KPMG Professional Consulting has partnered with the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises “Monshaat”, coinciding with the launch of the annual Global Tech Innovator – The GTI competition. The competition targets innovators and pioneers in the technology sector, allowing them to present their ideas and present them to a committee. Arbitration and enables them to expand globally and compete with innovators from more than 25 countries from all over the world.. The partnership reflects KPMG's commitment to supporting the development of innovation systems in the Saudi business sector and Monshaat's relentless efforts to support the prosperity of startups and entrepreneurs.
For his part, Khalil Ibrahim Al-Sudais, Managing Partner of KPMG in Riyadh, commented: “This competition is part of a global strategy to empower and support entrepreneurs and technology, and benefit from their ideas and innovations and turn them into success stories.” Khalil Ibrahim Al-Sudais continued: “We are proud of our partnership With Monshaat, because this partnership helps to strengthen the entrepreneurial community, enable them to participate in global competitions, and highlight Saudi startups.
Saud Al-Sabhan, Deputy Governor for Entrepreneurship at Monshaat, commented: “We are pleased to see initiatives from the private sector that support the development of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, in line with the objectives of Vision 2030, which aims to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the Kingdom, and will benefit from the expertise and resources of the two institutions.” In order to give entrepreneurs and startups the right offer, guidance and guidance.
The door for submissions to the competition is now open, and the deadline for submitting online applications is June 30, 2023. The local finals will be held on August 30, 2023 at the KPMG “Insight Center” in the main office in Riyadh, before a panel of arbitrators.
In 2022, the second edition of the Technical Innovation Competition won OTO, which provides innovative solutions for managing e-commerce delivery operations.
According to Dr. Samer Abdullah, Head of Communications and Information Technology Sector at KPMG Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the Judging Panel: “Whether a company is a pure technology company, technology-enabled or technology-driven, we recognize the potential of these entities in shaping the future, and through the GTI initiative We invite entrepreneurs to present and put forward their ideas, and open the doors to writing tomorrow's success story.
Dr. added. Samer: “Each promotional competition will be judged by a judging panel made up of industry experts and KPMG experts, who will assign an assessment to each application, based on six equally weighted criteria.” The criteria include: “creating change and innovation, market potential, customer adoption, market and marketing attractiveness, long-term potential, and the quality of the persuasion to buy process.”
Startups with a foundation in technology and a strong societal impact are especially invited to participate. In 2022, HiiROC, a developer of a system for low-cost, zero-emission hydrogen production, won the Global Tech Innovator Award at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal after fierce competition with more than 1,100 applicants, across 22 countries and jurisdictions during the national stages.
The list of countries, regions and states participating in the 2023 competition includes: Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Vietnam.
Okaz (Riyadh)