New Cities Foundation and Oasis500 have announced the launch of Omraan in India, a global competition for tech start-ups and innovators rewarding the best urban technology ideas with $30,000 worth of seed funding and a 100-day acceleration programme in Amman, Jordan.
Omraan, meaning ‘building’ in Arabic, is a unique initiative aimed at identifying and rewarding aspiring Indian entrepreneurs who are developing promising technologies that tackle urban challenges with particular relevance to urban environments in West Asia.
Omraan is a global call for new technology ideas, aimed at identifying and rewarding aspiring entrepreneurs developing promising technologies that tackle urban challenges.
Through a combination of seed funding and acceleration, Omraan’s mission is to nurture the most creative and forward thinking technology start-ups from across the globe, and develop their ideas into concrete projects that solve challenges facing cities.
Indian technology start-ups and innovators are invited to apply, whereby applicants will have to submit a brief statement explaining their idea, followed by a detailed presentation. In order to qualify, start-ups must provide technological solutions to urban problems through the mobile, Web, cloud, e-commerce, gaming, entertainment, enterprise software, digital news, digital advertising, and social networks.
For qualifying start-ups, the $30,000 seed investment funding consists of a $12,000 cash investment along with $17,000 in in-kind services through Oasis500’s acceleration and incubation programme.
Acceleration in Amman will involve coaching and mentoring from the Oasis500 team, industry experts, and a group of 300 international mentors, many of whom work in Silicon Valley.
John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation, said in a statement, “The New Cities Foundation launches Omraan in collaboration with Oasis500 in India. This unique initiative is an important milestone in the foundation’s history: over the past four years, we have developed a dynamic network of urban innovators, thinkers and decision-makers spanning the globe. We are now excited to provide India a powerful platform to incubate, promote and scale urban technologies in West Asia, from which cities around the world can also learn.''