GrowthIQ joins the MBRIF Innovation Accelerator

We are delighted to announce that GrowthIQ has been selected for Cohort 12 of the MBRIF Innovation Accelerator, the programme run by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (opens in a new tab), an initiative of the UAE Ministry of Finance. Seventeen companies were chosen. GrowthIQ is one of them.

This is a proud moment for the team, and the company we now keep says why. The programme has backed around 220 businesses since 2018. Those companies have gone on to raise more than AED 3 billion in external funding and create over 1,500 jobs across the UAE. Joining that group is a strong endorsement of the problem we picked and the way we are solving it.

It arrives at exactly the right moment. GiQ Match is live. Lender policies are codified. The engine runs today. What compounds from here is reach, and reach is precisely what a national network delivers.

What the MBRIF Innovation Accelerator brings

The Accelerator is the flagship non-financial programme of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, launched in 2018 under the UAE Ministry of Finance. Members get tailored guidance on the things that decide whether a young company scales: business model, corporate planning, market access, hiring and financial strategy. The programme carries the cost. Members pay nothing.

Cohort 12 spans AI, healthtech, sustainability, water, education, advanced manufacturing, accessibility and digital infrastructure. Seventeen companies, drawn from the UAE and international markets. Credit infrastructure belongs in that company: every sector on that list is built by businesses that need financing to grow, and most of them are exactly the size this market has underserved.

Definition: MBRIF Innovation Accelerator

A UAE Ministry of Finance programme that gives selected high-potential companies mentoring, market access and business support. Membership is a company credential, earned on the strength of the business.

Why credit infrastructure, and why now

Ambitious UAE businesses deserve a faster route to capital. Today many still apply to one lender, wait, then start again somewhere else with the same documents. We built GrowthIQ to give them something better.

One application, scored against every lender policy on the network, routed to the lenders whose written criteria the business already meets. The SME does the work once. The platform does the rest.

That is the shape of company the Accelerator exists to back. A UAE solution to a UAE problem, built to scale here. GiQ Match is live today. GiQ Pulse is close behind.

And it works today. A business can answer five questions on our homepage and get a straight answer on whether its file is worth putting to lenders, in about a minute, with no credit check and no documents. Behind those five questions sit codified lender policies and a live matching engine.

What this means for UAE SMEs

More reach. A sharper product. A company built to last.

• A wider lender network. Market access is the Accelerator’s core offer, and more lenders on the platform means more routes to a yes.
• A sharper product. Mentoring on strategy and scale flows straight into build priorities, which shows up for you as faster turnaround and cleaner matching.
• A company built for the long term. When you hand over a financing application you are trusting the company holding it. Selection by a national programme is one more reason to.

How the credential works

Worth being precise here, because the precision protects you. MBRIF runs two distinct things. The Innovation Accelerator is the mentoring and market access programme GrowthIQ has joined. The Fund separately operates a government guarantee scheme.

GrowthIQ’s membership is a credential for GrowthIQ: guidance, network and market access, earned on the strength of the business. Your financing is decided by a lender, under that lender’s own credit policy, on the merits of your file. GrowthIQ matches you to the lenders you fit. The lender approves the facility and provides the funds.

What comes next

More lenders codified onto the network. GiQ Pulse into production, so bank statements become lender-ready analytics in minutes. Then Passport and Rails, so an SME’s verified credit identity travels with it from one application to the next.

The UAE is working to get more good SMEs funded. So are we. Inside the Accelerator we build alongside the people building the same economy, at the point where that access is worth the most.

Run a UAE business weighing up working capital, an invoice gap, stock for a large order or funding for growth? Check your eligibility in about a minute. Five questions, a straight answer, no credit check.