Oasis500, the MENA region's premier early stage and seed investment company, signed an agreement positioning Arab Bank as the sponsor of the 13th wave of its Start-Up Boot Camp.

The signing ceremony, which took place on Thursday 14th June at Oasis500's headquarters, was attended by Dr. Usama Fayyad, Executive Chairman of Oasis500 and former Executive Vice President and Chief Data Officer of Yahoo! Inc. and Ms. Dina Shoman, Executive Vice President of Branding at Arab Bank, as well as local media representatives. 

Oasis500 received a total of 450 applications, out of which 65 were selected to take part in the 13th Boot Camp which is scheduled to commence on 16th June, 2012. The 65 participating entrepreneurs will present their business ideas which cover a wide variety of fields including e-commerce, online services, mobile applications and other digital content. 

Headed by Dr. Fayyad, the 13th Boot Camp's training workshops will be delivered by a team of specialized Oasis500 experts and staff, in addition to a group of seasoned entrepreneurs from Jordan and the region who will share with the participants their expertise and offer first-hand advice and guidance on succeeding in the business scene.

The intensive training workshops will cover a variety of fields including marketing and investment techniques, pitching techniques, business model creation and marketing through creative campaigns, market segmentation, attracting investments and how to approach investors.

"We are really enthusiastic about the number of start-ups that applied to our 13th Boot Camp and about the quality of ideas that were presented. At Oasis500, we are committed to providing start-ups with the support needed to transform them into fully-operating and profit-generating businesses, and our Boot Camps are the ideal opportunity to do so," commented Dr. Fayyad.

"I would like to thank Arab Bank for their ongoing support to Oasis500 which plays a crucial role in empowering entrepreneurs and fuelling their growth and development. Arab Bank's support, as well as the support of like-minded local public and private organizations has been imperative to Oasis500's success over the past 22 months," he added.

In turn, Ms. Shoman commented, "Arab Bank is continuing its support to Oasis500's training boot camps for the second consecutive year, in light of their vital role in building and strengthening entrepreneurs' leadership skills. Through its focused and advanced training programs and workshops, Oasis500 provides aspiring entrepreneurs with the opportunity to benefit from experienced and leading industry experts from both Jordan and the region. The workshops focus on further developing entrepreneurial skills, identifying how to attract investments that support participants' business ideas, as well as building their communication abilities with seed investors."

"Our ongoing support to entrepreneurship falls under the Bank's strategic sustainability approach and corporate social responsibility towards the community. We continuously seek to help build and develop community members' and entrepreneurs' capacities, and deploy them in a manner that creates job opportunities and improves living standards with the ultimate goal of achieving continuous socio-economic development in the kingdom," Ms. Shoman added.

The 14th wave of the Oasis500 Boot Camp is scheduled to commence in July, 2012, in Amman. The submission deadline is 20th June, 2012, and applications are currently being accepted.

Oasis500 is the first development and investment company of its kind in the MENA region. It aims to support entrepreneurs by providing them with funding and training in an effort to accelerate the transformation of business ideas into start-up companies in the ICT, digital media, and mobile technologies and content sectors. Oasis500 aims at accelerating the launch of 500 start-up companies within the next five years, which will create an incentive for aspiring entrepreneurs and generate job opportunities within the world's fastest growing sectors. Since commencing its operations in September 2010, Oasis500 has successfully secured investments for 49 technology companies, in addition to a number of other investments that were unmatched by any investment fund in the region.