New Cities Foundation, Oasis500 launch $30,000 start-up competition

 New Cities Foundation and Oasis500 have announced the launch of Omraan in India, a global competition for tech start-ups and innovators rewarding the best urban technology ideas with $30,000 worth of seed funding and a 100-day acceleration program in Amman, Jordan.
Omraan, meaning “building” in Arabic, is a unique initiative aimed at identifying and rewarding aspiring Indian entrepreneurs who are developing promising technologies that tackle urban challenges, with a particular relevance to urban environments in the Middle East. Through a combination of seed funding and acceleration, Omraan’s mission is to nurture the most creative and forward-thinking technology startups from across the globe, and develop their ideas into concrete projects that solve challenges facing all cities.
Indian technology startups and innovators are invited to apply whereas applicants will have to submit a brief statement explaining their idea followed by a detailed presentation. In order to qualify, start-ups must provide technological solutions to urban problems through mobile, web, cloud, ecommerce, gaming, entertainment, enterprise software, digital news, digital advertising, and social networks. The contest will be divided into two batches with winners of the first batch announced in early October 2014 and second in February 2015 respectively.
For qualifying start-ups, the $30,000 seed investment funding consists of a $12,000 cash investment along with $17,000 in in-kind services through Oasis500’s acceleration and incubation program.

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