Friday 17 / May / 2024
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman ranked high among the top ten countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in terms of markets that attract talents for establishing startups at affordable costs and the abundance of bold investment capital.
Oman also stands out among the top 15 countries in the development and efficiency of startup ecosystems.
The total market value of Omani startups exceeded $300 million, according to a report issued by Startup Genome Foundation, an international organization that specialises in developing startup ecosystems and innovation.
The report focused on attractive opportunities for startups and investment therein, notably within three main sectors of e-commerce, clean energy technologies and financial technologies. The growth of these sectors is expected to gather momentum during 2025.
The report highlighted efforts, programmes and initiatives undertaken by public and private establishments in Oman to promote startup ecosystems.
The report underscores the significance of homegrown start-ups’ inclusion in the global startup ecosystems report. This report constitutes an opportunity to elevate the competitiveness of Omani startups, enhance their global status and augment their attractiveness by keeping pace with global trends and strategies that boost and motivate startups.
These positive indicators underline the efforts being exerted, the existing partnership and the approach of integration among government institutions as part of their strive to advance Oman’s startup sector.
One of the fruitful outcomes of this approach was the launch of the "Promising Omani Startups Programme", which is chaired by HH Sayyid Bilarab bin Haitham Al Said.
The programme is supervised by the Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED) in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Ministry of Economy and the ITHCA Group.
The report explored a set of visions and trends about leading countries and cities of startups in the world, as well as global trends, challenges and opportunities available in this vital sector. The report is informed by extensive research and analysis of data belonging to more than 3 million startups around the world.
Startup Genome Foundation takes credit for developing more than 145 start-up ecosystems in more than 50 countries in the world.
