Orange Corners Baghdad Celebrates the Graduation of the 4th Cohort’s Startups
On the 19th of May, Orange Corners Baghdad held a graduation ceremony for the startups graduating of its 4th cohort.
In KAPITA’s headquarters in Baghdad Al-Mansour, we were joined by a number of guests of honor to celebrate the successful end of the fourth cohort after the start of the program in September.
In celebration of the tremendous work and development the startups have achieved in their journey with our program, we will share with you highlights of the event and the words of our valued guests:
- His excellency, Mr. Michel Rentenaar, The Kingdom of the Netherlands Ambassador
- Mr. Omar Faleh, Director of Communications and Public Relations at Asiacell
- Mujahed Waisi, Founder of KAPITA and OC Baghdad Program Manager
- (Virtually) Raisa van Eijndhoven, Youth employment Advisor Orange Corners Africa & Middle East
We were very honored to host his excellency, Mr. Michel Rentenaar, The Kingdom of the Netherlands Ambassador, at the graduation ceremony for the fourth cohort of Orange Corners Baghdad.
The ceremony began, with a congratulatory speech by Mr. Michel Rentenaar, The Ambassador of The Kingdom of the Netherlands, for the graduated startups of the 4th cohort of the Orange Corners Program.
His Excellency mentioned: “Most of your ideas are not only business but they help tackle social problems. Diverse economy free of corruption is what we want and what you want.”
Mr. Michel also expressed his bride and hopefulness in the upcoming graduates of the 4th cohort.
We thank the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy for their impactful role in supporting our incubation program, Orange Corners Baghdad in KAPITA.
Continuing on with the event, Mr. Mujahed Waisi, Founder of KAPITA and OC Baghdad Program Manager, gave a word to the graduates of cohort 4. He mentioned: ”It’s true that you just finished 6 months of training, but the journey doesn’t end here. To build your own company, you need to take risks.”
“One important piece of advice I’d like to give is to keep working on yourself. Explore the market and always remember to do market research.”
Next, we were joined by Mr. Omar Falih – Director of Communications and Public Relations at Asiacell to present his word.
Mr. Omar spoke on behalf of Asiacell and said:” I’ve been in this position many times, and each time I get more inspired by all the success stories. Asiacell’s goal is to support the Iraqi youth and to empower the ecosystem.“
Mr. Omar ended his word by congratulating the graduates, wishing them success.
Ms. Raisa van Eijndhoven – Youth employment Advisor of Orange Corners Africa & Middle East then sent a video clip to congratulate the startups, Ms. Raisa said in her speech: “At Orange Corners we stand for entrepreneurship, we breathe it, we get up every morning to support entrepreneurs but what is it really? What defines it? I think it can be hard to answer that really because it's a personal journey for everyone. But what does this journey have in common? Is that all entrepreneurs are pursuing a road that is insecure. So entrepreneurship is about not giving up even though the road in front of you is not very clear. It's also about being innovative to design a new product or service that nobody thought about. It's a lot about being flexible and learning from your mistakes. All this is part of entrepreneurship and what it really does in my opinion is building character because if you can build a business you can do anything!.
Last but not least, the graduates took part in sharing some words to the audience about their startups and the journey they experienced in the program. How much did the program help shape their business and what were the best lessons they’ve learned.
We concluded the Orange Corners Graduation Ceremony by handing over certificates. His Excellency Michael Rentnaar, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, presented graduation certificates to the participants of the Orange Corners Baghdad Incubation Program.
This will not be the end for the graduates or the program as the new cohort is about to begin and continuous services and mentoring will be handled to the graduates of any previous cohort.
About Orange Corners Baghdad:
Orange Corner’s Baghdad is an initiative of the Dutch Embassy in Baghdad. The economic priorities of the Netherlands in Iraq are agriculture, water and entrepreneurship. KAPITA supports the community of young entrepreneurs in Baghdad by building youth capacity, and developing successful businesses. We incubate 20 startups for six months: starting with providing a co-working space, training and developing their business, events and masterclasses, a positive environment and an opportunity for investment.