TIIB opens an AED 2 million fund for student startups

TIIB has committed AED 2 million to a fund that invests in businesses started by its own students. It is open to students on any programme, and it is not a competition with one winner.

How it works

You submit a proposal: what the business is, who it is for, and why it would work. A panel of investors, mentors and industry people assesses it on originality, feasibility, scalability and whether it solves something real.

Selected founders get capital from the fund, and they get the part that usually matters more. Mentors who have built companies sit with them through the stages that kill most young businesses: validating the idea, getting a first version made, finding the first paying customers, and working out which growth channel is worth the money.

Supported ventures then get shown. They pitch at TIIB events, meet investors, and get introduced to the partner network.

Why a fund and not a prize

A prize pays out once and then the winner is on their own. The fund is structured as a support system, because the failure point for a student business is rarely the initial money. It is the six months afterwards, when the founder has a product nobody has bought yet and no one experienced to ask.

Access to workspace, technical help and investor introductions costs the institute very little and changes the odds considerably.

Who it is for

Any TIIB student with an idea they are willing to defend in front of people who will ask hard questions. You do not need a finished product, and you do not need to be on the entrepreneurship programme, although that programme is built around exactly this kind of work.