How Start-ups are Disrupting the World Economy? The Oasis500 Experience and Initial Results Usama Fayyad, Chairman usama@oasis500.com Twitter: @usamaf @oasis_500 Training/HR manager: Dina AbuNuwar (Dina@oasis500.com) 1
Oasis500 Some Questions What Early-Stage Companies Need to be Attractive to Investors? The Oasis500 Experience in the first 4 years. How do I attract seed capita? What about Angel investment? How do I get a Series A investment from a institutional VC? We use the results observed from our experience with funding and accelerating seed and early-stage companied at Oasis500 and share some of the returns reported so far. 2
Oasis500 Current Funding Gaps in the MENA Region Seed /Early stage Funding Angel Funding X X VC/Later Stage Funding No options for funding for Pre-revenue start-ups or seed/early stage funding The initial personal/family funds raised by entrepreneurs Many options for growth capital for Post-revenue later stage funding Venture capital firms, Private equity funds, banks 3 3
Is it just about funding? Created a private company to invest in and accelerate technology startups We raised our first $7M fund (4 years); today it is growing to $10M and eventually $50M However, what happens if you give funds to people who do not know what to do with it? 4
Oasis500 - It is Not Just About Funding Oasis500 not only provides seed capital for companies, it adds unique value by offering entrepreneurs: Intensive training (boot camp) 100-day acceleration plan with continuous guidance and follow-up Valuable mentorship and guidance from industry leaders Help in raising follow-on capital Such mentorship has been proven to increase the likelihood of startup success 5 5
Oasis500 What We Do? Oasis500 operates 4 major activities to address the missing gaps in the ecosystem: 1 Scouting and Training Scouting talent in the MENA region and training entrepreneurs on business management, business planning and venture fund-raising Used for deal sourcing and talent generation 3 4 Mentorship Incubated companies are mentored by local and international industry experts (e.g. Silicon Valley) 450+ mentors in network 2 Startup Funding & Acceleration/Incubation First round of funding (USD30K-USD 50K), with a possible follow-on investment (USD 50K USD 500K) Funded companies are accelerated at Oasis500 for 100 days. Angel Network Oasis500 invites investors to well-prepared investment opportunities Oasis500 may co-invest in some of these deals 6
Overview: Results The First $5.3M of invested funds (through June 2015)... Resulted in Over $30M raised by our startups. Delivered over 40 Business Development Training Bootcamps: training over 2,000 entrepreneurs 8,000 applicants Submitted a business idea. As of Nov 2015. Oasis500 Invested in 109 companies generating $109M in Value 7
Oasis500 Seed Funding & Acceleration Invested in the top entrepreneurs from 40+ Waves, Over 100 companies (Target for years 1 and 2, 32 companies) Initial investment USD $30K in cash and services 8
Oasis500 Grow track Introduction of New Investment Track for established Businesses/Grow Track : Introduced in January 2013 Strategic partnership with Wamda Mena Venture Investments Mena Apps Accelerator Technology Holdings Program Status update Applications Received: 300 Companies invested in: 11 Total amount invested to date: USD $1M 9
Oasis 500 What We Do? 4Angel Network 10 10
Oasis500 Angel Network First 15 Angel Network Events (Amman, Dubai, Qatar, Beirut, Bahrain) 5-9 companies present at an event 80-120 investors attend per event from all over the region 45 companies presented in total, 28 of which were Oasis500 startups 11
Oasis500 Performance Summary USD $5.3M in 109 Companies # Companies Invested total $USD Seed Investments 98 $4.45M Growth Companies 11 $856K Women Founders 26 $610K Closed Companies 30 $800K Expected to shut down in 6 months 10 $300K 69 Active Companies with a ROI of 2.15x 12 4 th Oasis500 Angel Network 8
Some facts Overall ROI for Oasis500 investments so far, with write-offs for expected shut downs: 1.7x What is the ROI for similar accelerators in the U.S.? 1.3x Comparison of Seed stage versus Grow who gives a higher ROI? Seed companies: 2.3x Grow companies: 1.31X 13
Bootcamps: Beirut, Palestine, Tunis, Muscat, Dubai, Riyadh, Morocco, others 14
Oasis500 Ramallah Bootcamp Sept 2013 Applications Received Companies Trained 117 49 We also created a special program for Gaza with Gaza sky geeks 15
Oasis500 Ramallah & Gaza Bootcamps Za atari boot camp April 2016. 16
Some Surprises Demand much higher than expected: entrepreneurs, investors, mentors Women success rate 2x that of men 20% of bootcamp trainees 40% of funded companies led by women Entrepreneurship training had to be deeply localized Standard courses did not work without lots of customization Imported material was not effective Very hard work is needed this is not a natural act 17
Some Lessons Training is a loss-generating activity cannot be born by Investors or Entrepreneurs Got sponsors: UK, U.S., World Bank, UNICEF, local companies Preparation before going to investors is a must: Our companies practice over many, many cycles before we let them present to the Angel Investment Network Demonstrating speed of execution is a must Team formation adding founders is a must Ideas are still conservative, but slowly getting to be more innovative and localized Societal impact took place much faster than expected 18
Issues to Consider With practice we have seen U.S.-quality pitches U.S./EU investor interest, including 500 Startups and other funds Driving Tech Innovation into Society A way for local investors to ride the next wave of innovation: instead of importing it Returns, inclusive of Arab Spring, are better than any other class of investment in MENA 19
Summary Demand by entrepreneurs much higher than we imagined Investor appetite stronger than we thought Mentors engaged much more aggressively than we hoped Final lesson: A large under-served market with a huge demand for on-line/mobile content and e- commerce 20
Oasis500: A true early-stage fund and accelerator that will positively change tech entrepreneurship future of MENA Usama Fayyad, Chairman usama@oasis500.com Dina AbuNuwar, Training/HR Manager Dina@oasis500.com Twitter: @usamaf @oasis_500 21