Bahraini Entrepreneurs Share Their Experiences with Students UoB’s Business Incubator Discusses the Basics of Financing and Expanding the Scope of Startups

Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Khadijah Abdusalem)

8 May 2023

The Business Incubation Center at the University of Bahrain (UoB) recently hosted Kawthar Hammadi, Director of Finance and Investment at Tenmou, and Ali Al Alawi, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Unipal, to introduce students to the importance of managing financial affairs for startups, and how to expand the scope of work in startups, and the event was attended by a number University students from various colleges.

In an online seminar titled “Finance 101 for Startups”, Al-Hammadi reviewed the importance of students coming to the field of business to acquire a practical background in finance, the need to seek financial advice from experts before starting to establish a startup, and some tips for applying value-added tax. Noting the importance of accounting and financial management, controlling the estimated costs of starting a business, in addition to the types of financing, forming a business plan, creating a budget, and managing the financial affairs of the startup.

While Al-Alawi presented a lecture titled “Scaling your Business”, which was attended by more than 150 students from the Department of Management and Marketing at the College of Business Administration and from various colleges of the University, in which he discussed how to increase the product or service market share, with the need to form strategic partnerships and assess potential risks. Stressing that the process of expanding the scope of work is a continuous process for every startup, referring to his experience in developing Unipal and moving it from the local market to the global one.

For her part, the Director of the Business Incubation Center, Dr. Israa Ahmed Wali, confirmed that the Center is constantly working to provide students and graduates with various resources and services, such as: workspace, training workshops, and counseling sessions, to develop their business to the fullest, through pre-incubation services that are provided by the Center, as well as its incubation of innovative projects.