Intelak Hub, the region’s only start-up platform dedicated to the travel, tourism and aviation sectors, has opened applications for its new cohorts of programmes.
The Intelak Hub brings together three distinct platforms – Intelak Incubator, Intelak Accelerator and the Intelak Idea Lab. The organisation seeks to enable entrepreneurial growth, supported by Dubai’s strategic investment priorities and hyper-connected, global location.
Now in its second year, Intelak Hub is led by a consortium of industry leaders who serve as the platforms’ principle partners, taking a holistic approach to nurturing start-ups at all stages of growth. This includes, with all providing mentorship to programme participants Dubai Tourism, Emirates Group, Accenture and Microsoft.
Intelak Hub’s 2021 offerings include the Intelak Incubator, a 12-week programme for early stage start-ups offering equity-free funding, market feasibility guidance, pitch deck advisement, and demo day showcases where Dubai is used as a proof-of-concept for their solutions. Additionally, it will include AED 50,000 in equity-free funding, with the opportunity to showcase solutions at a demo day, and further access to ecosystem collaborations.
Meanwhile, the Intelak Accelerator is an eight-week programme for late stage start-ups looking to scale their businesses, offering comprehensive go-to-market counsel, access to partner ecosystems to test and implement their solutions, exhibition space and exclusive pitching and investor opportunities at GITEX Future Stars – a premier technology event for the region.
Finally, the Intelak Idea Lab is a three-week programme nurturing young Emirati talent as part of the UAE’s vision to develop and support home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship. Applicants can be considered for all programmes regardless of which programme they enter when joining Intelak Hub and start-ups do not need to be based in Dubai to take part. All cohort programmes will have a hybrid structure consisting of physical and digital components.
Launched last year amid the pandemic, Intelak Hub is testament to Dubai’s capacity to transform challenges into opportunities, as it has quickly and successfully entrenched itself within the start-up community as a catalyst for disruptive thinking. As we move into our second year under this platform, we are honoured to collaborate with our esteemed partners to drive entrepreneurship forward and leverage these pioneering programmes to support and empower the resurgence in international travel and tourism. We welcome applications from around the world and are excited at the prospect of engineering new ideas and aspirations to spur new growth and innovation across the industry.”
With Dubai positioned as one of world’s safest destinations and critically driving the global re-start of tourism, the opening of key sectors has allowed partners across the Dubai ecosystem to work together to deliver strong visitor experiences and travel confidence, including the world’s largest and first in-person business events, attracting hundreds of thousands of participants.
Dubai has emerged as the most sought-after hub for regional and global start-ups. With one-third of the world’s population reachable within a four-hour flight from Dubai, and two-thirds reachable within an eight-hour flight, the UAE is ranked the fifth most connected country globally and number one in the region.
