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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Oasis 500, The Entrepreneurial Projects and Investments Company, announced today in a graduation ceremony taking place at the MENA ICT Forum under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Marwan Juma, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, that 12 out of 33 entrepreneurs have survived the first entrepreneurial boot camp training program, and an overall of 200 applicants. The selected entrepreneurs were part of a unique experience as they underwent an intensive boot camp of training and mentorship geared towards building the capacity of Jordanian entrepreneurs.
Oasis 500, which was founded in May of this year, with investments from the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD), Jordanian venture capital firms, leading Jordanian technology companies, as well as angel investors, had launched its operations in August by announcing that it is accepting applications for its entrepreneurship program with the goal of helping accelerate no less than 500 start-ups by 2015.
The graduation recognized the first group wave of entrepreneurs.
“Oasis 500 is based on a model where we companies for funding and incubation based on the results of an intensive entrepreneurship Boot Camp program designed to provide business, behavioral, and fund raising training to candidates,” said Dr. Usama Fayyad, Executive Chairman of the Oasis 500. “The quality and capability of all the participating entrepreneurs were very encouraging, validating the potential of Jordanian entrepreneurs, and we will have high expectations for many of our graduating class.”
Oasis 500 provides three major activities in addition to its Training Boot Camp: An Investment and Incubation Program, an intensive Mentorship Program, and a regional Angel Network of Investors to help eligible companies secure funding and to encourage angel investment in technology.
“The Oasis 500 model is one that can tangibly transform opportunity in Jordan for entrepreneurs needing to hone their skills at building special businesses. It also serves as a platform for local, regional, and international stakeholders to participate in the early stages of high-growth prospects in the Jordanian ICT sector” said Mr. Emile Cubeisy, board member of Oasis 500 and Managing Director of IV Holdings.
“We aim to raise our capital by USD $6 million, and over the next five years raise an additional USD $30M as we scale our operation”, added Dr. Fayyad. “We aim to make about 500 initial investments in startup companies over the coming 5 years, and these will come from thousands of ideas we will review, consider, evaluate, and filter over the coming 5 years.”
“The potential of Jordan’s ICT sector is clear, and we are confident that this model will accelerate the development of more success stories in technology startups in our sector”, said Mr. Aiman Mazahreh, board member of Oasis 500 and Chairman of intaj, Jordan’s IT Association. “We hope that these successful startups will transform the perception of Jordanian start-ups, by setting a standard for what our entrepreneurs can achieve when the right environment is in place. Jordan’s got a track record of success and we are striving to ensure that more entrepreneurs can participate in this sector’s potential”.
“We hope to change the investment culture in this region from having a strong focus on real estate and traditional businesses, to turn to the more exciting and often significantly higher return area of ICT and Digital media”, continued Dr. Fayyad. “Our angel network, which will be launching soon, will aim to a new tradition of angel investments in technology startups.”

Oasis500 presence at MENA ICT was also highlighted by two competitions it created for the forum. The first competition, with the partnership of Microsoft Jordan, was the Startup Pitch Session, where around seven of the top Jordanian startups presented their ideas to; Corporate Vice President of Evangelism at Microsoft Mr. Walid Abu-Hadba and Dr. Usama Fayyad, Oasis500 Executive Chairman. The Competition entitled startups to pitch for the Mircosoft BizSpark initiative, which was created to help startups gain a competitive advantage in the IT industry.

Oasis also created a second competition, where it offered startups and entrepreneurs with the chance to meet all the seasoned ICT experts at the MENAICT forum via offering them 30 free passes to the forum. Entrepreneurs were selected after they have submitted an online video explaining “Why they should be part of the MENAICT forum?”
For more information, visit www.oasis500.com