The recently-launched Oman’s Melad platform has gained enormous popularity for less than a week. More than 170 investors have expressed their interest in investing OMR 2 million.
Established by the Omani entrepreneur Saif Ahmed Saif Al Manji, the goal of this project is to bring together entrepreneurs with investors and consultants. Some of the entrepreneurs have time but no starting capital, so they would meet with angel investors. Others, who have the money but have no time to research the investment options by themselves, would connect with consultants to meet each other and discuss the opportunities to reduce unemployment among Omani youth through entrepreneurship. During the first two days, 390 entrepreneurs and 96 consultants have already registered on the platform.
The mastermind behind the idea, Saif Ahmed Saif Al Manji commented that he was surprised by the huge interest in the initiative. It was re-tweeted hundreds of times to reach more people, he added. The entrepreneur also expressed his gratitude to the government authorities who reached him after the launch of the initiative to show their willingness to support the program.
Al Manji confirmed his main goal was to bring back to the job market the unemployed Omani young people. He believed that the consultants could help them with legal and technical advice, as well as with the marketing campaigns and pitching of investors.
The investors who took part in the initiative had to fill in a form mentioning the desired amount to invest. The initial threshold was OMR 1,000, and it could reach more than OMR 100,000. When asked about his reasons to create Melad, Al Manji said that instead of constantly complaining about the problems our society has, we need to stand up and offer solutions.
One of the registered investors, Ahmed Salim Al Siyabi commented that he joined the initiative because he believed in the potential of Omani’s youth. When given opportunities to work something they like, they could be creative, concluded Al Siyabi.