Doha, January 30 (QNA) - The Digital Incubation Center (DIC) of the Ministry of Transport and Communication announced the incubation of 25 new startups, which are the outputs of the second edition of the Creative Ideas Camp in the Center. 

The DIC also celebrated the graduation of 9 companies that completed their incubation in 2018. The announcement was made during a ceremony held on Wednesday under the patronage and in the presence of HE Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti. During a presentation on the DIC efforts during 2018, Acting Director of the Digital Incubation Center Duha Al Buhendi expressed pride for the graduation of 9 companies that have completed their incubation period in 2018, bringing the total number of companies successfully graduated since the establishment of the Center to 36 companies. 

 Al Buhendi noted that 25 new creative ideas have been incubated in the incubator program, bringing the total number of startups currently incubated in the DIC to 58 startups, of which 12 are in the growing stage. In 2018, the incubated companies were able to provide 203 job opportunities, bringing the total number of jobs provided by the incubated companies in the DIC since its inception to about 402 jobs. 

 According to the presentation, the total volume of investment in the incubated companies during 2018 was more than QR 4 million, received by the incubated companies through the support provided by the DIC from the activities of angelic investment, the initial investment from Qatar Development Bank and the Product Development Fund of Qatar Science and Technology Park. In 2018, the Digital Incubation Center organized 16 training courses for entrepreneurs of incubated companies, including business courses and technological courses. 

The number of entrepreneurs who benefited from the training courses reached 237 entrepreneurs, bringing the total number of entrepreneurs benefiting from the training courses to 1162 entrepreneurs since 2013. To support the selection process for companies, the DIC appointed a panel of judges to assess emerging companies and ideas and to select those that have met the requirements of incubation. 

The jury included prominent members from prestigious institutions such as Qatar University and the Education City. The Creative Ideas Camp Jury considers different criteria, including the degree of innovation, assessment of technology used, feasibility and scalability, feasibility, evolution plan as well as other standards and measurements. The Digital Incubation Center received 280 applications to join the Creative Ideas Camp after it was opened. It was filtered to the top 150 creative ideas. After 5 weeks of working with creative people to develop their ideas, the DIC team selected the top 30 qualified teams to present their project ideas in front of the jury to get a chance to incubate in the DIC, 25 of them won the opportunity to incubate. (QNA)