MANAMA: The newly-established Bahrain presence of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) has won the award of the ‘Country Office of the Year 2020’.
This was announced following the conclusion of the WBAF’s 2021 World Congress of Angel Investors held virtually for the first time, where the winners of the forum’s World Excellence Awards were announced.
As an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the WBAF awards programmme honours those who stand out in imagining, discussing, and shaping the future of an entrepreneurial world.
The international jury for the awards selected five institutions and individuals that have distinguished themselves by empowering their local and global economies through entrepreneurship, science, technology and innovation in 2020.
These five awardees are: National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand named the ‘Most Startup-Friendly Technology Institute of Asia’; Albaraka Turk named the ‘Most Startup-Friendly Bank of 2020’; WBAF Country Office, Bahrain named the ‘Country Office of the Year 2020’; Dr Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes of the US named the ‘Best Businesswoman Role Model Demonstrating Social Entrepreneurship’ with the ‘Special Recognition Award for Global Efforts to Support Youth Entrepreneurship’ given to US-based Junior Chamber International (JCI).
The awards celebrate high growth and success in the angel and early-stage investment market, recognising the fastest growing brands and acknowledging the founders, angels, crowdfunders and early-stage venture capital investors behind them.
Billed as the world’s biggest annual gathering of early-stage equity and investment markets, the WBAF Congress 2021 hosted 6 continental summits this year with the participation of more than 700 delegates from around the world.
“The Mena summit held last Thursday featured two participations from Bahrain,” said high commissioner and country director Feryal Nass.
“The first was a keynote speech by Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry acting under-secretary Eman Al Doseri, entitled ‘Empowering economies of the Mena region through entrepreneurship and innovation’.
“The second was a roundtable discussion, organised by the WBAF Bahrain Country Office, entitled ‘Dynamics of Hyperconnected Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Bahrain’. The speakers in the session were Unido ITPO head Dr Hashim Hussain, Tamkeen chief planning and monitoring officer Dr Jarmo Kotilaine, Al Zayani Investment Group chairman Khalid Al Zayani, and Dr Sawsan Kamal, a member of parliament in Bahrain.”
It was also announced that the Bahrain Entrepreneurship Organisation (BEO) sponsored a Bahraini start-up’s participation in the congress.
“We are delighted that we were able to sponsor Theiab Aldossary’s startup, Feelix Haptic Technologies, and wish him all the best on the global fundraising stage,” said Ms Nass, who is also BEO chairwoman.
“Unido ITPO initiated the introduction of Felix Haptic Technologies to BEO and we are looking forward to supporting Theiab to reach international status,” she added.
avinash@gdn.com.bh
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