Amman, November 2021: Underscoring continuous efforts to support entrepreneurs across the Kingdom, the Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) – the largest investment fund of its kind in Jordan – organized a panel discussion titled ‘The World of Entrepreneurship with the ISSF’ at the Zain Innovation Platform (ZINC) at the King Hussein Business Park. The event was attended by ISSF General Manager Eng. Laith Al Qasem and ISSF Investment Director Hasan Al Shami, alongside a host of young entrepreneurs, startup owners and entrepreneurship enthusiasts.
During the session, Al Qasem showcased the stages of startup development and highlighted their specific requirements, while emphasizing the importance of successively passing through and meeting the various prerequisites of each in order to attract investors. Meanwhile, Al Shami addressed startup investments, noting that only a small percentage successfully raise venture capital funds globally and adding that the chances of attracting institutional investors increase after a startup reaches the revenue stage. Following the session, Al Qasem and Al Shami answered attendee questions on how to advance their companies and discussed the possibility of securing funding – whether from the ISSF itself or other funds, incubators and accelerators supported by the ISSF in Jordan.
“We are excited to conduct such discussions that allow us to interact with young entrepreneurs, explore their needs, empower them to develop their startups and prepare them for investment, in line with our mission to build and foster a robust local entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are proud of our creative youth, their promising capabilities and their innovative ideas, and look forward to organizing similar sessions in the future to outreach the largest number of young women and men and help their businesses thrive.”
The ISSF is registered as a Jordanian private shareholding company. The objective of the ISSF is to support and elevate Jordan’s entrepreneurial and innovation landscape by facilitating the establishment of new investment funds that serve the ecosystem; making direct investments in innovative, export-oriented and scalable local startups; as well as implementing initiatives that improve the capabilities of Jordanian entrepreneurs and startup teams through training, capacity building and targeted incubation and acceleration programs.