Oasis 500 Partners With Open Hands Initiative In Young Women Entrepreneurs Fellowship Program

Oasis500, a leading seed stage investment and business accelerator, and the first of its kind in Jordan and the MENA region partnered recently with Open Hands initiative to support young women entrepreneurs, through a one week fellowship program in Amman with the participation of 20 women entrepreneurs from the USA and Jordan. The program included number of lectures and workshops held by experienced trainers from both countries.

Oasis 500 assigned all its facilities from experts, trainers, buildings and chambers to one of the fellowship program days. The trainers presented many lectures and conducted different workshops relating Jordan and the Middle East like: marketing fundamentals, startups structuring and financing and applicable law and intellectual property, in addition to “The Basics of startups financing” workshop.

Entrepreneurs, whom started their companies by Oasis 500’s investment, gave advices and consults about the Middle East’s markets, entrepreneurship society in Jordan and the Middle East, benefiting from the region’s opportunities and facilitating programs and how to overcome entrepreneurial challenges in Jordan and the Middle East.

Beside being a partner in the fellowship, Oasis 500 empowered 5 companies; which already got Oasis500’s investment and support, to reach and participate in the program. These 5 companies that were established by Jordanian young women entrepreneurs are: Project IO, Sa3ed.me, MICEit, eKeif and Masmoo3.

EKeif, founded in 2011 by Seema Al Najjar with Oasis 500’s Investment and support, won the first place. Ekeif is a video content website and mobile application whose mission is to develop the largest high quality “how to” video database, catering to Arabs around the world! The participants were judged by a panel of entrepreneurial and digital content investors and experts, where they evaluated the ideas behind every startup.

The winner was announced in a gala dinner on Saturday, October 24th, held to honor the winners, celebrate the conclusion of the fellowship training week in Amman and to give the participated entrepreneurs the chance to display their ideas and project. The Gala dinner was sponsored by the United States Ambassador to Jordan, Oasis 500 and other partners’ representors, Jay T. Snyder, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Open Hands Initiative, in addition to number of Jordanian business men and the biggest Jordanian companies in the entrepreneurship sector.

Mr. Snyder recognized the fellowship and thanked everyone who helped in carrying out the program, which created a useful experiences for everyone by saying: “I’d like to thank our participants. Each one of you has inspired us through your dedication, commitment to excellence and willingness to engage others in fellowship. Getting to know these exceptional young entrepreneurs has been a privilege. In The Open Hands Initiative, we always seek on building friendships around the globe to reach a mutual respect and understanding.”