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Nine months after its\u00a0launch<\/a>,\u00a0Flat6Labs Jeddah<\/a>\u00a0startup accelerator has graduated its first class of startups,\u00a0which serve markets from mothers to math students.<\/p>\n After four months of incubation, the startups had their chance to impress investors, entrepreneurs, and the press, at a Demo Day last week that served as the accelerator’s first benchmark as well. After becoming a\u00a0staple\u00a0of the Egyptian entrepreneurship scene, recently celebrating its\u00a0sixth Demo Day<\/a>\u00a0in Cairo, Flat6Labs has put itself to the test of a new environment.<\/p>\n Rather than import a culture from abroad, the accelerator has partnered locally with Qotuf AlRiyadh development company, which supports small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom; Flat6Labs Jeddah is now the only privately owned accelerator in the KSA. According to graduates, it’s provided weclome, and needed, support.<\/p>\n \u201cFlat6Labs Jeddah really lived up to the accelerator name,\u201d says Wesam Yaghmour, the Saudi CEO of\u00a0Wade7<\/a>. \u201cThey always pushed us to do better. Looking back after finishing the cycle, I could never have imagined that I had the capability to do all that I\u2019ve done in this short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Hussein Attar, the Saudi CEO of\u00a0Sawerly<\/a>, echoes Yaghmour\u2019s sentiments: “Flat6Labs Jeddah actually did help us accelerate our company. Before the cycle we worked on the idea a couple of times but with F6L the idea became a reality right away.\u201d<\/p>\n The five graduates include:<\/p>\n The Demo Day event also connected all three startups to potential investors, to varying degrees of success. \u201cAfter the event,\u201d says Hashim Geoffrey, the Saudi CEO of Kanoosh, \u201cwe were approached by many VCs both local and abroad… who seemed very excited about Kanoosh and are looking forward to discussing our business plan and financials.\u201d Attar has also \u201cscheduled meetings with investors for the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n But an acceleration stint at F6L Jeddah doesn\u2019t mean that investment comes easy. Yaghmour, who describes the Demo Day as \u201cone of the most exciting days of my life,\u201d reports that after a couple of meetings \u201c[we realize] we need to work even harder now if we are to receive any serious investment.\u201d<\/p>\n While he now knows just how much work there is to be done, the F6L experience gave Yaghmour more than just acceleration: \u201cI will never forget the day they managed to get Dave McClure, the super angel, to visit us in Jeddah. It was like a dream coming true to pitch my idea in front of him and listen to his feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nine months after its\u00a0launch,\u00a0Flat6Labs Jeddah\u00a0startup accelerator has graduated its first class of startups,\u00a0which serve markets from mothers to math students. After four months of incubation, the startups had their chance […]<\/p>\n\n