Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, is returning to Bahrain on December 15, 2016 to host Seedstars MENA Regional Summit at CH9 Hub in Manama. The event will be gathering regional entrepreneurs, investors, startup enthusiasts, and ecosystem builders around a competition with keynote speeches and discussion panels.

The event is split into two parts: a 2-day bootcamp on December 13-14, and a 1-day conference on December 15.

The participants are Seedstars winners from their respective countries, and following the MENA Regional Summit, they will be travelling to the Global Summit in Switzerland on April 6, 2017, to represent the region as they compete against 65 startup winners from around the world for investments and prizes worth over $500K.

The bootcamp (only for selected entrepreneurs) will have a host of theoretical and hands-on workshops focusing on Growth Machine & KPI, analytics, along with expert discussions on "Closing Series A investments" and "Inbound Marketing."

The conference (open for the public) will showcase success stories from entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled, while looking at the elements that hinder the growth of MENA startups to scale and compete on a global level. There will be an international jury panel, speakers, and mentors including Max Gurvits of Cross Border Angels, Samir Abdelkrim, founder and editor of StartupBRICS, Ahmad Sufian Bayram, regional manager MEA at Techstars, Sharif El-Badawi, partner at 500Startups.

In addition, this year’s program will give entrepreneurs the opportunity to be selected for the Seedstars Growth program, a seed investment that comes together with a 4 month acceleration program for early stage startups.

The basic criteria for applicants stipulates that the seed-stage startups have less than $500K raised, that it has been less than two years since the startup was founded, and that an MVP (minimum viable product) exists. Seedstars World looks for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.

For more information on the program and registration, visit here.