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Article by our Digital Learning and Youth Leadership Program Lead, Hamza Arsbi

From funding to mentorship and other resources, Social Entrepreneurs need support to achieve impact and create sustainable enterprises. Digital innovations have created many opportunities for entrepreneurs to benefit from global knowledge and resources. If you are an entrepreneur looking for support, here are some notable training programs, incubators, and funding opportunities for you to check out:

1. Global Startup Ecosystem (GSE)

With a Digital accelerator program returning for its 5th round, it’s a program with a focus on career development, personal development and business development tracks to prepare participants for a digital future. The 4-week intensive program will feature speakers from around the world who will train on a strategy that prepares both entrepreneurs and career professionals for a digital remote world. Accepted participants will receive $250k in free perks and prizes from Google Cloud, AWS, IBM Cloud, DigitalOcean, Sendgrid and Zendesk. 

It’s a free program for entrepreneurs from the MENA region and definitely worth your consideration: https://globalstartupecosystem.com/accelerator/ 

2. Misk 500 MENA Accelerator Program

After a successful second program in 2020, Misk Innovation announced the launch of Batch 3 of the Misk 500 MENA Accelerator Program in collaboration with 500 Startups. A pre-accelerator program that takes place semi-annually where teams of growth hackers, investors, and mentors will be coming to the MENA region for 14 weeks to impart knowledge on 15-20 hand-selected startups.

The Misk 500 MENA Accelerator will be open to MENA-based early-stage technology startups, offering a $50,000 in investment for 7% equity, with no tuition fees. 

You can follow the program here and think about applying for their next round: https://misk.org.sa/innovation/services/misk-500-accelerator-3/ 

3. Google for Startups Accelerator

An online accelerator program for founders and leaders of technology startups within the Middle East and North Africa. It runs for a period of 3 months, with digital workshops, programming, and mentorship taking place on a set of boot camps and on a regular basis week. As part of the Google for Startups Accelerator, founders are paired with relevant experts from Google and industry experts to help solve their most pressing challenges. Participating startups receive deep mentorship on technical challenges with an emphasis on data and machine learning, as well as connections to relevant teams from across Google

This program constantly provides new opportunities and is worth keeping an eye on: https://events.withgoogle.com/gfs-accelerator-mena/#content 

4. MIT Innovation Leadership Bootcamp

An online action-learning program to create value through entrepreneurial creativity, leadership, and problem-solving.

 MIT Innovation Leadership Online Bootcamps bring a rigorous, immersive, collaborative, action-learning experience. Over 10 weeks, you will learn and work with a global team of innovators carefully selected by MIT Bootcamps to build and deliver value through innovation. You will learn principles central to innovation directly from MIT instructors: problem discovery, ideation, user innovation, customer sense-making, and more. Your team will be coached by experienced MIT innovators. You’ll hear from entrepreneurs, investors, and others from MIT’s diverse innovation ecosystem.

While this Bootcamp has a fee of $3,800 USD, it is a great opportunity to learn from high-level innovators at MIT. See if the program suits you and consider applying at: https://bit.ly/3gAMQZi

5. Start and Grow Online with GoDaddy

This course is a collaboration between GoDaddy and Startups Without Borders. Training entrepreneurs from across the MENA region, this partnership aims to become digital entrepreneurs and to build an online presence, using GoDaddy’s know-how and online tools and solutions, including using GoDaddy Website Builder and E-Store. To be eligible to apply for the ‘Start and Grow Online with GoDaddy’ online course, candidates must either be a small business owner, entrepreneur or sole trader.

If you are interested in establishing your own online business or expanding your existing online presence, check their platform here: https://bit.ly/3nkH5Ah 

Tech Tribes is always here to support social entrepreneurs and digital innovators in reaching their goals. We will keep updating you with opportunities and offer our own resources through our portal.