Mohammad Bin Rashid Innovation Fund - Innovation Accelerator (MBRIF-IA) is a program by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The program is MoF’s contribution to support UAE’s Innovation Agenda; a national plan that sets out to create an innovation enabling environment and develop the UAE economy and business environment, specifically to serve the objective of improving innovation delivery through public-private collaboration, bridge talent gap, facilitate access to new markets, as well as accelerate innovation through non-financial support, and that is through the nurturing of cutting-edge innovative programs.
MBRIF-IA has supported over 130 members (over 20% are women led businesses) from 24 countries over a span of 5 years. Innovation Accelerator members have supported several SDG’s such as the Goal 8 whereby our members creating over 500 job opportunities supporting the unemployed, raised funds of more than $100 million with some being awarded high prestigious awards and recognitions of 22 members in the UAE Future 100 list, with over 1,100 connections made since joining and receiving the specialized services of the MBRIF IA program.

https://mbrif.ae/accelerator-2/

• Bahrain
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• Egypt
• France
• India
• Ireland
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Lebanon
• Luxembourg
• Morocco
• Netherlands
• South Africa
• Saudi Arabia
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

• Youth
• Women
• Innovators, University Students, Entrepreneurs

The MBRIF-IA model is replicable in countries where governments are open to encourage innovators via collaborating with different stakeholders like other key players, government, semi-government, corporates, universities, VCs to spurt innovation and build knowledge-based economies. The unique operating model and design of MBRIF-IA represents a unique government intervention approach with clarity on bridging ecosystem challenges and gaps that can be replicated as a model in governments wishing to explore opportunities of interventions in a similar field.

The Ministry of Finance has embedded MBRIF-IA in its strategy as a government initiative that focuses on achieving economic and social impact on the UAE by enabling innovative businesses to achieve long term sustainable growth and expansion.
It optimizes available resources to best support and benefit its members leading to sustainable operations by fostering mutually beneficial partnerships and collaborations with ecosystem stakeholders working together to achieve the UAE’s innovation and economic agenda.
The strategy is revisited to align with dynamic innovation ecosystem and trends to ensure the program is relevant and sustainable. This is being cocreated with relevant stakeholders and experts.

MBRIF-IA is enabling the innovation ecosystem environment by enabling connections, access to technical and non-technical knowledge & expertise as well as to resources (i.e. people, finance, facilities, and technology) for both the MBRIF Accelerator and its members. It is also creating social impact by contributing to the development of countries’ most pressing economic areas. This is achieved by: - Providing immediate access to services to nurture their businesses and develop their innovations. - Enhancing awareness and competitiveness. - Enabling greater connectivity with the UAE innovation ecosystem. - Enabling access to cutting edge global insights, technology, and expertise not previously available. The MBRIF-IA has supported over 130 members with 7 Cohorts till date and that is to implement their innovation and operate in various industries including healthcare, logistics, AI, blockchain, space, water, agri-tech (food security), education, fintech, additive manufacturing, cyber security… etc. The program has received over 1000 applications from over 80 countries, successfully extending its support to its members from 24 countries around the world. The MBRIF-IA has provided curated services that helped many of our member fund raise and expand into other markets like the case of Sarwa (fintech) that raised $15M in Series B, Immensa (additive manufacturing) that expanded into other GCC markets and successfully raised $20M in Series B, and Klaim (insurtech) venturing into the KSA market among others. Several other successful connections were also made to enable members growth such as connecting members (Biosolvit, Ecoloo, Wahaj, Desolenator, and Alesca Life) to Masdar City (a sustainable urban community and a world-class business free zone and technology hub) where they received free office space and licensing to start operations. Also connecting Sav to the Knowledge and Human Resources Authority for a roll out of a fintech learning program for school students.