Dubai: Intelak Hub, the region’s only start-up platform dedicated to the travel, tourism and aviation sectors, is inviting local, regional and international start-ups to apply for its new cohorts of programmes, commencing 13 June 2021.
Bringing together three distinct platforms - Intelak Incubator, Intelak Accelerator and the Intelak Idea Lab - the Intelak Hub is an important enabler for entrepreneurial growth, supported by Dubai’s strategic investment priorities and hyper-connected, global location.
Now in its second year, Intelak Hub is led by a consortium of industry leaders who serve as the platforms’ principle partners, taking a holistic approach to nurturing start-ups at all stages of growth. This includes, with all providing mentorship to programme participants such as Dubai Tourism, Emirates Group, Accenture and Microsoft.
With a substantial footprint across the world’s aviation, tourism, technology and innovation industries, the principle partners have built a robust ecosystem dedicated to mentoring start-ups from ideation through to equity-free funding, growth and scaling. What’s more, programme participants will have access to a robust alumni pool for networking and business opportunities, in turn allowing them to approach more complex business challenges and benefit from collective perspectives.
“Launched last year amid the pandemic, Intelak Hub is testament to Dubai’s capacity to transform challenges into opportunities, as it has quickly and successfully entrenched itself within the start-up community as a catalyst for disruptive thinking," said Yousuf Lootah, Executive Director - Tourism Development & Investments, Dubai Tourism.
"As we move into our second year under this platform, we are honoured to collaborate with our esteemed partners to drive entrepreneurship forward and leverage these pioneering programmes to support and empower the resurgence in international travel and tourism.”
Ranked eighth on Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking [April 2021], the UAE and Dubai continue to build on a strategic roadmap designed to drive business growth as well as R&D and first-of-its-kind regulatory sandboxes to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship.
Intelak Hub’s 2021 offerings include the Intelak Incubator, a 12-week programme for early stage start-ups offering equity-free funding, market feasibility guidance, pitch deck advisement, and demo day showcases where Dubai is used as a proof-of-concept for their solutions. Additionally, it will include Dh50,000 in equity-free funding, with the opportunity to showcase solutions at a demo day, and further access to ecosystem collaborations.
The Intelak Accelerator is an eight-week programme for late stage start-ups looking to scale their businesses, offering comprehensive go-to-market counsel, access to partner ecosystems to test and implement their solutions, exhibition space and exclusive pitching and investor opportunities at GITEX Future Stars – a premier technology event for the region.
Finally, the Intelak Idea Lab is a three-week programme nurturing young Emirati talent as part of the UAE’s vision to develop and support home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship. Applicants can be considered for all programmes regardless of which programme they enter when joining Intelak Hub and start-ups do not need to be based in Dubai to take part. All cohort programmes will have a hybrid structure consisting of physical and digital components.
