers and their needs, which currently has…
Sponix to speak at webinar
Register for the webinar here Join us for the ‘The Road to 2022 FIFA World Cup and Beyond: Sports Opportunities in Qatar’ webinar hosted by our partner, Qatar Financial Centre, and featuring guest speaker CEO and Founder of Sponix, Mohammad Ali Abbaspour. Speakers from Qatar Financial Centre and Aspire Zone Foundation will also share insights…
Gulf Times interviews MoodMe
Read the Gulf Times article here MoodMe, a startup in our second cohort, was recently featured in an interview with the Gulf Times where CEO and Co-Founder Chandra de Keyser spoke in detail about how their app can support Qatar’s plans to make the 2022 World Cup an immersive and memorable experience using #augmentedreality and…
QST hosts first Virtual Mentor Day
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Mentor Day where 25 mentors connected with our second cohort over the course of 9 hours. Our mentors and startups, who are spread across 15 countries, dedicated over 20 hours collaborating today. A big thank you to them for all their hard efforts. We’re excited to host our next…
Gulf Times interviews Torq Labs
Read the Gulf Times article here Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where CEO and Co-founder Julian Holtzman spoke about how his innovative solution contributes to injury prevention and performance improvement, in Qatar and globally.
Wisify tackles Covid19 outbreak
A big shout out to our startup Wisify, who have refocused their effort to help tackle the Covid-19 outbreak. Tiago Andrade, Co-Founder and CTO of Wisify, is working with the Platform of Open Science of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo (a public entity) and has changed a 3D project of a protective mask for Covid-19 to…
QST: leading accelerator in SportsTechX
We are excited to have been featured in SportsTechX’s first Asian SportsTech Report 2020, which highlights Qatar SportsTech as a leading accelerator driving the growth of #sportstech across the region. Our Managing Director, Heba Almasri, was highlighted as one of 13 individuals who are driving the growth and success of the ecosystem by leading new…
Gulf Times interviews Classtap
Read the Gulf Times article here Classtap, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where the co-founders Bashar Hudhud (CEO) and Rana Abdulmajeed (CCO) talked about how their startup promotes a healthy lifestyle, in line with the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Interview with Torq Labs
Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed smart leggings, which use wireless sensors to help with injury prevention and performance improvement. We interviewed the co-founders of Torq Labs, Julian Holtzman (CEO) and John O’Connell (COO), who gave an overview of how their innovative sports technology can support athletes and the…
Interview with Fridai
Fridai, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a voice assistant, exclusively for gamers. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Fridai, Mark Engelhardt, who talks about his sports technology and how it can contribute to Qatar’s growing e-sports industry.
Interview with Golee
Golee, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a one-stop platform, which helps football clubs to manage and digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Golee, Tommaso Guerra, who talks about his sportstech innovation and how it can contribute to Qatar’s sports industry.
TorqLabs | Startup Deep Dives
In the ninth week’s Deep Dive, TorqLabs shared their American cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing smart leggings to help with athlete injury prevention and performance improvement. By Julian Holtzman, CEO and Co-Founder, and John O’Connell, CTO and Co-Founder We brought cheeseburger sliders, chicken wings, and salad. This is a…
Fan Insight with Maria Talinka
Maria Talinka, Associate Director of Consulting at Nielsen Sports MENAP, gave a workshop on fan insight, which helped the startups to gain better insight into Generation Z’s mentality, values and habits, to help them better tailor their marketing strategies to reach this target audience.
Startup Development with Kolja
Kolja Rafferty, Manager of Subsidiaries at Qatar Development Bank, gave a workshop focused on the different stages of startup development, how to manage different stakeholders and mitigate conflict, and how to communicate and collaborate with the Board.
Hackathon 2020
In Over the weekend, we held our Hackathon 2020, where around 50 participants joined us for 48 hours to de-velop and pitch an innovative sportstech idea. The nine participating teams pitched their prototypes in front of their peers, mentors and a panel of judges. We had a wonderfully diverse panel from different organizations and backgrounds….
Workshops with Sudha Kheterpal
In week 9, we invited Sudha Kheterpal, Pitch Coach and Co-Founder of Xtopi and Shake Your Power, who has extensive experience in pitching, performance and stage presence, to help the startups craft and present a winning pitch. Pitch Training Workshop To help the startups craft and present a winning pitch, Sudha’s workshop focused on what…
hiq-nano | Startup Deep Dives
In the seventh week’s Deep Dive, hiq-nano shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a home kit that measures the level of antioxidants in the body. By Mauro Moglianetti, CEO hiq-nano is a start-up company from the Italian Institute of Technology – IIT, born with the goal to…
Media Week
In our ‘media week’, we invited beIN Sports, Gulf Times and The Peninsula to interview our startups. The teams had the opportunity to showcase their innovations and how they are transforming the sportstech landscape as well as explain how their startup is contributing to Qatar’s efforts in positioning itself as a global sports hub.
PR & Communications with beIN
In partnership with beIN, Ogilvy gave an intensive workshop on Public Relations and Communications to teach the startups the fundamentals of public relations strategies and help them to develop their brand, design their brand narrative and create and pitch their story.
Legal Fundamentals with Ricardo
Ricardo Cid, Senior Legal Consultant at Essa Al Sulaiti Law Firm, helped the startups plan ahead to launch their companies, by giving them a better understanding of legal requirements in Qatar, such as legal forms, contracts and Intellectual Property.
Safari Trip
Our startups ended their sixth week with an adventurous trip to Sealine, that included a thrilling dune bashing ride, spending the day at Arabian Adventures’ Sealine camp and riding beach buggies.
Wisify | Startup Deep Dives
In the sixth week’s Deep Dive, Wisify shared their Portuguese cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a portable body composition analysis caliper. By Ricardo Moura, CEO, and Tiago Andrade, CTO Wisify is a Spin-off of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Based on the technology created in the University, we…
Scaling with Abe Seksek
Abe Seksek, the COO of Startupbootcamp MENA & Russia and Rainmaking MENA & Russia, helped the startups to scale their businesses in his ‘Scale your Entrepreneurial Venture’ workshop. Abe’s workshop focused on scaling strategies, including the four pillars of scaling, the effective process for change management and key scaling resources to leverage.
Fundraising with Lars Buch
Lars Buch, the CEO of Startupbootcamp MENA & Russia and Partner at Rainmaking, gave a workshop on the fundamentals of fundraising, including what entails an investable company, how to differentiate yourself, how to become profitable and the different types of investors.
Investment Readiness with Aly Suteria
In week 6, we invited Aly Suteria, our Entrepreneur In Residence, to give a workshop on Investment Readiness, to help the startups gain insight into the overall investment process, understand key investment strategies, learn how to valuate their startups and find the best method to approach different investors.
Celebrating Qatar Sports Day with QDB
Some of our startups, HiQ-nano, ClassTap, Wisify and ChantUnite, had a wonderful day celebrating Qatar National Sports Day 2020 with Qatar Development Bank, by showcasing their innovative sportstech solutions and engag-ing the audience at Aspire Park. Thanks to QDB fr setting everything up!
Fridai | Startup Deep Dives
In the fifth week’s Deep Dive, Fridai shared their Hungarian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is an AI-powered voice assistant made for gamers. By Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder We’ve brought delicious chimney cake to all the other startups, a kind of food that’s consumed by hungarians during carnivals and cold…
Workshops with Pascal van Steen
In week 5, we invited Pascal van Steen, the Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Spike – Growth Marketing Agency, to give various workshops. Growth Hacking Fundamentals Workshop Pascal’s workshop gave the startups insight into how to grow their companies, by defining their growth strategy and leveraging different tools in their growth marketing process. Experiment…
Executive Event with QDB
Our startups joined our founding partner, Qatar Development Bank, this week for the monthly QDB Executive Event, where they had the opportunity to get feedback on their concepts.
Proposition Design with Robin Dohmen
Robin gave a workshop on proposition design and how to leverage different media and tools to com-municate your key messages and pitch your startup to different audiences. As the former Head of Design at Startupbootcamp and the current Co-CEO and founder of the OWOW Agency, Robin brings in extensive experience across communication inno-vation and design….
Sponix | Startup Deep Dives
In the third week’s Deep Dive, SponixTech shared their Persian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing an immersive broadcasting technology, which allows fans to watch a live game from the players’ perspectives. By Mohammad Ali Abbaspour, CEO and Founder, and Mohsen Rajabi, Business Development Director We provided two types of…
Executive Event with Aspire Zone
A diverse team from Aspire Zone and Aspetar mentored our startups through one-on-one sessions, giving them the opportunity to pitch their concepts and get constructive advice.
Golee | Startup Deep Dives
In the second week’s Deep Dive, Golee shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing a club management software platform to help football clubs digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. By Tommaso Guerra, CEO and Co-Founder of Golee We brought two dishes (as Italians in general…
Innovation Workshop & Executive Event with beIN
Qatar SportsTech held an innovation workshop for the beIN Me-dia Group executives, to give them a deeper under-standing of the startup ecosystem and challenged the teams’ strategic and planning skills using the marshmallow challenge. We also invited the executives from beIN to hold one-on-one mentoring sessions with the startups, to give them expert advice and…
QST: ‘Most Innovative Company’ by QFC
Doha, 4th December: Qatar SportsTech recently won the ‘Most Innovative Company’ award at the 2019 Qatar Business Awards ceremony, which was hosted by QFC. The award recognized QST’s commitment to innovation and the future of the SportsTech industry in Qatar. The 2019 Qatar Business Awards recognized the businesses committed to providing exceptional performance and innovation…
Mentor Management with Heba Almasri
To kick off week 2 and guide the startups on how to develop and manage mentor relationships, our Managing Director, Heba, gave a workshop on how to engage with and choose the right mentor, depending on the startups’ objectives, and how to leverage Startupbootcamp‘s global network of mentors.
Time & Stress Management with Ali Khadjavi
With over 10 years’ experience in establishing and mentoring startups, our Program Manager, Ali, hosted a workshop about different techniques to manage time efficiently and increase output; how to identify and establish priorities using the S.M.A.R.T. method; and advised the teams on how to detect and manage stress symptoms.
Classtap | Startup Deep Dives
To promote cultural awareness and bonding, every week, we asked one of the startups to deep dive into their culture by organizing a traditional lunch and to tell us more about their startup and journey. In the first week, Classtap, a local startup who are developing a digital solution to provide their users with access…
Qatar’s business etiquette and culture
In the first week of the program, the startups attended a cultural and insightful evening, hosted by Embrace Doha. The session helped our startups to get settled in Qatar and gave them better insight into Qatar’s unique traditional and business cultures.
Lego Serious Play with Emad Saif
In the first week of the program, we invited Emad Saif, who runs PlAY MEETUP, to our first Mindful Monday session. Emad challenged the startups to create different innovative models using legos, to encourage them to target problems in a different manner and start off their day in a mindful way.
Interview with OKRs Specialist – Jozef Misik
Kicked off our 1st week of the cohort with a workshop on OKRs conducted by Jozef Misik. He’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Homespring.co, which is furniture company with subscription plans at a low monthly price. We had a chance to interview him and find out how OKRs are important to streamline the flow of…
Alumni Spotlight: Creative Bot
Creative Bot was among the 1st 10 startups selected to join the Qatar SportsTech program. Following the program, the Creative Bot team has managed to secure a pre-seed follow up from our partners at Qatar Development Bank and has recently succeeded in securing a deal with Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum. We have met with Benjamin,…
QST hosts its second Selection Day
Doha, 2nd December: Qatar SportsTech(QST), the Doha-based sports industry startup accelerator hosted its second Selection Day at the Torch hotel where 10 best startups were selected to enter our award winning accelerator program. After three months of international scouting, 40 countries spanning 6 continents, and reviewing over 500+ applications, 10 selected startups are admitted into our…
TieSports: primary supplier for the PPF
We are thrilled to announce that TieSports, from Qatar SportsTech’s first acceleration cohort, recently landed a deal to become the prime software supplier for the Portuguese Padel Federation. The deal was signed by Ricardo da Silva Oliveria, the President of the National Federation, and by TieSports’ CEO, Diogo Mascarenhas. The deal will come into effect…
beIN MEDIA GROUP partners with Qatar SportsTech
Innovative new project develops the global sports industry’s most pioneering startups beIN MEDIA GROUP, the leading sports, media, and entertainment group (“beIN”), has today signed a partnership with Qatar SportsTech (“QST”), to support the global sports industry’s most pioneering projects. beIN and QST will work together to meet the demands of the ever-evolving sports industry…
QST: the first SportsTech Demo Day in MENA
The ten Qatar SportsTech companies have received 1.5m USD in committed seed funding and secured a soft commitment of a further 5m USD in up-coming funding Doha, 2 May 2019 – Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, celebrates today the first SportsTech…
“A Burst of Innovation” to Khalifa International Stadium
Qatar SportsTech accelerator, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, is hosting the first QST Demo Day on May 2nd, 2019.
Proposition Design with Robin Dohmen, week 4
Some weeks back, we had the pleasure of hosting a true expert in the art of pitching and a long-time friend of Startupbootcamp, Robin Dohmen, in our office in Aspire Dome. Throughout the week, Robin supported our 10 SportsTech startups in honing their pitches. With Demo Day around the corner, we thought it wise to…
QST Hackathon: 48 hours of Sports, Red Bull, and Coding
Qatar SportsTech’s 1st Hackathon reimagines fans’ engagement and participation leading up to 2022 WorldCup attracted more than 150 digital enthusiasts from 25 different nationalities to collaborate and co-create solutions. It was an exciting 48 hours of SportsTech entrepreneurship in its purest form. Last weekend the acceleration program, Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank…
Qatar SportsTech Hackathon
Hacking the Sports Industry With the World Cup 2022 and other major sporting events coming up, Doha is facing immense opportunities as a city. Developing a flourishing SportsTech ecosystem around the key events is one way of extending the impact way beyond the final whistle blows in the stadium. We, the Qatar SportsTech team, are…
Data in Sports: Past, Present, and Future
As data analytics is becoming a more prominent part of the sports industry, we wanted to get an experts perspective of the development. Luckily our entrepreneur in residence, Paulo Opperman, was more than happy to oblige.
How to Grow Startups in the Desert
Inviting a world of SportsTech to Qatar. The program is finally coming together and we have 10 startups at our doorstep ready to accelerate their businesses to the next level. We have startups from all corners of the world, each attacking each of their own burning challenges within the Sports Industry. In this post, we…
Doha’s Sports Environment through an Experts Eyes
From Doha, the state of Qatar, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Fouad El Fdil, long-time football coach at Aspire Academy and program mentor at QST. With five years in Doha under his belt, Fouad has extensive knowledge of the Qatari sports environment, its key organisations, and the technological advances made to push…
Meet the first QST Cohort 2019
After three intense selection days, the first cohort for the Qatar SportsTech Accelerator Program has now been selected. The level shown by each of the 21 shortlisted startups has exceeded our expectations in every way possible.
Bringing International SportsTech Talent to Doha
Today, Qatar SportsTech opened its doors for 22 of the world’s most exciting SportsTech startups. During the next few days all teams will run their pitches, get mentoring from industry experts and compete for a spot on the first accelerator program cycle. During the first day, the teams were taken on tours at three of…
Only 10 Days Left to Apply for Qatar SportsTech
Official launch of Qatar SportsTech accelerator at the General Entrepreneurship Week A look back After two months of talking with some of the most hyperactive brains in SportsTech, the scouting journey is reaching its end. There are now only 10 days left until applications close and we would love to meet you and your team….
Lisbon – A City Facing the Future, Let’s Meet
Lisbon has one of the fastest growing startup communities in Europe. The city ranks among the five best performing startup ecosystems in Europe and as number 31 out of 127 on the Global Innovation Index. The Portuguese capital was recently nominated for the title of European Capital of Sports 2021. It is now using its…
London – a Hotbed for SportsTech
With over £800 million invested in London-based FinTech startups in 2017, the city has quickly become widely recognized as the Fintech capital of Europe. Now a new vertical is beginning to gain momentum with an increasing amount of initiatives popping up across the city. SportsTech is taking center stage in London’s efforts to become the most physically…
The State of SportsTech
Last week Qatar SportsTech Accelerator opened up for applications. The accelerator is created by Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp with the aim of making Doha the new spearhead of Sports Innovation. With the 2022 World Cup coming up, this is the perfect opportunity for the city to establish itself as a vibrant startup…
QST signs MoU with Qatar Stars League
Read The Peninsula article here The Qatar Stars League (QSL) has announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies. As part of this exclusive partnership, QSL will support upcoming sportstech startups by offering mentoring sessions and running proof…
QST launches EntelaQ program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced the launch of its new pre-accelerator programme, EntelaQ. EntelaQ will prepare entrepreneurs, or teams residing in Qatar for QST’s upcoming fourth cohort of its highly anticipated Accelerator program.
QFC hosts webinar on opportunities in digital sector
Read The Peninsula article here Qatar Financial Centre co-hosted a webinar with Invest Qatar entitled “Crisis as a Catalyst: Emerging Opportunities in Qatar’s Digital Sector” to discuss the strength of the Qatari market for foreign investors as well as the role of digital transformation as a driving force for new opportunities in Qatar’s digital sector….
QST opens applications for its Accelerator Program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies, has opened applications for the third cohort of its Accelerator Program in Qatar, set to start in September 2020.
QST hosts first Virtual Hackathon
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Hackathon, which hosted about 70 participants from all over Qatar, including tech professionals, engineers and entrepreneurs.
New milestones to position Qatar as regional sports tech hub
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar has not ceased in achieving a series of milestones in a wide range of sports-related activities and programmes, and is well on its way to become a leading sports technology destination. During yesterday’s online launch of Qatar SportsTech’ (QST) inaugural ‘Digital Demo Day’, Hamad al-Qahtani, SME Incubation &…
QST to hold 1st Digital Demo Day
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced that it will host its first ‘Digital Demo Day’ on June 8 to celebrate the completion of the second cycle of its highly-acclaimed Accelerator Program. QST ran its second cycle between January and March 2020, comprising pioneering sports tech startups from eight countries out of…
Gulf Times interviews Fridai
Read the Gulf Times article here Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder of Fridai, was interviewed by Gulf Times to discuss their innovative SportsTech and the growth of E-sports in Qatar. Fridai, which is a startup from our second cohort, has developed an AI-powered voice assistant, tailored specifically to gamers and their needs, which currently has…
Sponix to speak at webinar
Register for the webinar here Join us for the ‘The Road to 2022 FIFA World Cup and Beyond: Sports Opportunities in Qatar’ webinar hosted by our partner, Qatar Financial Centre, and featuring guest speaker CEO and Founder of Sponix, Mohammad Ali Abbaspour. Speakers from Qatar Financial Centre and Aspire Zone Foundation will also share insights…
Gulf Times interviews MoodMe
Read the Gulf Times article here MoodMe, a startup in our second cohort, was recently featured in an interview with the Gulf Times where CEO and Co-Founder Chandra de Keyser spoke in detail about how their app can support Qatar’s plans to make the 2022 World Cup an immersive and memorable experience using #augmentedreality and…
QST hosts first Virtual Mentor Day
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Mentor Day where 25 mentors connected with our second cohort over the course of 9 hours. Our mentors and startups, who are spread across 15 countries, dedicated over 20 hours collaborating today. A big thank you to them for all their hard efforts. We’re excited to host our next…
Gulf Times interviews Torq Labs
Read the Gulf Times article here Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where CEO and Co-founder Julian Holtzman spoke about how his innovative solution contributes to injury prevention and performance improvement, in Qatar and globally.
Wisify tackles Covid19 outbreak
A big shout out to our startup Wisify, who have refocused their effort to help tackle the Covid-19 outbreak. Tiago Andrade, Co-Founder and CTO of Wisify, is working with the Platform of Open Science of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo (a public entity) and has changed a 3D project of a protective mask for Covid-19 to…
QST: leading accelerator in SportsTechX
We are excited to have been featured in SportsTechX’s first Asian SportsTech Report 2020, which highlights Qatar SportsTech as a leading accelerator driving the growth of #sportstech across the region. Our Managing Director, Heba Almasri, was highlighted as one of 13 individuals who are driving the growth and success of the ecosystem by leading new…
Gulf Times interviews Classtap
Read the Gulf Times article here Classtap, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where the co-founders Bashar Hudhud (CEO) and Rana Abdulmajeed (CCO) talked about how their startup promotes a healthy lifestyle, in line with the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Interview with Torq Labs
Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed smart leggings, which use wireless sensors to help with injury prevention and performance improvement. We interviewed the co-founders of Torq Labs, Julian Holtzman (CEO) and John O’Connell (COO), who gave an overview of how their innovative sports technology can support athletes and the…
Interview with Fridai
Fridai, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a voice assistant, exclusively for gamers. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Fridai, Mark Engelhardt, who talks about his sports technology and how it can contribute to Qatar’s growing e-sports industry.
Interview with Golee
Golee, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a one-stop platform, which helps football clubs to manage and digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Golee, Tommaso Guerra, who talks about his sportstech innovation and how it can contribute to Qatar’s sports industry.
QST: ‘Most Innovative Company’ by QFC
Doha, 4th December: Qatar SportsTech recently won the ‘Most Innovative Company’ award at the 2019 Qatar Business Awards ceremony, which was hosted by QFC. The award recognized QST’s commitment to innovation and the future of the SportsTech industry in Qatar. The 2019 Qatar Business Awards recognized the businesses committed to providing exceptional performance and innovation…
QST hosts its second Selection Day
Doha, 2nd December: Qatar SportsTech(QST), the Doha-based sports industry startup accelerator hosted its second Selection Day at the Torch hotel where 10 best startups were selected to enter our award winning accelerator program. After three months of international scouting, 40 countries spanning 6 continents, and reviewing over 500+ applications, 10 selected startups are admitted into our…
beIN MEDIA GROUP partners with Qatar SportsTech
Innovative new project develops the global sports industry’s most pioneering startups beIN MEDIA GROUP, the leading sports, media, and entertainment group (“beIN”), has today signed a partnership with Qatar SportsTech (“QST”), to support the global sports industry’s most pioneering projects. beIN and QST will work together to meet the demands of the ever-evolving sports industry…
QST: the first SportsTech Demo Day in MENA
The ten Qatar SportsTech companies have received 1.5m USD in committed seed funding and secured a soft commitment of a further 5m USD in up-coming funding Doha, 2 May 2019 – Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, celebrates today the first SportsTech…
“A Burst of Innovation” to Khalifa International Stadium
Qatar SportsTech accelerator, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, is hosting the first QST Demo Day on May 2nd, 2019.
Data in Sports: Past, Present, and Future
As data analytics is becoming a more prominent part of the sports industry, we wanted to get an experts perspective of the development. Luckily our entrepreneur in residence, Paulo Opperman, was more than happy to oblige.
How to Grow Startups in the Desert
Inviting a world of SportsTech to Qatar. The program is finally coming together and we have 10 startups at our doorstep ready to accelerate their businesses to the next level. We have startups from all corners of the world, each attacking each of their own burning challenges within the Sports Industry. In this post, we…
Doha’s Sports Environment through an Experts Eyes
From Doha, the state of Qatar, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Fouad El Fdil, long-time football coach at Aspire Academy and program mentor at QST. With five years in Doha under his belt, Fouad has extensive knowledge of the Qatari sports environment, its key organisations, and the technological advances made to push…
Meet the first QST Cohort 2019
After three intense selection days, the first cohort for the Qatar SportsTech Accelerator Program has now been selected. The level shown by each of the 21 shortlisted startups has exceeded our expectations in every way possible.
Bringing International SportsTech Talent to Doha
Today, Qatar SportsTech opened its doors for 22 of the world’s most exciting SportsTech startups. During the next few days all teams will run their pitches, get mentoring from industry experts and compete for a spot on the first accelerator program cycle. During the first day, the teams were taken on tours at three of…
The State of SportsTech
Last week Qatar SportsTech Accelerator opened up for applications. The accelerator is created by Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp with the aim of making Doha the new spearhead of Sports Innovation. With the 2022 World Cup coming up, this is the perfect opportunity for the city to establish itself as a vibrant startup…
QST signs MoU with Qatar Stars League
Read The Peninsula article here The Qatar Stars League (QSL) has announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies. As part of this exclusive partnership, QSL will support upcoming sportstech startups by offering mentoring sessions and running proof…
QST launches EntelaQ program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced the launch of its new pre-accelerator programme, EntelaQ. EntelaQ will prepare entrepreneurs, or teams residing in Qatar for QST’s upcoming fourth cohort of its highly anticipated Accelerator program.
QFC hosts webinar on opportunities in digital sector
Read The Peninsula article here Qatar Financial Centre co-hosted a webinar with Invest Qatar entitled “Crisis as a Catalyst: Emerging Opportunities in Qatar’s Digital Sector” to discuss the strength of the Qatari market for foreign investors as well as the role of digital transformation as a driving force for new opportunities in Qatar’s digital sector….
QST opens applications for its Accelerator Program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies, has opened applications for the third cohort of its Accelerator Program in Qatar, set to start in September 2020.
New milestones to position Qatar as regional sports tech hub
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar has not ceased in achieving a series of milestones in a wide range of sports-related activities and programmes, and is well on its way to become a leading sports technology destination. During yesterday’s online launch of Qatar SportsTech’ (QST) inaugural ‘Digital Demo Day’, Hamad al-Qahtani, SME Incubation &…
QST to hold 1st Digital Demo Day
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced that it will host its first ‘Digital Demo Day’ on June 8 to celebrate the completion of the second cycle of its highly-acclaimed Accelerator Program. QST ran its second cycle between January and March 2020, comprising pioneering sports tech startups from eight countries out of…
Gulf Times interviews Fridai
Read the Gulf Times article here Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder of Fridai, was interviewed by Gulf Times to discuss their innovative SportsTech and the growth of E-sports in Qatar. Fridai, which is a startup from our second cohort, has developed an AI-powered voice assistant, tailored specifically to gamers and their needs, which currently has…
Sponix to speak at webinar
Register for the webinar here Join us for the ‘The Road to 2022 FIFA World Cup and Beyond: Sports Opportunities in Qatar’ webinar hosted by our partner, Qatar Financial Centre, and featuring guest speaker CEO and Founder of Sponix, Mohammad Ali Abbaspour. Speakers from Qatar Financial Centre and Aspire Zone Foundation will also share insights…
Gulf Times interviews MoodMe
Read the Gulf Times article here MoodMe, a startup in our second cohort, was recently featured in an interview with the Gulf Times where CEO and Co-Founder Chandra de Keyser spoke in detail about how their app can support Qatar’s plans to make the 2022 World Cup an immersive and memorable experience using #augmentedreality and…
Gulf Times interviews Torq Labs
Read the Gulf Times article here Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where CEO and Co-founder Julian Holtzman spoke about how his innovative solution contributes to injury prevention and performance improvement, in Qatar and globally.
QST: leading accelerator in SportsTechX
We are excited to have been featured in SportsTechX’s first Asian SportsTech Report 2020, which highlights Qatar SportsTech as a leading accelerator driving the growth of #sportstech across the region. Our Managing Director, Heba Almasri, was highlighted as one of 13 individuals who are driving the growth and success of the ecosystem by leading new…
Gulf Times interviews Classtap
Read the Gulf Times article here Classtap, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where the co-founders Bashar Hudhud (CEO) and Rana Abdulmajeed (CCO) talked about how their startup promotes a healthy lifestyle, in line with the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Fan Insight with Maria Talinka
Maria Talinka, Associate Director of Consulting at Nielsen Sports MENAP, gave a workshop on fan insight, which helped the startups to gain better insight into Generation Z’s mentality, values and habits, to help them better tailor their marketing strategies to reach this target audience.
Startup Development with Kolja
Kolja Rafferty, Manager of Subsidiaries at Qatar Development Bank, gave a workshop focused on the different stages of startup development, how to manage different stakeholders and mitigate conflict, and how to communicate and collaborate with the Board.
Workshops with Sudha Kheterpal
In week 9, we invited Sudha Kheterpal, Pitch Coach and Co-Founder of Xtopi and Shake Your Power, who has extensive experience in pitching, performance and stage presence, to help the startups craft and present a winning pitch. Pitch Training Workshop To help the startups craft and present a winning pitch, Sudha’s workshop focused on what…
PR & Communications with beIN
In partnership with beIN, Ogilvy gave an intensive workshop on Public Relations and Communications to teach the startups the fundamentals of public relations strategies and help them to develop their brand, design their brand narrative and create and pitch their story.
Legal Fundamentals with Ricardo
Ricardo Cid, Senior Legal Consultant at Essa Al Sulaiti Law Firm, helped the startups plan ahead to launch their companies, by giving them a better understanding of legal requirements in Qatar, such as legal forms, contracts and Intellectual Property.
Scaling with Abe Seksek
Abe Seksek, the COO of Startupbootcamp MENA & Russia and Rainmaking MENA & Russia, helped the startups to scale their businesses in his ‘Scale your Entrepreneurial Venture’ workshop. Abe’s workshop focused on scaling strategies, including the four pillars of scaling, the effective process for change management and key scaling resources to leverage.
Fundraising with Lars Buch
Lars Buch, the CEO of Startupbootcamp MENA & Russia and Partner at Rainmaking, gave a workshop on the fundamentals of fundraising, including what entails an investable company, how to differentiate yourself, how to become profitable and the different types of investors.
Investment Readiness with Aly Suteria
In week 6, we invited Aly Suteria, our Entrepreneur In Residence, to give a workshop on Investment Readiness, to help the startups gain insight into the overall investment process, understand key investment strategies, learn how to valuate their startups and find the best method to approach different investors.
Workshops with Pascal van Steen
In week 5, we invited Pascal van Steen, the Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Spike – Growth Marketing Agency, to give various workshops. Growth Hacking Fundamentals Workshop Pascal’s workshop gave the startups insight into how to grow their companies, by defining their growth strategy and leveraging different tools in their growth marketing process. Experiment…
Proposition Design with Robin Dohmen
Robin gave a workshop on proposition design and how to leverage different media and tools to com-municate your key messages and pitch your startup to different audiences. As the former Head of Design at Startupbootcamp and the current Co-CEO and founder of the OWOW Agency, Robin brings in extensive experience across communication inno-vation and design….
Mentor Management with Heba Almasri
To kick off week 2 and guide the startups on how to develop and manage mentor relationships, our Managing Director, Heba, gave a workshop on how to engage with and choose the right mentor, depending on the startups’ objectives, and how to leverage Startupbootcamp‘s global network of mentors.
Time & Stress Management with Ali Khadjavi
With over 10 years’ experience in establishing and mentoring startups, our Program Manager, Ali, hosted a workshop about different techniques to manage time efficiently and increase output; how to identify and establish priorities using the S.M.A.R.T. method; and advised the teams on how to detect and manage stress symptoms.
Lego Serious Play with Emad Saif
In the first week of the program, we invited Emad Saif, who runs PlAY MEETUP, to our first Mindful Monday session. Emad challenged the startups to create different innovative models using legos, to encourage them to target problems in a different manner and start off their day in a mindful way.
Interview with OKRs Specialist – Jozef Misik
Kicked off our 1st week of the cohort with a workshop on OKRs conducted by Jozef Misik. He’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Homespring.co, which is furniture company with subscription plans at a low monthly price. We had a chance to interview him and find out how OKRs are important to streamline the flow of…
Proposition Design with Robin Dohmen, week 4
Some weeks back, we had the pleasure of hosting a true expert in the art of pitching and a long-time friend of Startupbootcamp, Robin Dohmen, in our office in Aspire Dome. Throughout the week, Robin supported our 10 SportsTech startups in honing their pitches. With Demo Day around the corner, we thought it wise to…
QST signs MoU with Qatar Stars League
Read The Peninsula article here The Qatar Stars League (QSL) has announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies. As part of this exclusive partnership, QSL will support upcoming sportstech startups by offering mentoring sessions and running proof…
QFC hosts webinar on opportunities in digital sector
Read The Peninsula article here Qatar Financial Centre co-hosted a webinar with Invest Qatar entitled “Crisis as a Catalyst: Emerging Opportunities in Qatar’s Digital Sector” to discuss the strength of the Qatari market for foreign investors as well as the role of digital transformation as a driving force for new opportunities in Qatar’s digital sector….
QST hosts first Virtual Hackathon
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Hackathon, which hosted about 70 participants from all over Qatar, including tech professionals, engineers and entrepreneurs.
Hackathon 2020
In Over the weekend, we held our Hackathon 2020, where around 50 participants joined us for 48 hours to de-velop and pitch an innovative sportstech idea. The nine participating teams pitched their prototypes in front of their peers, mentors and a panel of judges. We had a wonderfully diverse panel from different organizations and backgrounds….
Celebrating Qatar Sports Day with QDB
Some of our startups, HiQ-nano, ClassTap, Wisify and ChantUnite, had a wonderful day celebrating Qatar National Sports Day 2020 with Qatar Development Bank, by showcasing their innovative sportstech solutions and engag-ing the audience at Aspire Park. Thanks to QDB fr setting everything up!
Executive Event with QDB
Our startups joined our founding partner, Qatar Development Bank, this week for the monthly QDB Executive Event, where they had the opportunity to get feedback on their concepts.
Executive Event with Aspire Zone
A diverse team from Aspire Zone and Aspetar mentored our startups through one-on-one sessions, giving them the opportunity to pitch their concepts and get constructive advice.
Innovation Workshop & Executive Event with beIN
Qatar SportsTech held an innovation workshop for the beIN Me-dia Group executives, to give them a deeper under-standing of the startup ecosystem and challenged the teams’ strategic and planning skills using the marshmallow challenge. We also invited the executives from beIN to hold one-on-one mentoring sessions with the startups, to give them expert advice and…
beIN MEDIA GROUP partners with Qatar SportsTech
Innovative new project develops the global sports industry’s most pioneering startups beIN MEDIA GROUP, the leading sports, media, and entertainment group (“beIN”), has today signed a partnership with Qatar SportsTech (“QST”), to support the global sports industry’s most pioneering projects. beIN and QST will work together to meet the demands of the ever-evolving sports industry…
QST: the first SportsTech Demo Day in MENA
The ten Qatar SportsTech companies have received 1.5m USD in committed seed funding and secured a soft commitment of a further 5m USD in up-coming funding Doha, 2 May 2019 – Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, celebrates today the first SportsTech…
QST Hackathon: 48 hours of Sports, Red Bull, and Coding
Qatar SportsTech’s 1st Hackathon reimagines fans’ engagement and participation leading up to 2022 WorldCup attracted more than 150 digital enthusiasts from 25 different nationalities to collaborate and co-create solutions. It was an exciting 48 hours of SportsTech entrepreneurship in its purest form. Last weekend the acceleration program, Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank…
Qatar SportsTech Hackathon
Hacking the Sports Industry With the World Cup 2022 and other major sporting events coming up, Doha is facing immense opportunities as a city. Developing a flourishing SportsTech ecosystem around the key events is one way of extending the impact way beyond the final whistle blows in the stadium. We, the Qatar SportsTech team, are…
QST hosts first Virtual Hackathon
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Hackathon, which hosted about 70 participants from all over Qatar, including tech professionals, engineers and entrepreneurs.
Hackathon 2020
In Over the weekend, we held our Hackathon 2020, where around 50 participants joined us for 48 hours to de-velop and pitch an innovative sportstech idea. The nine participating teams pitched their prototypes in front of their peers, mentors and a panel of judges. We had a wonderfully diverse panel from different organizations and backgrounds….
Celebrating Qatar Sports Day with QDB
Some of our startups, HiQ-nano, ClassTap, Wisify and ChantUnite, had a wonderful day celebrating Qatar National Sports Day 2020 with Qatar Development Bank, by showcasing their innovative sportstech solutions and engag-ing the audience at Aspire Park. Thanks to QDB fr setting everything up!
QST Hackathon: 48 hours of Sports, Red Bull, and Coding
Qatar SportsTech’s 1st Hackathon reimagines fans’ engagement and participation leading up to 2022 WorldCup attracted more than 150 digital enthusiasts from 25 different nationalities to collaborate and co-create solutions. It was an exciting 48 hours of SportsTech entrepreneurship in its purest form. Last weekend the acceleration program, Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank…
Qatar SportsTech Hackathon
Hacking the Sports Industry With the World Cup 2022 and other major sporting events coming up, Doha is facing immense opportunities as a city. Developing a flourishing SportsTech ecosystem around the key events is one way of extending the impact way beyond the final whistle blows in the stadium. We, the Qatar SportsTech team, are…
TorqLabs | Startup Deep Dives
In the ninth week’s Deep Dive, TorqLabs shared their American cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing smart leggings to help with athlete injury prevention and performance improvement. By Julian Holtzman, CEO and Co-Founder, and John O’Connell, CTO and Co-Founder We brought cheeseburger sliders, chicken wings, and salad. This is a…
Hackathon 2020
In Over the weekend, we held our Hackathon 2020, where around 50 participants joined us for 48 hours to de-velop and pitch an innovative sportstech idea. The nine participating teams pitched their prototypes in front of their peers, mentors and a panel of judges. We had a wonderfully diverse panel from different organizations and backgrounds….
hiq-nano | Startup Deep Dives
In the seventh week’s Deep Dive, hiq-nano shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a home kit that measures the level of antioxidants in the body. By Mauro Moglianetti, CEO hiq-nano is a start-up company from the Italian Institute of Technology – IIT, born with the goal to…
Safari Trip
Our startups ended their sixth week with an adventurous trip to Sealine, that included a thrilling dune bashing ride, spending the day at Arabian Adventures’ Sealine camp and riding beach buggies.
Wisify | Startup Deep Dives
In the sixth week’s Deep Dive, Wisify shared their Portuguese cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a portable body composition analysis caliper. By Ricardo Moura, CEO, and Tiago Andrade, CTO Wisify is a Spin-off of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Based on the technology created in the University, we…
Fridai | Startup Deep Dives
In the fifth week’s Deep Dive, Fridai shared their Hungarian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is an AI-powered voice assistant made for gamers. By Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder We’ve brought delicious chimney cake to all the other startups, a kind of food that’s consumed by hungarians during carnivals and cold…
Sponix | Startup Deep Dives
In the third week’s Deep Dive, SponixTech shared their Persian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing an immersive broadcasting technology, which allows fans to watch a live game from the players’ perspectives. By Mohammad Ali Abbaspour, CEO and Founder, and Mohsen Rajabi, Business Development Director We provided two types of…
Golee | Startup Deep Dives
In the second week’s Deep Dive, Golee shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing a club management software platform to help football clubs digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. By Tommaso Guerra, CEO and Co-Founder of Golee We brought two dishes (as Italians in general…
Classtap | Startup Deep Dives
To promote cultural awareness and bonding, every week, we asked one of the startups to deep dive into their culture by organizing a traditional lunch and to tell us more about their startup and journey. In the first week, Classtap, a local startup who are developing a digital solution to provide their users with access…
Qatar’s business etiquette and culture
In the first week of the program, the startups attended a cultural and insightful evening, hosted by Embrace Doha. The session helped our startups to get settled in Qatar and gave them better insight into Qatar’s unique traditional and business cultures.
Gulf Times interviews Fridai
Read the Gulf Times article here Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder of Fridai, was interviewed by Gulf Times to discuss their innovative SportsTech and the growth of E-sports in Qatar. Fridai, which is a startup from our second cohort, has developed an AI-powered voice assistant, tailored specifically to gamers and their needs, which currently has…
Sponix to speak at webinar
Register for the webinar here Join us for the ‘The Road to 2022 FIFA World Cup and Beyond: Sports Opportunities in Qatar’ webinar hosted by our partner, Qatar Financial Centre, and featuring guest speaker CEO and Founder of Sponix, Mohammad Ali Abbaspour. Speakers from Qatar Financial Centre and Aspire Zone Foundation will also share insights…
Gulf Times interviews MoodMe
Read the Gulf Times article here MoodMe, a startup in our second cohort, was recently featured in an interview with the Gulf Times where CEO and Co-Founder Chandra de Keyser spoke in detail about how their app can support Qatar’s plans to make the 2022 World Cup an immersive and memorable experience using #augmentedreality and…
QST hosts first Virtual Mentor Day
Qatar SportsTech held its first Virtual Mentor Day where 25 mentors connected with our second cohort over the course of 9 hours. Our mentors and startups, who are spread across 15 countries, dedicated over 20 hours collaborating today. A big thank you to them for all their hard efforts. We’re excited to host our next…
Gulf Times interviews Torq Labs
Read the Gulf Times article here Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where CEO and Co-founder Julian Holtzman spoke about how his innovative solution contributes to injury prevention and performance improvement, in Qatar and globally.
Wisify tackles Covid19 outbreak
A big shout out to our startup Wisify, who have refocused their effort to help tackle the Covid-19 outbreak. Tiago Andrade, Co-Founder and CTO of Wisify, is working with the Platform of Open Science of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo (a public entity) and has changed a 3D project of a protective mask for Covid-19 to…
QST: leading accelerator in SportsTechX
We are excited to have been featured in SportsTechX’s first Asian SportsTech Report 2020, which highlights Qatar SportsTech as a leading accelerator driving the growth of #sportstech across the region. Our Managing Director, Heba Almasri, was highlighted as one of 13 individuals who are driving the growth and success of the ecosystem by leading new…
Gulf Times interviews Classtap
Read the Gulf Times article here Classtap, one of the startups in our second cohort, was recently interviewed by Gulf Times, where the co-founders Bashar Hudhud (CEO) and Rana Abdulmajeed (CCO) talked about how their startup promotes a healthy lifestyle, in line with the objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Interview with Torq Labs
Torq Labs, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed smart leggings, which use wireless sensors to help with injury prevention and performance improvement. We interviewed the co-founders of Torq Labs, Julian Holtzman (CEO) and John O’Connell (COO), who gave an overview of how their innovative sports technology can support athletes and the…
Interview with Fridai
Fridai, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a voice assistant, exclusively for gamers. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Fridai, Mark Engelhardt, who talks about his sports technology and how it can contribute to Qatar’s growing e-sports industry.
Interview with Golee
Golee, one of the startups in our second cohort, has developed a one-stop platform, which helps football clubs to manage and digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Golee, Tommaso Guerra, who talks about his sportstech innovation and how it can contribute to Qatar’s sports industry.
TorqLabs | Startup Deep Dives
In the ninth week’s Deep Dive, TorqLabs shared their American cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing smart leggings to help with athlete injury prevention and performance improvement. By Julian Holtzman, CEO and Co-Founder, and John O’Connell, CTO and Co-Founder We brought cheeseburger sliders, chicken wings, and salad. This is a…
hiq-nano | Startup Deep Dives
In the seventh week’s Deep Dive, hiq-nano shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a home kit that measures the level of antioxidants in the body. By Mauro Moglianetti, CEO hiq-nano is a start-up company from the Italian Institute of Technology – IIT, born with the goal to…
Media Week
In our ‘media week’, we invited beIN Sports, Gulf Times and The Peninsula to interview our startups. The teams had the opportunity to showcase their innovations and how they are transforming the sportstech landscape as well as explain how their startup is contributing to Qatar’s efforts in positioning itself as a global sports hub.
Wisify | Startup Deep Dives
In the sixth week’s Deep Dive, Wisify shared their Portuguese cuisine and told us more about their startup, which has developed a portable body composition analysis caliper. By Ricardo Moura, CEO, and Tiago Andrade, CTO Wisify is a Spin-off of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Based on the technology created in the University, we…
Fridai | Startup Deep Dives
In the fifth week’s Deep Dive, Fridai shared their Hungarian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is an AI-powered voice assistant made for gamers. By Mark Engelhardt, CEO and Co-Founder We’ve brought delicious chimney cake to all the other startups, a kind of food that’s consumed by hungarians during carnivals and cold…
Sponix | Startup Deep Dives
In the third week’s Deep Dive, SponixTech shared their Persian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing an immersive broadcasting technology, which allows fans to watch a live game from the players’ perspectives. By Mohammad Ali Abbaspour, CEO and Founder, and Mohsen Rajabi, Business Development Director We provided two types of…
Golee | Startup Deep Dives
In the second week’s Deep Dive, Golee shared their Italian cuisine and told us more about their startup, which is developing a club management software platform to help football clubs digitize their daily operations and monitor their sports activities. By Tommaso Guerra, CEO and Co-Founder of Golee We brought two dishes (as Italians in general…
Classtap | Startup Deep Dives
To promote cultural awareness and bonding, every week, we asked one of the startups to deep dive into their culture by organizing a traditional lunch and to tell us more about their startup and journey. In the first week, Classtap, a local startup who are developing a digital solution to provide their users with access…
Alumni Spotlight: Creative Bot
Creative Bot was among the 1st 10 startups selected to join the Qatar SportsTech program. Following the program, the Creative Bot team has managed to secure a pre-seed follow up from our partners at Qatar Development Bank and has recently succeeded in securing a deal with Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum. We have met with Benjamin,…
QST hosts its second Selection Day
Doha, 2nd December: Qatar SportsTech(QST), the Doha-based sports industry startup accelerator hosted its second Selection Day at the Torch hotel where 10 best startups were selected to enter our award winning accelerator program. After three months of international scouting, 40 countries spanning 6 continents, and reviewing over 500+ applications, 10 selected startups are admitted into our…
TieSports: primary supplier for the PPF
We are thrilled to announce that TieSports, from Qatar SportsTech’s first acceleration cohort, recently landed a deal to become the prime software supplier for the Portuguese Padel Federation. The deal was signed by Ricardo da Silva Oliveria, the President of the National Federation, and by TieSports’ CEO, Diogo Mascarenhas. The deal will come into effect…
“A Burst of Innovation” to Khalifa International Stadium
Qatar SportsTech accelerator, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, is hosting the first QST Demo Day on May 2nd, 2019.
How to Grow Startups in the Desert
Inviting a world of SportsTech to Qatar. The program is finally coming together and we have 10 startups at our doorstep ready to accelerate their businesses to the next level. We have startups from all corners of the world, each attacking each of their own burning challenges within the Sports Industry. In this post, we…
Doha’s Sports Environment through an Experts Eyes
From Doha, the state of Qatar, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Fouad El Fdil, long-time football coach at Aspire Academy and program mentor at QST. With five years in Doha under his belt, Fouad has extensive knowledge of the Qatari sports environment, its key organisations, and the technological advances made to push…
Meet the first QST Cohort 2019
After three intense selection days, the first cohort for the Qatar SportsTech Accelerator Program has now been selected. The level shown by each of the 21 shortlisted startups has exceeded our expectations in every way possible.
Bringing International SportsTech Talent to Doha
Today, Qatar SportsTech opened its doors for 22 of the world’s most exciting SportsTech startups. During the next few days all teams will run their pitches, get mentoring from industry experts and compete for a spot on the first accelerator program cycle. During the first day, the teams were taken on tours at three of…
The State of SportsTech
Last week Qatar SportsTech Accelerator opened up for applications. The accelerator is created by Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp with the aim of making Doha the new spearhead of Sports Innovation. With the 2022 World Cup coming up, this is the perfect opportunity for the city to establish itself as a vibrant startup…
QST signs MoU with Qatar Stars League
Read The Peninsula article here The Qatar Stars League (QSL) has announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies. As part of this exclusive partnership, QSL will support upcoming sportstech startups by offering mentoring sessions and running proof…
QST launches EntelaQ program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech has announced the launch of its new pre-accelerator programme, EntelaQ. EntelaQ will prepare entrepreneurs, or teams residing in Qatar for QST’s upcoming fourth cohort of its highly anticipated Accelerator program.
QFC hosts webinar on opportunities in digital sector
Read The Peninsula article here Qatar Financial Centre co-hosted a webinar with Invest Qatar entitled “Crisis as a Catalyst: Emerging Opportunities in Qatar’s Digital Sector” to discuss the strength of the Qatari market for foreign investors as well as the role of digital transformation as a driving force for new opportunities in Qatar’s digital sector….
QST opens applications for its Accelerator Program
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar SportsTech (QST), the region’s first startup accelerator and hub for innovative sportstech companies, has opened applications for the third cohort of its Accelerator Program in Qatar, set to start in September 2020.
New milestones to position Qatar as regional sports tech hub
Read the Gulf Times article here Qatar has not ceased in achieving a series of milestones in a wide range of sports-related activities and programmes, and is well on its way to become a leading sports technology destination. During yesterday’s online launch of Qatar SportsTech’ (QST) inaugural ‘Digital Demo Day’, Hamad al-Qahtani, SME Incubation &…
QST: leading accelerator in SportsTechX
We are excited to have been featured in SportsTechX’s first Asian SportsTech Report 2020, which highlights Qatar SportsTech as a leading accelerator driving the growth of #sportstech across the region. Our Managing Director, Heba Almasri, was highlighted as one of 13 individuals who are driving the growth and success of the ecosystem by leading new…
QST: ‘Most Innovative Company’ by QFC
Doha, 4th December: Qatar SportsTech recently won the ‘Most Innovative Company’ award at the 2019 Qatar Business Awards ceremony, which was hosted by QFC. The award recognized QST’s commitment to innovation and the future of the SportsTech industry in Qatar. The 2019 Qatar Business Awards recognized the businesses committed to providing exceptional performance and innovation…
Alumni Spotlight: Creative Bot
Creative Bot was among the 1st 10 startups selected to join the Qatar SportsTech program. Following the program, the Creative Bot team has managed to secure a pre-seed follow up from our partners at Qatar Development Bank and has recently succeeded in securing a deal with Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum. We have met with Benjamin,…
TieSports: primary supplier for the PPF
We are thrilled to announce that TieSports, from Qatar SportsTech’s first acceleration cohort, recently landed a deal to become the prime software supplier for the Portuguese Padel Federation. The deal was signed by Ricardo da Silva Oliveria, the President of the National Federation, and by TieSports’ CEO, Diogo Mascarenhas. The deal will come into effect…
beIN MEDIA GROUP partners with Qatar SportsTech
Innovative new project develops the global sports industry’s most pioneering startups beIN MEDIA GROUP, the leading sports, media, and entertainment group (“beIN”), has today signed a partnership with Qatar SportsTech (“QST”), to support the global sports industry’s most pioneering projects. beIN and QST will work together to meet the demands of the ever-evolving sports industry…
QST: the first SportsTech Demo Day in MENA
The ten Qatar SportsTech companies have received 1.5m USD in committed seed funding and secured a soft commitment of a further 5m USD in up-coming funding Doha, 2 May 2019 – Qatar SportsTech, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, celebrates today the first SportsTech…
“A Burst of Innovation” to Khalifa International Stadium
Qatar SportsTech accelerator, in partnership with Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp, the world’s largest network of innovation programs, is hosting the first QST Demo Day on May 2nd, 2019.
Data in Sports: Past, Present, and Future
As data analytics is becoming a more prominent part of the sports industry, we wanted to get an experts perspective of the development. Luckily our entrepreneur in residence, Paulo Opperman, was more than happy to oblige.
How to Grow Startups in the Desert
Inviting a world of SportsTech to Qatar. The program is finally coming together and we have 10 startups at our doorstep ready to accelerate their businesses to the next level. We have startups from all corners of the world, each attacking each of their own burning challenges within the Sports Industry. In this post, we…
Doha’s Sports Environment through an Experts Eyes
From Doha, the state of Qatar, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Fouad El Fdil, long-time football coach at Aspire Academy and program mentor at QST. With five years in Doha under his belt, Fouad has extensive knowledge of the Qatari sports environment, its key organisations, and the technological advances made to push…
Meet the first QST Cohort 2019
After three intense selection days, the first cohort for the Qatar SportsTech Accelerator Program has now been selected. The level shown by each of the 21 shortlisted startups has exceeded our expectations in every way possible.
Bringing International SportsTech Talent to Doha
Today, Qatar SportsTech opened its doors for 22 of the world’s most exciting SportsTech startups. During the next few days all teams will run their pitches, get mentoring from industry experts and compete for a spot on the first accelerator program cycle. During the first day, the teams were taken on tours at three of…
Only 10 Days Left to Apply for Qatar SportsTech
Official launch of Qatar SportsTech accelerator at the General Entrepreneurship Week A look back After two months of talking with some of the most hyperactive brains in SportsTech, the scouting journey is reaching its end. There are now only 10 days left until applications close and we would love to meet you and your team….
Lisbon – A City Facing the Future, Let’s Meet
Lisbon has one of the fastest growing startup communities in Europe. The city ranks among the five best performing startup ecosystems in Europe and as number 31 out of 127 on the Global Innovation Index. The Portuguese capital was recently nominated for the title of European Capital of Sports 2021. It is now using its…
London – a Hotbed for SportsTech
With over £800 million invested in London-based FinTech startups in 2017, the city has quickly become widely recognized as the Fintech capital of Europe. Now a new vertical is beginning to gain momentum with an increasing amount of initiatives popping up across the city. SportsTech is taking center stage in London’s efforts to become the most physically…
The State of SportsTech
Last week Qatar SportsTech Accelerator opened up for applications. The accelerator is created by Qatar Development Bank and powered by Startupbootcamp with the aim of making Doha the new spearhead of Sports Innovation. With the 2022 World Cup coming up, this is the perfect opportunity for the city to establish itself as a vibrant startup…
Mentor Spotlight Interview with Peter Lazou
Let me introduce Peter Lazou from Milan, Italy, who is our newest mentor at Qatar SportsTech. He is the Co-Founder of SportScientia and1 is an expert in Business Development & Sales, OKRs, Fundraising and Innovation. Peter is a venture capitalist and investor over 20+ years of venture building and investing experience, sharing the good, bad…
Mentor Spotlight Interview with Neel Shah
Let me introduce Neel Shah from Mumbai, India, who is our newest mentor at Qatar SportsTech. Working as the Head of New Sports Education & New Business at India On Track, Neel Shah is an expert in Business Development & Sales and Marketing & Advertising. Neel is a sports marketing professional with over eighteen years…
Mentor Spotlight Interview with David Geddes
In this week’s Mentor Spotlight Interview, we are happy to introduce David Geddes, CEO & President for the International Sports Technology Association. David is a true change agent with a burning heart for innovative sports applications. He has started multiple companies and holds extensive knowledge on the topics of strategic planning, product development, financial analysis,…
Mentor Spotlight With Garrett Klugh
A warm welcome to our latest mentor, Garrett Klugh , COO of Falk Ventures, the venture capital arm for the family office of legendary sports agent, David Falk and also the Co- Founder Huddle Sports Partners, a high touch sports-tech advisory firm. Garrett formerly served as the Managing Director of STAR Angel Network, providing professional…
Mentor Spotlight Interview with Hemant Dua
Let me introduce Hemant Dua from Delhi , India , who is our newest mentor at Qatar SportsTech. Hemant , Consultant of Inspiranti Sports Pvt. Ltd. , has nearly 20 years of experience in sports management and the media industry. He is an avid runner and a sports enthusiast. He has a Masters degree in…
Mentor Spotlight Interview with Jeff Seltzer
Let me introduce Jeff Seltzer from New York, USA, who is our newest mentor at Qatar SportsTech. Jeff Seltzer, Managing Partner of Pierce Yates Ventures, has nearly 40 years of experience developing new businesses and products across the global capital markets as well as advising entrepreneurs, corporations and governments. Pierce Yates provides early stage funding…
Mentor Spotlight with Timothy Koning
A warm welcome to our latest mentor, Timothy Koning, Sport and Performance psychologist at YAAP and Co-founder of Haarlem Bijdeles. Timothy is a true sports enthusiast and an expert in the fields of Entrepreneurship & Business Model Innovation, Pitching & Storyboarding, Teambuilding. What is your background? As a child, I was always crazy of different…
Mentor Spotlight With Ida Bjerga
Today, we sit down with Ida Bjerga, Co-Founder & CEO of the creative agency Noise Studio based out of Copenhagen. A year ago, Ida also Founded Nordic Sports Tech to facilitate the growing ecosystem of sports entrepreneurs in the Nordic countries. Qatar SportsTech is proud to have Ida with us as a mentor, helping our…
Mentor Spotlight with Hadi Attaran Kakhki
Please welcome Hadi Attaran Kakhki, the newest expert to join Qatar SportsTech’s mentor network. Hadi is the Founder and CEO of Donya Houshmand Ayandeh, an IoT company designing and developing connected devices to make life easier and more comfortable. Hadi is an expert in Product development, market segmentation, market study, business strategy, market strategy, and…
Mentor Spotlight with Nick Volante
Meet Nick Volante, Founder & Managing Director of Sales Support Monaco and startup mentor at Qatar SportsTech. Nick is currently working with a portfolio of companies from the international sports media & technology industry, by supporting them reach their commercial potential. He is now ready to support the startups of Qatar SportsTech through his expertise…
Mentor Spotlight with Siddharth (Sid) Deshmukh
A warm welcome to Sid Deshmukh, Managing Partner at Arimaya Management and newest expert to join Qatar SportsTech’s Sportstech Mentor network. What is your background? Failed Athlete… Forced Engineer… Focused Entrepreneur… What would you consider your greatest achievement? Combining my passion with my profession. I spent over a decade in global business and now I’m…
Mentor Spotlight with Tjitte (TJ) Weistra
In this Mentor Spotlight, we welcome Tjitte (TJ) Weistra, former professional athlete and SportsTech aficionado. Having risen to the top in badminton, founded his own business and mentored up-and-coming startups as Business Manager for both Strategy Hubb and Startupbootcamp, we are thrilled to have Tjitte supporting the SportsTech stars of Qatar SporstTech. What is your…
Mentor Spotlight with Fabio Puntillo
Today we welcome Dr. Fabio Puntillo as a mentor For Qatar. Fabio has 20+ years of professional achievements in higher education and professional training, business development, international marketing, media content, and events management. He has worked for international media, sports colleges, and nonprofit organizations across North America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Safe to…
Mentor Spotlight with Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan
Today we sit down with Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan, Creative Director and Co-Founder of the design and manufacturing company, Gamaarge based in Istanbul. Hamit brings a passion for hardware and more than 10 years of experience in product development. We are ecstatic to have him on board as a mentor and can’t wait to partner him…
Mentor Spotlight with Ali Khadjavi
This week, we welcome Ali Khadjavi as the newest mentor for Qatar SportsTech. Ali has over 13 years of entrepreneurship experience in the startup space from making a business from scratch to getting it acquired, raising 10 million dollars in funding and growing a team to 30, and achieving over 1 billion organic views on…
Mentor Spotlight with Sébastien Gros
In this week’s mentor spotlight we sit down with VC investor Sébastien Gros, to hear about his journey in supporting sports tech startups. As the Vice President of Investments & Strategy at the sports investment fund Aser, Sebastien is always keeping a keen eye on the newest tech that will push the sports sector forward….
Mentor Spotlight with Alessandro Nuccetelli
This week the QST mentor spotlight shines on a seasoned investor and an enthusiastic supporter of the SportsTech vertical. As the newest member of QST’s mentor network, Alessandro Nuccetelli is ready to help the top tier of SportsTech laser focus their business models, unlock growth opportunities and access investments. Tell us a little bit about…
Mentor Spotlight with David Braun
This week we have a true globetrotter and extreme sports enthusiast joining us in the spotlight. David Braun has tried almost every extreme sport out there and has turned ideas into reality both as a founder and as a funder. He’s an old friend of Startupbootcamp and has previously supported our Digital Health program in…
Mentor Spotlight with Max Rollinger
This week the spotlight shines on Max Rollinger, Director of Programming at Wentworth Institute of Technology and Mentor at Sports Tech Tokyo. Throughout his career, Max has experienced first-hand the growth of the SportsTech vertical and the impact technology is having on the sports industry. Max is now joining Qatar SportsTech as a mentor and will be supporting the QST cohort with the full weight of his expertise.
Mentor Spotlight with Motasem El Bawab
In this edition of QST Mentor Spotlights, we sit down with Motasem El Bawab, Digital Projects Manager @ FIBA and self-proclaimed globetrotter. Motasem has traveled the world, played sports at a professional level, and have been fully immersed in the digital world for 10 years. Motasem has joined forces with Qatar SportsTech and will be supporting the startups with his full knowledge of digital marketing and project management.
Paulo Oppermann – QST Entrepreneur in Residence and Data Analysis Superhero
Meet Paulo Oppermann, the newest addition to the QST team and all-around know-it-all when it comes to SportsTech, data collection, and the SportsTech potential of Doha. Paulo is stepping in as Entrepreneur in Residence for the duration of the first QST program. During his time in Doha, Paulo will be working closely with each and every one of the 10 startups to help them achieve their goals and Establish valuable partnerships.
Mentor Spotlight with Peter Lazou
Today we sit down with Peter Lazou, Founding Partner of SportScientia and Founding Member of OtherDOTS foundation. For the last 25 years, Peter has been venture building and investing in early-stage startups and scale-ups, whilst also advising startups at various levels as well as mentoring across various accelerator and incubator programs. His passion is building new…
Mentor Spotlight with David Geddes
Today’s mentor spotlight shines on David Geddes, President & CEO of International Sports Technology Association. With a career leading him from hospitality, through politics and into the startup world David has a multifaceted understanding of the needs of SportsTech startups. This week David will shed light on which direction he sees SportsTech going in and…
Mentor Spotlight with Sam Barton
Today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Australian SportsTech aficionado, Sam Barton. Originally from Melbourne, Sam has been on a journey taking him across the planet to help entrepreneurs scale up and succeed in the UK market. Sam is currently advising SportsTech, Esports, and gaming companies as Incubator Lead of The Chelsea FC Entrepreneur…
SportsTech Mentor Spotlight – Stuart Brown
The SportsTech Mentor Spotlight is a series of interview profiling inspiring stories from our extended network of mentors at Qatar SportsTech. This time, the light shines on Stuart Brown, Founding Partner @ Frontier X. Together with Anthony McGuire, Stuart recently succeeded in raising $575 million in ICO for their blockchain entertainment company TaTaTu. Q: Tell us…
SportsTech Mentor Sportlight – Anthony McGuire
The Startupbootcamp Mentor Spotlight is a series of interviews profiling inspiring stories from our extended network of mentors at Qatar SportsTech. This time, we sit down with Anthony McGuire, Co-Founder @ Frontier X. After traveling the world, working at some of the most exciting companies, founding the blockchain entertainment company, TaTaTu and raising $575 million…
SportsTech Mentor Spotlight – Sam Cooke
The Startupbootcamp Mentor Spotlight is a series of interviews profiling inspiring stories from our extended network of mentors at Qatar SportsTech. Today, the spotlight is focused on our mentor Sam Cooke, Managing Director & Co-Founder @ Esports Insider. Sam Cooke started out working in esports as a journalist covering the industry from a betting perspective…
FAQs
Accelerator Program
When can I apply to the Qatar SportsTech Accelerator program?
How do I apply to Qatar Sportstech?
What happens after I submit my application?
We will then invite the top 20 startups to our Selection Day in Qatar and will make the final selection of 10 startups from that group.
When will I know about being invited to Selection Day?
When and where will the Selection Days take place?
About You
Who can apply?
To qualify, you must:
- have a sports-focused product.
- have a working MVP.
- have traction.
- have more than 1 team member.
- be willing to be based in Qatar full-time for the duration of the program.
- be looking to register a branch in Qatar through Qatar Financial Centre.
How many members of the team can join the program?
About the Location
How do I get to Qatar?
Do I need a VISA to join the program in Qatar?
Apply for a VISA here: https://www.qatarairways.com/en/qatar-tourist-visa.html
About the Program
Can I take part in the program without moving to Qatar?
Do I need to stay in Qatar after the program is finished?
I have other commitments, can I join the program for less than three months?
What happens during the program?
- Having privileged access to Qatar Sportstech prototype and test labs.
- Working directly with the global partners and leaders such as innovation engineers, product category owners, innovation & creative leaders, value chain experts and professionals.
- Attending startup classes and workshops – tailored to your needs for building your company.
- Receiving hands-on support from our experts – on topics such as business development, UX, design, growth hacking and fundraising.
The program will end in December with a large Demo-Day event, where each of the 10 startups will showcase their business and their progress during the program, to the partners, external investors and the press.
What is your approach to taking out equity?
There is the option for special cases – special cases are considered for startups who have previously raised at a higher valuation and can provide proof through 1) investment contract and 2) finances received. All special cases are subject to approval through a committee and may delay response.
You can find a template of our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Convertible Note here:
How can people outside the program see what is happening?
There will be a Demo Day in December. To keep the focus of this day on supporting our 10 startups, this event will only be open to external investors and the press. However, you can follow our Demo Day updates through our and our startups’ social media channels.
Is accomodation provided as part of the program?
We provide free office space for your team (1-4 people) for the three months duration of the program and for three months to settle in after the program.