Doha: Industry experts from Qatar and the region discussed the role of technology in transforming the world of sports and how huge investments are fostering innovation in the sportstech industry during Qatar SportsTech’s (QST) virtual event on ‘Investment and Innovation in SportsTech’. Experts said that sports sector of Qatar offers immense opportunities to investors.
Sheikh Mansoor bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairman, MBK Holding, who started as an entrepreneur in 1996 in Qatar said, “We are creating a global eco system and global entrepreneurial eco system. The progress that we had in last two years is awesome and what is coming in the next two years is brilliant and we will be in the map of the entrepreneurial ecosystem globally.”
On the important of sports in Qatar and what does it mean for entrepreneurs and investors he said, “In Qatar we promote and enjoy sports, being an angel investor, I have been investing in different tech areas, but the sport sector was unique because it has emotions, and it is multi-dimension.” According to Sheikh Mansoor, there are so many opportunities in the sportstech and it is evolving, things are getting together with wellness as this is related to human health in general.
He said, “Angel investment is more of a passion than just an investment. We build a practice that guides anyone who wants to be an angel investor, we are now starting to create syndicates and angel investments kind of coaching and mentoring for angel investors which is part of new global ecosystem.”
Speaking on government's support to both the angel investor community and the startups he noted, Qatar is moving big time into this and as we speak there are so many initiatives, QST is one of them and there are other accelerators and incubation centers. Qatar Development Bank (QDB) is providing a boost which is tangible in this sector as it is a supported government bank that is pushing the startups and entrepreneurial ecosystem and recently, they have been very active in creating the angel investment ecosystem.
“There are different ways of starting company in Qatar and, you have so many different promoters and free zones like Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA), Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and locally you can have Qatari partners as can have 100 percent ownership which depends on the activity and the type of domain you are focusing on. We help a lot of companies establish themselves in Qatar and the region,” he added.
Lars Buch, CEO Startupbootcamp MENA & Russia, who has been working in the border-line between corporates and startups for the last ten years and invested in about 50 startups and has mostly invested in health and mobile technology.
He said, “From Startupbootcamp we have run more than 120 programs across the globe in many different domains. We have sports accelerators in Australia and Italy coming up but the oldest sports accelerator we have is in Qatar and that is where we see the maturity now.
“We need to see the growth from the entrepreneur’s side and not the capitalist’s side as we want to see real solutions to solve real problems and in that the success, we have is that a lot of mid-size startups spreading their solutions so that eventually people can en-joy sports in a new and exciting way. For us success is a well-functioning ecosystem where entrepreneurs and investors co-exist and bring solution.
Alexander Wiedmar, Partner Iris Capital, who has been a venture capitalist for the last 20 years and has been an occasional business angel and said, “Since 2013, we have been responsible for the Middle East and practicing venture capital in the region and have been working very closely with the QDB and helped manage its own venture capital program. Being based in Doha I feel that there will be very visible success in sports tech and other fields coming out of Qatar in coming years.”
