Emirates partners with Sharjah’s Sheraa to spur startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem

Dubai carrier Emirates has signed an MoU with Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) to strengthen and expand the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the UAE.

As an official Strategic Partner of Sheraa, Emirates will offer discounted fares to and from its network of over 90 destinations for the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and startups relocating to the UAE through Sheraa’s global soft-landing offering that provides an incentive package to facilitate entry for tech startups.

Emirates will work alongside Sheraa, both locally and across its international roadshows and events that aim to attract startups from across the world to the UAE.

The partnership is expected to enable greater access to market opportunities for startups through supplier day engagements.

“Emirates has long been an avid supporter of innovative startups and initiatives within the travel and aviation ecosystem, and we are pleased to partner with Sheraa to support Sharjah and the broader UAE’s efforts to create a vibrant environment for startups across a wide range of industries,” said Adnan Kazim, COO for Emirates Airline.

“We will be contributing to those efforts through attracting and connecting startups to the UAE with Sheraa across our network with the end goal of fostering innovation and stimulating valuable economic activity.”

Emirates has previously supported the UAE’s innovation ecosystem when it partnered with GE with and Etisalat to launch Intelak in 2016. Intelak includes serves to create an innovative pipeline of ideas and initiatives for the travel and aviation industry in Dubai.

“We are pleased to welcome Emirates Airline as a Strategic Partner, opening up new avenues for collaboration across UAE’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa.

“This partnership reflects our belief that corporate stakeholders play a critical role in establishing Sharjah as a thriving entrepreneurship hub, by enabling innovation and supporting tech startups that can accelerate economic growth and diversification.”

Since its inception, Sheraa has supported 114 startups that have gone on to generate over $125m in revenue, raise over $74m in investment and create over 1,300 jobs.

Sheraa recently launched the UAE’s first government-backed startup studio, Sharjah Startup Studio (S3), to support ventures that are profitable, sustainable and solving real problems in the world.

Read: Sharjah’s Sheraa sets up new startup studio to support entrepreneurs

S3 goes beyond the traditional method of education-based programmes, dedicating a team of experienced experts to work alongside founders and getting actively and operationally involved in the co-creation of their startups.

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