Savour: Everything Food, the Middle East’s first food vertical Accelerator for startups, announces applications open for their 2018 cohort after a successful inaugural run the previous year. Savour is powered by Creative Startups, a leading global creative accelerator whose alumni have raised $47.5 million in investment and $20 million in revenue since 2014.
Building on the Middle East’s burgeoning and innovative culinary ecosystem, Savour strategically partners with early-stage companies from across the food supply chain, from agriculture tech to consumer packaged goods, to rapidly accelerate startup growth. Selected entrepreneurs will participate in Creative Startups and Savour’s rigorous 8-week program, and receive $50k in investment, space at the Savour co-working facility in Kuwait City, and access to workshops with a world-class network of leading food & beverage founders, investors, mentors, and press.
Rashid Sultan, Savour founder and Senior Partner of the Kuwait-based private equity firm Messilah Ventures, stated that Savour aims to both scales the next generation of food startups and bolster the Gulf nation’s role as a hub for culinary innovation. According to Sultan, “by focusing on one of Kuwait’s exportable competitive advantages – food – Messilah Ventures hopes to enrich the startup ecosystem in the Gulf by assisting startups to face everyday challenges with confidence and move successfully onto the next stage of business growth.” For startups in the food & beverage industry, Kuwait is a hotbed of activity, as the country aims to be the world’s food capital by 2030, and the sector deal value for the f&b industry in the MENA region exceeded $3.4 billion in 2016. Savour and participating startups are well poised to play a key role in shifting the Gulf nation’s culinary economy. Notable Savour alumni include Solo Tacos, a rapidly expanding restaurant brand with locations in Kuwait and Oman, and PantryBee, second runner-up at the 2017 ArabNet Startup Battle.
Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Creative Startups launched their Accelerator in 2014 and has steadily grown their reputation as experts in building entrepreneurial ecosystems, educating and activating entrepreneurs, and generating jobs and scalable economic impact for creative companies.
Interested startups can apply online for the 2018 Savour cohort with Creative Startups now through July 15th. Application and program information can be found at http://savour.ventures/ or http://www.creativestartups.org/kuwait