Dubai: Flat6Labs, the regional seed investment company and startup accelerator, has partnered up with OQAL, an Angel Investors Network in Saudi Arabia in order to further the growth of MENA’s startups through collaborative efforts to introduce Flat6Labs network of startups to OQAL’s network of angel investors.
This partnership will provide OQAL with direct access to Flat6Labs portfolio companies, enabling more deals to happen efficiently across the board and enabling Flat6Labs startups to scale with the funding provided by OQAL’s network of investors.
“We are very excited about our partnership with OQAL today. It marks another building block in our mission to help our startups grow and scale toward their desired markets in MENA and specifically the GCC” said Ramez El-Serafy, CEO at Flat6Labs. “As one of the first and largest Angel Investor Networks in Saudi Arabia, we’re confident in what this partnership with OQAL will garner in terms of exciting investment opportunities for Flat6Labs startups and OQALs network of angel investors.” Added El-Serafy.
“A key pillar in OQAL’s strategy is ‘Engaged Network’ that emphasizes our efforts in playing a proactive role within the ecosystem with essential partners as Flat6Labs MENA, which is one of the most prominent acceleration programs in the region with a strong track-record and even stronger founders and teams. We’re hopeful that this partnership will be yielding more investments, and more startups setting-up and expanding to Saudi Arabia.” Said Latifa BaNasr, CEO of OQAL Angel Investors Network.
The pre-set criteria by OQAL and Flat6Labs ensures that the startups maintain a specific standard that enables them to accelerate. This criteria includes, but not limited to: solving a problem, having a working prototype of the service/product, having a team that compliments one another, having technology at the startups’ core, having a clear plan for the future, and gaining traction for the solution on offer.
Since OQAL was founded in 2011, its investors have funded the growth of many GCC startups like Careem and Sawerly. OQAL will gain direct access to over 260 Flat6Labs select startups from around MENA, and Flat6Labs will be capable of introducing its startups to one of the first networks of angel investors in Saudi Arabia. This partnership opens a new channel of possibilities for Flat6Labs startups and OQAL’s network of investors in the GCC region and provides the startups with the space and network to also expand their businesses to other countries.
