DP World backed Turn8 is seeking innovative technology ideas for the next round of its seed accelerator programme.

Individuals and teams can pitch their innovative ideas or early stage businesses at a number of events scheduled in Middle East and North Africa (Mena), and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, said a statement.

Ideas can also be submitted online, it said.

This will be the fifth round of investment made by the Turn8 programme, which educates, mentors and provides seed funding for new technology startups from around the world.

The previous rounds included investments in the areas of mobile applications, online portals, video games, hardware innovations, retail endeavours, marketing, event management, education and logistics.

Turn8’s upcoming events for new hopefuls includes a couple two-day hackathons in Dubai on May 1 and 2, focused on web and mobile technology, and again on June 24 and 25, focused on gaming technology.

Other events are scheduled to take place in Morocco, Kuwait, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Albania, Ghana and Spain.

At each event, participants will be given a short time to present their idea to the audience and the Turn8 selection panel.

The teams then spend time honing their idea and pitch, followed by a second presentation to the audience.

The winning teams will be invited to take part in Round 5 of Turn8. If accepted, they will travel to Dubai for four months where they will receive mentoring to shape their business idea, training in the basics of launching and running a business, and $30,000 each in seed funding.

Kamal Hassan, Turn8 programme director, said: “We have had tremendous ideas come through here in the last year and a half, some very clever ones that are now making waves in the ‘real’ world. I’d personally like to see more in the areas robotics, the internet of things, healthcare, and business to business automation. These are needed in the market.” - TradeArabia News Service