We have designed an environment to help fellows build startups through a 4-month relationship-focused programme.
Our goal is to co-found businesses with the fellows by providing them with grants and giving access to the Wamda network. Wamda X will be the initial financiers for founding teams and offers access to continuous follow-on financing through Wamda Capital.
Converts into 5% only if a business is formed.
Wamda reserves the right to invest $100k for 10% post programme.
The fellows are required to be based in Dubai for the duration of the programme.
Fellows will be encouraged to pair with mentors and advisors.
Wamda or the fellow may choose to re-evaluate their participation during the programme.
We are here to help co-found businesses from their earliest stages. Be it just an idea or an
early-stage startup with a few months of operations, we want to be a part of it.
Successful businesses are often started by mature founders who have several years of work
experience but do not conform to the status quo. That's why we are looking for professionals who
have a knack for solving market failures and those who embody leadership and efficient
problem-solving qualities.
The qualities that make a great entrepreneur are often present before they even start a
business. The best businesses are founder-run, so Wamda X is looking to partner with these
founders from the early days of starting up. We want to partner with hungry entrepreneurs,
willing to take a leap of faith regardless of whether or not they make it through Wamda X.
We encourage you to apply as a team. Through our years of investing experience, we've found that
teams that start together early are almost always at an immediate advantage over companies
started by individuals.
Easing barriers to starting a business by reducing dependency on family and friends, often the first people founders go to for financing.
Businesses will have access to Wamda Capital, negating the need to constantly fundraise externally.
Curriculum light, mentorship and networking heavy. The programme is about the relationships built with the mentors, Wamda team members, peers, and the wider Wamda network.
By structuring the investment as a grant, we’re alleviating the pains associated with equity, allowing fellows to focus on their businesses.
Regardless of whether or not fellows start a business, they will attain access to the Wamda portfolio, future events, and future cohorts. Fellows will be part of Wamda’s network for life.
We will provide working space in Dubai as well more than $10,000 worth of various software and support services at discounted rates for fellows.
1. Applications
Applications are now open for January 2020 batch.
2. Phone Interviews
We’ll be in touch in the second half of October to schedule a call if we like your application.
3. In-person Interviews
Full day of interviews and exercises in Dubai 6 weeks before the start of the programme.
4. X START, X SOLVE, X SCALE
The programme continues in three phases.
This is the pre-programme, where all finalists come together and are introduced to the mentors and the other fellows on the XSTART programme. You will receive $3,000 as an immediate grant once you join. It is an intense, yet exciting month of workshops, team-building activities, mentorship and business model planning. Each team will outline milestones unique to their business. At the end of X START, both the Wamda X team and the prospective fellows decide if they wish to continue to the next stage.
X SOLVE is a three-month programme designed to give fellows the space to build and grow their business. Every month you will receive a $9,000 grant as well as in-kind benefits to support you. The programme will be split into themed weeks that include topics such as marketing, legal support, financial, tech and fund-raising. We will also organise regular talks with experts from across all industries and provide access to the wider Wamda network and mentors.
X SCALE takes place in the last week of the three-month programme. We will organise an event for you to pitch your idea to a wide range of investors and advisors. You will also pitch separately to the Wamda team for a $100,000 follow-on investment.
Former Co-Founder and CEO
Namshi
Co-Founder
Seez
Managing Director Middle East
Farfetch
Executive Director - Channel, Alliances, Start-ups, and SMEs
Microsoft
Founder
unmarketd
Regional Head of the Government Business
Mastercard
Partner
True
Co-Founder and CEO
Kitopi
Former Head of Business
Uber MENA
Chief Marketing Officer
The Luxury Closet
Co-Founder and CEO
Clara
Founder and CEO
The Duck Way
Ex- Careem, Ex-noon
CEO & Founder
Tarjama & Ureed.com
Managing Director - Gulf
Careem
CTO
ASWAT Telecom
Founder and CEO
yallacompare
CEO and Co-Founder
ASWAT
Founder and CEO
Nabbesh
Founder
The Luxury Closet
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
eyewa
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
eyewa
Co-Founder and CTO
SiTech
Full-stack engineer
Tech consultant
CEO
Officerock.com
CEO
LunchOn
Co-Founder
The Lighthouse
Managing Partner
Frontlane Capital
Co-Founder and COO
The Lighthouse
Co-Founder and CEO
Crowd Analyzer
Founder and CEO
Acacus Group
Consultant
Founder and CEO
Souqalmal.com
Co-Founder
Now Money
Co-Founder
Now Money
Managing Director
Janus Ventures
Founder and CEO
Urban Monks
Founding Partner
Venture Souq
Co-Founder and COO
LunchOn
Partner
Leyden Ventures
Executive Chairman
Partner
Wamda Investments
Operations Lead
The selection process is divided into three stages.
1- Application submissions
2- Phone/video interviews
3- In-person interviews
The programme is divided into three phases: X START, X SOLVE and X SCALE. Each phase is designed to help you reach specific milestones. The full programme will be a four-month experience that gives the right platform and infrastructure to focus on building your business. You will meet seasoned founders, industry experts and corporates relevant to your business, and you will be responsible for developing your network. Throughout the programme, we expect teams to gain an immense amount of experience and insight from their mentors, the multiple workshops and sessions hosted at Wamda X, as well as the connections they will make with industry specific advisors. While the programme is not a traditional 9 – 5 offering, it remains relatively hands-on and fellows are expected to be fully committed to attending all required sessions, as well as manage their own meetings. The programme concludes with X SCALE, an extension of the traditional Demo Day session, whereby fellows will have the opportunity to meet with and pitch to investors, advisors and corporates, as well as present to the wider ecosystem.
Although the programme is not your traditional 9 – 5 offering, it remains relatively hands-on and fellows are expected to be fully committed to attending all required sessions, as well as manage their own meetings.
The programme concludes with X SCALE, an extension of the traditional Demo day session, whereby fellows will be invited to meet with and pitch to investors, advisors and corporates and advisors, as well as present to the wider ecosystem.
If you are selected after the in-person interviews, you will receive an offer letter to join our X START pre-programme. The pre-programme is where all the finalists come together and are introduced to the mentors and other fellows joining the programme.
The offer letter acts as an agreement between Wamda and yourself, whereby the terms of the grant and our partnership moving forward are set out. You will receive $3,000 as an immediate grant once you join. It is an intense, yet exciting month of mentorship and workshops covering market analysis, business model planning and more, as well as team building activities.
At the end of X START, both the Wamda X team and the prospective fellows will decide the next step. There will be a review panel to assess your progress, milestones unique to your business, and engagement during that month to see whether you are suitable to join the full three-month X SOLVE programme.
As a fellow, you will also have the choice whether to continue or not with programme, if you feel that the timing or the programme are not suitable for you at this moment.
X SOLVE is a three-month programme designed to give fellows the space to build and grow their business. Each month, you will receive a $9,000 grant as well as in-kind benefits to support you.
The programme will be split into themed weeks that include topics such as marketing, legal support, financial, tech and fundraising.
In addition, there will be regular talks with experts across all industries as well as access to the wider Wamda network and mentors.
Please keep in mind that if you do not get through to the next stage it does not mean that your company will not be successful, and it should definitely not discourage you from continuing to build your business.
It could be one of two things, either your company does not fit this current cohort or secondly, believe it or not, we could have made a mistake and are missing out ? Please do not take this as a definitive sign that you should stop working on your startup.
We are looking for teams who would be continuing with their company whether they are accepted into the programme or not. If, at the end of X START, you were not selected to move forward with the programme, the Wamda team will give you feedback and some guidance on how to accelerate the growth of your business.
Additionally, being part of the X START programme means that you will always be part of the Wamda community and will always have access to our network and events.
X SCALE is a succession of pitch events and meetings, organized for the fellows during the end of the X SOLVE programme. You will also be pitching separately to the Wamda team for the $100,000 follow-on investment.
Yes. We are looking for driven teams, hungry to launch their business regardless of whether they are accepted onto the programme or not. We do not want you to quit your job solely for Wamda X, instead, you should approach us at a time when you were already considering jumping ship and venturing out on your own. Wamda X is here to make the process friction-less.
We are strong believers that building a successful business requires 100% commitment from the very first day and therefore we will only consider teams that know the implied risks. As such, we require fellows to consider their commitment to their startup and time at Wamda X as a fulltime position.
No. We support fellows who are 100% committed to their business and not working on it part-time. We are funding and supporting you at such an early stage because we believe in you and in return, we expect you to fully focus on building your business out of the Wamda X space.
You will receive more than $10,000 worth of in-kind support such as working space, access to software and tools etc.
The ideal outcome involves building an initial team, as well as formulating and validating your business idea, so that by the end of the 4 months, you are able to launch your business and receive your first round of investment. Having said that, this is a fellowship programme.
All fellows are part of the Wamda community for life, and not launching a business by the end of the programme is totally fine. You got in because we liked you as a person, and value you being in our network. If you go on to join another team, or join one of Wamda Capital's portfolio companies, or even go back to your previous job, that is also fine. That is why Wamda X is a grant-based programme and not equity-based one.
Not a problem at all. There are multiple options by that point. One option is to extend the grant on a monthly basis until you are ready to launch your business. Another option is for you to join one of the other fellows as they launch their startup. A third option involves joining one of Wamda Capital's growth stage companies. Or, you may decide to go your own way and do something completely different.
We understand that the process of starting a business might seem more appealing than the reality. We also understand how frustrating the early days can be. Perhaps you are not getting value out of the programme. We're OK with terminating the agreement at any point during the programme if either party is dissatisfied for any reason. At the end of month-long X START programme, both you and Wamda will get the chance to review your participation and decide together on whether or not you progress to X SOLVE.
The programme aims to capture a broad range of fellows. There is much debate on what makes for a "good" founder, and the characteristics attributed to successful entrepreneurs are diverse. We want Wamda X to include driven fellows, eager to disrupt the status quo, but also mature enough to know how to manoeuver in the real world. If you feel like that describes you, and the market failure you are trying to solve can mean the opportunity you are working on is sizeable, please go ahead and apply!
This is not a startup accelerator programme. We do not accelerate startups. We invest in founders. Startup accelerator programmes are good, but they often focus on the post-launch stage of the startup cycle, the point after which founders have built an early team, have put together a polished pitch deck, and maybe even have a product. While we are open to including startups at post-launch stage, Wamda X primarily targets pre-idea, pre-business startups and we far more interested in the individuals than in the startup.
The process is designed to allow us to screen for the qualities we believe exist in good founders. The best founders we've invested in often come by referral, so if you know anyone we know or we've invested in, ask them to refer you to the programme. It may feel more like a job interview, with questions that may not seem relevant to your business idea, but we are interested in getting to know you as a person. Founders are the single most critical factor that contribute to the success or failure of a startup, and therefore our screening process is centred on getting to know the fellows. Having said that, the process will include: 1) online application, 2) two rounds of phone interviews with different Wamda team members, 3) a full day of interviews and exercises where you'll be tested on your ability to work under stress while keeping your eye on the big picture. During of these steps, we're assessing your problem solving skills as well as your propensity to keep your cool under stress.
Based on their ability to think critically about a problem and solve it in a smart manner, their ability to work under stress, their ability to work with their peers, and how driven they are to solve a market failure. Doing all of this as a team would be preferable to striving on your own. We prefer teams to individual applicants.
You can apply at any stage you like. You can have a vague idea of what you want to do, or at early stages of operations.
Wamda X heavily emphasises network over programming, therefore we do not have a curriculum to share yet. We will work to facilitate workshops, talks and network opportunities based on your needs.
The deadline for applications is on 20 October, 2020.
If you are accepted onto the X START pre-programme, you will receive a $3,000 immediate grant to dedicate time to work on your business idea at the Wamda X space.
If you move forward to the three-month X SOLVE programme, you will start receiving a grant of $9,000 per month as personal support while you build your business. You are free to use the grant as you please, as long as it helps you accelerate the growth of your business.
The total grant money will convert into 5% equity if you form a business within 12 months from the completion of the programme.
Yes, of course. As part of our agreement, Wamda has the right to invest $100,000 in your business in return for a 10% stake. An additional 1% of the business will be distributed to the pool of mentors to ensure they are incentivised to support you while you build your business.
So, in total, Wamda will receive 15% equity in return for $130,000 investment (with a post-money valuation of $1,000,000) and an additional 1% will go to the mentors.
Mentors will receive equity at the cohort level. In addition to the 5% Wamda receives in exchange for the grant when you form a business, there will be a 1% equity pool consisting of the most engaged mentors.
Throughout the programme, Wamda X fellows will be asked to identify mentors who were the most helpful. The selected mentors will join the equity pool and receive 1% equity of each business from that batch.
We also encourage fellows who successfully found a business to carve out 1%+ to distribute to mentors they really like, be they from the Wamda network or beyond.
Not at all. Let us explain why: The startup stage is often the toughest, and founders often depend not on financing, but on a network of peers and mentors to help incentivise and support them to launch their startups. We also know the most successful businesses are often launched with a solid support network, often in the form of a founding team.
We want to partner with you from day one and can continue to financially support you as you grow. We will put you in touch with successful mentors and our broad network of people who have gone through the startup process themselves and can support you while you go through yours.
Besides the in-kind support that includes workspace, programming, software and tools, the financial grant for the entire programme amount to $30,000 which converts into 5% equity. This could be followed by a $100,000 follow-on ticket for an additional 10% of the business.
What does that mean for the valuation of your business?
- 5% equity for $30,000 means your business is being valued at $600,000 from the very first day!
- 10% equity for the follow-on $100,000 ticket and that means we are valuing the business at $1,000,000 from the time your business launches.
While seed round companies in the region often raise about $500,000 at a range of $1,500,000 to $2,500,000 valuations, it is a round that usually comes at a later stage of the business and not once it launches.
You can think of the $100,000 as a pre-seed investment, and the $30,000 grant and in-kind support as a family and friends’ round.
It is highly unlikely that we'll accommodate alternative terms than the ones set out here.
Absolutely! We have a venture fund and can finance your business all the way through Series B if we maintain alignment and we like the traction you've achieved. We will also help you fundraise from the wider investor network in the Middle East and North Africa region and beyond at every stage of financing.
Mentors are core to Wamda X. The programme would not exist without them. The relationship you build with your mentors will be organic and not forced. You must naturally find the right mentors for you, and you must "sell" them your idea and vision much like you would any other supporter of the business.
We encourage you to research our mentors before the programme, and even reach out to them if you like, so that when you meet them during orientation day, you have an idea of who you'd like to work with.
We will facilitate introductions during orientation day and beyond, but the relationship must naturally make sense for both mentors and fellows. You must work on finding the right mentor for you. We will not match you with mentors ourselves, but we will offer you the right opportunities to meet founders and industry experts. The best mentorship connections happen organically so both the mentors and fellows will have to choose to work with one another.
Many mentors at Wamda X are founders themselves, often still working at their scale-ups. You will find that most mentors have built startups that have achieved significant traction, in the form of millions of dollars in revenue and who have received multiple rounds of financing for their businesses. They know what it is like to build and scale a business in the region and are going to be invaluable to your business.
Mentors will receive equity at the cohort level. In addition to the 5% Wamda receives in exchange for the grant when you form a business, there will be a 1% equity pool consisting of the most engaged mentors.
Throughout the programme, Wamda X fellows will be asked to identify mentors who were the most helpful. The selected mentors will join the equity pool and receive 1% equity of each business from that batch.
We also encourage fellows who successfully found a business to carve out 1%+ to distribute to mentors they really like, be they from the Wamda network or beyond.
Three primary ways:
1) demonstrate that your idea is scalable and solves a major market failure.
2) demonstrate that you are capable of putting together an early team with a diverse skills-set.
3) prove that you are receptive to feedback and are able to work with our network and team.
We encourage you to do so and may even invest more than that ourselves! We can work with you to find the right amount of financing for that stage of your business.
The fellows we select for the Wamda X programme relocate to join us from all over the region. We offer support to help you with your visa requirements and help you settle once you have moved. There is no commitment to stay after the programme, though most of the businesses register within the UAE and can operate from across the region.
Yes. We need to get to know you, and you need to get to know us! If this poses a logistical problem, please reach out so that we can try and help find a solution.
Sure, that is usually a straighforward process and we can help facilitate it.
The next batch is expected to start January 2020. Applications will close end of day on 20 October 2019.
No, we will help you to incorporate during the X SOLVE programme and assist you in deciding on the best place to register your business.
No – at this point we do not allow deferrals. We believe that if you are confident that your idea could become a viable business, you shouldn’t delay working on it. More so, every cohort is different and has a different combination of fellows and mentors that complement each other and therefore we cannot guarantee that the next cohort will be suited for you.
We are looking for early stage teams (two or more) who are building capital efficient, disruptive Mena-based businesses that are easily scalable across markets. From our experience, the fellows who are best positioned to benefit from the programme usually have prior work experience of five to 10-years in a corporate environment.
Having said, if you do not meet that criteria, do not be discouraged to apply as we have accepted founders that do not have such experience.
Not at all, we are sector and industry agnostic, however we do like businesses that are tech-enabled. We are interested in Mena-focused businesses that are capital efficient, disruptive, widely scalable and that can become regionally significant. The programme will support you at ideation stage and host different workshops and tools that will help you refine your business idea to build the strongest possible business model.
The selection process is not based on your business plan. Our decisions are made based on the application form phone and in-person interviews. In addition to that, if you are accepted onto the final stage of the selection process, you join us for X START, where we will get to know you and your business better before you join the full three-month programme.
Applications for the second cohort of Wamda X are now closed. The programme is scheduled to start in January.
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