Ammon News - Orange Jordan has launched the eighth season of Business Innovation Growth “BIG” programme, which is aimed at accelerating the growth of startups in Jordan.

Launched via the video conferencing platform Zoom and was also live-streamed on Orange Jordan Facebook page, the event was mainly attended by Orange Jordan CEO Thierry Marigny, members of the BIG steering committee and representatives of media, the Jordan times reported.

During the event, Marigny pointed out that “this season we mark a milestone in the progress of BIG by Orange”, as this season was launched from BIG by Orange Digital Village, which includes the company’s sustainable programmes for youth and entrepreneurship, in addition to the company’s collaboration with Changelabs, an organisation providing innovation and entrepreneurship programmes that help to launch startups, according to the Jordan Times.

Those programmes include the programming academy and the Orange gaming hub, Marigny said.

“Supporting entrepreneurship is among the priorities of Orange Jordan,” according to Marigny who pointed out to the aspirations of Jordanian youth and their innovation capacity.

BIG, which was launched back in 2015, is considered one of the leading startup accelerator programmes in Jordan, that gears towards supporting five to six startups each season, in addition to making sure they achieve sustainable development.

This season, the participating startups include: BOB, PartMan, Ion Microsystems, ShipCash, Accessible Jordan and Tanda, according to a statement made available to The Jordan Times.

“Six startups this year will be added to 40 other startups that BIG by Orange, helped grow, provided key monitoring help, in addition to supporting funding opportunities for startups,” the statement said.

“I think BIG by Orange will add value to BOB, as well as, support its expansion,” Khalil Azizi, founder of the BOB Network, which is one of the participating startups that brings solutions for SMEs to manage their back office, said in a video screened during the event.

Orange fulfills its responsibility towards society through corporate social responsibility programmes, which focus on empowering youth, women and people with disabilities in three main areas: Digital inclusion, digital education and entrepreneurship, according to organisers.

This programme is based on four pillars: Structured expert session and one to one mentorship, curated content and self-directed assignments, live pitches with experts and social engagement.

Orange Jordan is one of Orange Group’s subsidiaries operating in 26 countries and is one of the world’s top 10 operators that is with 148,000 employees and sales of €41 billion, serving a total customer base of 268 million customers worldwide, offering wide range of communication services to individuals and businesses under the brand Orange Business Services (OBS), according to its website.