Mohamed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund Helps Raise AED 61 Million for Small Companies

According to the UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) has helped small businesses raise AED 61 million since its inception.

Set up in 2016 with operations beginning in 2017, MBRIF is a federally-sponsored initiative conceived and represented by the MoF targeting and supporting businesses and companies registered in the UAE to enable their sustainable growth. Through two programmes - a loan guarantee scheme and an innovation accelerator - it aims at facilitating the companies’ presented innovative business activities by offering financial risk mitigation and business development tools.

With the support of the accelerator programme’s member coaching which provides the companies with business and strategy advice as well as access to clients and finance, its first batch of 18 members has just graduated on Tuesday. The fund reports to have provided these businesses with 15 million Dirhams, leading to the creation of over 50 jobs in different sectors in the Emirates.

“Our idea is to attract new global talent to the UAE that could contribute towards creating a knowledge-based economy," says Younis Haji Al Khouri, Undersecretary of the MoF. "So far, we have been very successful in meeting this objective.”

The initiative targets businesses operating within the National Innovation Strategy sectors, namely renewable energy, transportation, education, health, water, and technology. Of this batch’s successful notables are an education technology company, Englease.com, and Farmin, a platform helping farmers boost yields by using satellite technology.