At least 25 new startups will be incubated by the Digital Incubation Centre (DIC) under the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), which has invested QR4.7mn in 2018 for the development of various startups in the country.
This was revealed by A/Digital Incubation Centre manager, Duha Ali al-Buhendi, during a ceremony held in the presence of HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti at the DIC headquarters in West Bay yesterday.
Speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the event, al-Buhendi said the QR4.7mn invested by the DIC on local startups included initial investments from Qatar Development Bank (QDB), Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), and angel investors.
“We are delighted to host 25 new innovations in the incubator programme, bringing the total number of startups currently incubated in the centre to 58 startups, of which 12 are growing,” she said.
Aside from the 25 new startups, which participated in ‘2018 IdeaCamp 2’, al-Buhendi also announced that nine companies had completed their incubation from the DIC in 2018, bringing the total number of companies that graduated from DIC to 36 startups. 
In a presentation, al-Buhendi said the DIC-incubated businesses were able to provide 203 jobs in 2018. Since its establishment, DIC was able to offer a total of 402 employment opportunities through its incubator companies, she continued.
On services offered in 2018, al-Buhendi said DIC provided 16 training courses for entrepreneurs and startups, including business courses and technological courses. 
“The number of entrepreneurs who gained from the training courses was 237, bringing the total number of entrepreneurs benefiting from our services to 1,162 entrepreneurs since 2013,” she pointed out.
On IdeaCamp, al-Buhendi said DIC appointed a panel of judges from Qatar University and the Education City for the selection process for startups and for the assessment of emerging companies and ideas for incubation.
The criteria for judging include the degree of innovation, assessment of technology used, feasibility of the idea, scalability, feasibility, and evolution plan, as well as other standards.
She said DIC received 280 applications for IdeaCamp after it was opened for registration, of which the top 150 creative ideas were selected. After five weeks to develop their ideas, the best 30 qualified teams were selected to present their project ideas to the jury for a chance to be incubated at the DIC.