Lebanon, and more specifically its capital Beirut, is the home to an increasing intensity of startup activity on the Middle East’s Mediterranean coast. It has many of the key elements: access to a pool of talents; incubators and accelerators; venture capital; and growth funding. The Lebanese startup ecosystem has been experiencing unprecedented growth ever since Banque du Liban began the program Circular 33, which injected $650 million into the Lebanese enterprise market to create more opportunities and remove the funding constraint.

The opportunities in Tunisia to establish new businesses and expand existing offerings are plentiful. It is ranked 19th out of 190 counties in the World Bank’s Starting a Business Index, plus the country’s ICT sector, which represents 7.5% of its GDP, has created over 100,000 jobs (with over 7,500 jobs created per year). Flat6Labs launched in Tunisia back in 2016 to provide Tunisian entrepreneurs with all the resources they need to develop, grow, and scale regionally globally.

The Kingdom of Bahrain offers startup founders plenty of unique opportunities to grow, scale and tap into new markets. It is ranked among the top 10 AME Ecosystems for Funding in 2020 and is among the world’s top five fastest-growing ecosystems with fewer than 1,000 startups. In 2018, Flat6Labs made its sixth regional expansion by launching a new phase of its renowned seed program dedicated to serving both local and global entrepreneurs in Bahrain.

Jordan has always been viewed as a country with high levels of entrepreneurial activity driven by abundant human talents and availability of support from key stakeholders and support programs. Flat6Labs is launching a new seed program in Jordan to offer its strong regional experience in providing seed and early-stage investments and business support to Jordanian tech startups with innovation-driven solutions.

The UAE has emerged as a strong technology hub for startups, accounting for an average of 60% of total MENA annual investments as well as 40% of the region’s top exits, it also ranks 16th out of 190 in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index. For all these reasons and more, Flat6Labs has chosen UAE’s capital city Abu Dhabi as a base for its leading program to foster innovation in the UAE and beyond with technology and entrepreneurship as the central themes.

Flat6Labs made its first regional expansion in Saudi Arabia in 2013 with the goal of supporting Saudi entrepreneurs to successfully launch their businesses as well as scale to reach regional and global markets. The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 aiming to increase the contribution of small and medium enterprises to its GDP from 20% to 35% has played a significant role in boosting the Saudi entrepreneurial ecosystem by offering an ideal business environment with low startup costs and tax incentives appealing to potential entrants.