- StartUp Bahrain Week is a Community-led festival expected to bring together around 2,500 people, including entrepreneurs, company founders and venture capital investors from the Gulf and beyond.
- 37 delegates from across India, representing diverse sectors such as AI, e-commerce, cyber-security and FinTech, will attend.
A delegation of 37 Indian entrepreneurs representing 25 startups will attend StartUp Bahrain Week, a festival for startups in Bahrain, the Gulf and beyond. The Indian tech industry representatives are drawn from a wide range of sectors, such as FinTech, cyber security, Internet of Things, AI and e-commerce, from cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kerala and Delhi will visit Bahrain from Tuesday, 5 March until Thursday 7 March. StartUp Bahrain Week is expected to welcome 2,500 delegates in total, and includes a diverse programme of workshops, seminars, and networking events, including:
- Amazon Web Services Immersion Day Workshops
The first Amazon data centre Region in the Middle East and Africa opens in Bahrain in 2019. Here, AWS will share how global organisations such as McDonald’s, Airbnb, Expedia, Snapchat, Netflix, and others use its services before diving deep into the services themselves through hands-on workshops.
- Unbound Bahrain
Unbound brings its award-winning innovation festival to Bahrain, celebrating the Kingdom’s commitment to fuelling a digital future.
- StartUp Bahrain Ecosystem Tour
International startups are invited to meet the StartUp Bahrain ecosystem, including the Bahrain Economic Development Board, Tamkeen, and many more.
A number of delegates from the southern Indian state of Kerala will also be participating at the event. They will be supported by the Kerala StartUp Mission and will have a separate pavilion at Unbound Bahrain, the anchor event of StartUp Bahrain Week.
The visit is being facilitated by the EDB India office. The teams in Mumbai & New Delhi have worked extensively with these entrepreneurs to understand their business interest in the region, to facilitate relevant connects with the start-up ecosystem and stakeholders in Bahrain for various sectors. The EDB has two offices in India located in Mumbai and New Delhi that offer support to Indian businesses looking to learn about the regional investment opportunities and set up a business in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Delegates will have an opportunity meet with industry, investors, potential business partners and fund-raising opportunities during the two days. Startups who are considering a potentially setting up in the region will be appropriately guided on various aspects of doing business in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
There are already strong links between India and Bahrain. The population of Bahrain (c. 1.5m) is just 1/1000th the size of India’s, but a large proportion of Bahraini residents – roughly a third – are Indian. This has helped to create a ‘Bahrain-India Business Corridor’ which accounts for bilateral trade worth more than $ 1bn per year.
There are more than 20 branches of prominent Indian banks and companies in Bahrain, in addition to more than 3,000 Indian joint-venture companies registered in the country. In addition, Bahrain is host to Indian startups in the grocery delivery, crypto platforms, IOT & Open-Source Low-Code Rapid Application development & delivery platforms. It is hoped that links between India and Bahrain will be strengthened further during StartUp Bahrain Week.
About Bahrain Economic Development Board
The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) is an investment promotion agency with overall responsibility for attracting investment into the Kingdom and supporting initiatives that enhance the investment climate.
The EDB works with the government and both current and prospective investors, in order to ensure that Bahrain’s investment climate is attractive, to communicate the key strengths, and to identify where opportunities exist for further economic growth through investment.
The EDB focuses on several economic sectors that capitalise on Bahrain’s competitive advantages and provide significant investment opportunities. These sectors include financial services, manufacturing, ICT, tourism, logistics and transport.
