Omantel has launched the Omantel Innovation Labs, aimed at contributing to Oman’s Vision 2040 and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in new and emerging technologies.
The new initiative will see Omantel leveraging its expertise, partnerships, reach, and access to technology to build a tech-based startup ecosystem.
Talal Said Al Mamari, chief executive officer, Omantel, said, “We want to support and tap into new ideas and technologies, stay ahead of the curve and drive local innovation. For this, we need to optimally deploy our resources and create an environment wherein caliber and opportunities match national digital transformation goals.
He explained that Omantel Innovations Labs has been conceptualised and designed to fit perfectly into this ecosystem and aim to put the company at the heart of Oman’s emerging culture of entrepreneurial growth, knowledge sharing, collaboration and economic development through digitisation.
The key focus of Omantel Innovation Labs is to cultivate entrepreneurial skills among the youth and accelerate the growth of relevant Oman-based technology startups across five technological verticals: 5G, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, customer experience technology, and big data.
Located in a 1100m2 facility at Omantel headquarters in Muscat, the Innovation Labs will organise, participate in, and host multiple activities to support the company’s internal innovation agenda by providing systematic spaces, approaches, events and activities that can accelerate product conceptualisation, prototyping, testing and deployment of solutions to Oman and Omantel-centric challenges.
Among other achievements, Omantel has piloted two major 5G projects in Oman’s transport and logistics sector that showcase the use of 5G infrastructure beyond network speed and efficiency but also bring more accountability and streamlining to port operations.
The aim of the Innovation Labs is to build a platform that can generate use cases for prioritised technologies and facilitate an ecosystem that complements Omantel’s differentiating activities.
An off-shoot of this initiative is the Omantel Accelerator program, designed in collaboration with the UK Oman Digital Hub.
It will be delivered in partnership with Oman-based regional accelerator OTF (Oman Technology Fund) and the global venture accelerator and ecosystem developer; Brinc.
The six-month program intends to de-risk innovative startups across multiple stages of their lifecycle. Startups will be guided through the myriad challenges in the highly competitive tech industry through mentorship, networking, and fundraising support.
To be considered for this opportunity, startups should demonstrate that they are developing proprietary technology that directly corresponds to or is dependent on one or more of the five program focus areas, that they are post MVP stage and are ready to scale.
Earlier stage companies and technology startups in other industry verticals will be considered.
