IM Capital management attended the 3-day event organized by the USAID Middle East Bureau in Dubai, as well as 3 of IM Capital portfolio companies, namely Kamkalima (co-founder Siroun Shamigian), MAD (co-founder Lise Yaacoub) and Atelier du Miel (co-founder Ralph Abou-Nassif). The three-days were devoted to exploring approaches to financing and investing in small and medium enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa. The first day’s discussions were about the current status and future planning for the Middle East and North Africa Investment Initiative, and the remaining two-days dedicated to exploring the Revenue Capital Finance model as a means to finance early-stage enterprises that require an alternative to traditional venture capital/private equity or banking models. May 22 – MENA II Annual Meeting: The first day of this event brought together implementers of the investment initiative and USAID counterparts from across the region to share progress of the past year and chart new objectives for 2017-2018. Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, General Manager of IM Capital, was co-facilitator of the sessions, and presented the Lebanon MENA-II milestones achieved, successes and barriers experienced, as well as the current investment strategy and operational structure utilized under MENA II, and how the strategy has evolved since inception and provided an update on their current portfolio and investment strategies. Then, the 3 portfolio entrepreneurs presented their experience as direct beneficiaries of the initiative including how they became aware of the initiative, built a relationship with IM Capital and navigated the due diligence process. Entrepreneurs also discussed the impacts that financing and/or technical assistance has had on their business to date. May 23-24 – MENA Revenue Capital Finance Workshop: The first day of the workshop outlined the significant financial instrument gap revenue capital seeks to minimize, the basic structure of the revenue capital model and welcome Fund Managers and small and medium enterprises currently leveraging revenue capital finance, digging in revenue capital fund structures in greater detail and outline key factors to consider in revenue capital such as legal barriers and technical assistance. Dr. Rouhana was a panelist during the second day in the session: “A Key to Success: The Role of Technical Assistance”, highlighting the various types of technical assistance that are put in place by IM Capital in addition to the financing schemes to support the success of SMEs before, during or after they receive financing. May 24, 5-7PM – Lebanese Diaspora Meeting: IM Capital seized the Dubai visit to tap into the Lebanese diaspora in Dubai entrepreneurial eco-system, and invited a selected few to a closed session to present MENA-II Lebanon program, develop synergies, structure a C-suite diaspora support for Lebanese entrepreneurs, grow the angel investor group/fund, etc., all followed by a networking cocktail with USAID representatives. It was attended by around 20 Lebanese stakeholders to come up with ideas that would be bilateral between Dubai & Beirut. The exchanges were very productive and lots of interesting thoughts came out to build upon to come up with further engagement with the diaspora. May 25: Visit of Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Center (Dtech): IM Capital team visited the Dtech center (part of Dubai Silicon Oasis), which is already a partner of Berytech (Lebanon MENA-II grantee) to come up with ways to attract Lebanese startups and get them immersed in the Dubai eco-system.