Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) and VC MENA hosted their first 10×10 event to create an efficient platform that connects some of the region’s best early stage startups with top VC investors regionally and internationally investing in the region.

This was part of the “10×10” initiative launched by DFF to provide a platform for promising startups to meet with investors, utilise potential investment opportunities, mobilise support for their projects, expand their business in the UAE and globally, and ultimately become unicorn companies based in Dubai.

“Although there are many great networking opportunities for startups and VCs around the region, we felt that great startups still spend a lot of timing trying to reach decision makers at VC funds. 10×10 addresses a very real need that startups face; fundraising. We came up with the 10×10 event to enable 10 of the best best startups to have 10 one-on-one meetings with 10 of the top VC funds investing in the region in the span of one afternoon,” Yomna Abousamra, Investment Associate at Raed Ventures and Co-founder of VC MENA, told WAYA.

The event hosted entrepreneurs from the UAE and the region who presented their innovative projects to venture capatalists and a select investment funds whose investment portfolios include more than 2400 companies around the world, with 300 from the Middle East, of which 90 are from the UAE.

VC MENA was launched in 2021 by Karim Konsowa and Yomna Abousamra to foster a more collaborative startup and VC ecosystem in the region.

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