Mohammad Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) is a program conceived by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The program is MOF’s response to the UAE’s Innovation Strategy; a national plan that sets out to create an innovation enabling environment and develop the UAE economy across 7 priority sectors through the nurturing of cutting-edge innovative programs. The MBRIF brand was launched with its 1st sub-program called the Guarantee Scheme to support high potential innovators through a government-backed guarantee. Innovation Accelerator (IA); MBRIF’s 2nd sub-program designed to further nurture and support high potential innovators to thrive in the UAE with a support ecosystem to drive the growth of their businesses.
Guarantee Scheme members received a loan more than $6 million upon receiving the guarantee. The loan was issued by the RAK
BANK, which currently the partner bank of the MBRIF. These loans have provided a positive signal to other investors, allowing firms to tap into further funding opportunities.
Innovation Accelerator program has delivered 432 service to 40 members in 2 years. Innovation Accelerator members has raised funds of more than $25 million since joining and receiving the specialized services of the MBRIF IA program.

https://www.mbrif.ae

• France
• Netherlands
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

• Youth
• Women
• Innovators

MBRIF model is replicable in countries where governments are open to encourage innovators via collaborating with different sectors like banking, private sectors to spurt innovation and build knowledge-based economies. The unique operating model and design of MBRIF represents a unique government intervention approach with clarity on bridging ecosystem challenges and gaps.

From a financial perspective, yes it is true that such a program both in terms of its existing scope and its planned expansions, requires a substantial amount of funding to deliver. However, taken only in monetary terms, the program within its few years of operations has already seen a return on its investment multi-fold. Its innovators have already secured over $51 million, this figure represents the fruit of the program’s effort with members and this figure also represents a collective pool of external funding raised for the MBRIF’s members that did not stem from the MOF’s own budget. This means that through MBRIF and its support efforts, the market gained the confidence to invest, fund, or loan MBRIF’s innovators a substantial amount of funding to fuel their growth.

MBRIF is enabling the environment of innovation ecosystem by enabling connections, enabling access to technical and non-technical knowledge & expertise as well as to resources (i.e. people, finance, facilities, & technology) for both the MBRIF and its members to. It is also creating social impact by contributing to the development of countries most pressing economic areas.