16•Article

Irada: A United Front of Iraq’s Entrepreneurial Enablers

Ali HilliOctober 3, 202510 min read

Article Summary

Irada is unifying Iraq’s startup “enablers” into a single, 5-stage pipeline—from Discovery to Funding—linking 10 hubs across 5 cities, bridging startups with regulators (CMC), and improving access to angels and VCs. Early wins include GEW coordination, the nationwide “Raqami” digital-literacy push (with Zain, GIZ, Cisco), and investor visits that led to funding. Next up: a WSA 2025 drive, sustainable funding models, and a potential Techstars program. Read the feature for how this coalition aims to scale Iraqi founders faster.

Irada: A United Front of Iraq’s Entrepreneurial Enablers

Ali Hilli

Ecosystem Integration Affairs, Irada

Demand VP, Miswag

Introduction

In the past ten years, Iraq's Entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved in multiple domains. This evolution produced a layer of entities that function as a bridge between young Iraqi talents and the business realm. Today, we call them “Enablers.” For some years, these entities acted individually. Their different programs focused on skill development for individuals, hackathons that helped groups introduce a business or startup concept, and mentorship and incubation programs that helped these concepts grow into real businesses. However, those efforts remained fragmented as many enablers ran similar programs in silos, often targeting the same pool of founders and startups. This results in repetition instead of creating a growth funnel for the ecosystem, where it becomes common to see the same startups across similar programs run by different enablers.

The ecosystem needed collaboration and coordination, unifying the enablers’ efforts to create a functional, coherent pipeline of startups/SMEs promotion. This would also provide them with a platform for a collective rally to amplify their voices, for startups to scale, and for enablers to have a lasting, tangible impact. A research mapping conducted by KAPITA in 2022, Mapping the Iraqi Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Growth Domains, Involved Actors, and Leading Programs, reflected this void. Therefore, the Irada Foundation was established.

What Is Irada, and What Is its Role?

Irada Foundation is an Iraqi NGO that fosters collaboration between entrepreneurship support hubs, the government, and international entities. It promotes and coordinates efforts to strengthen the Iraqi entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Irada, in its current form, represents the interests of 10 different enablers. The Station, KAPITA, Hub200, Makers of Baghdad, Aswar Academy, 51Labs, Qaf Lab, Mosul Space, Rwanga Foundation, and Tafa3ul Hub. Having a presence in 5 different Iraqi cities through its network of member enablers.

Irada focuses on the following:

Establishing a collaboration platform between enablers. First, by producing a common language and a framework to facilitate communication between them, the current startup/SME lifecycle is divided into 5 different phases: (Discovery, Mastery, Launch, Growth, and Funding). Second, by providing alignments and building synergies between them in addition to representing them collectively in the public domain in front of the iNGO, the private sector, and government entities.
Building a bridge between startups/SMEs/enablers and the regulation side of the government to exchange ideas and consult over proposed policies and regulations.
Enhancing access to the finance environment through connecting startups/SMEs/enablers with the region’s possible access to venture capital (VCs) and other finance entities. In addition to providing a domain for Angel Investors and local VCs to interact with the region and learn about best practices to invest in local businesses.
Sensitization for startups, SMEs, and enablers by interacting with regional and global entrepreneurial congresses and public events that may provide a different and fresh perspective to examine things in the local context.

The Startups Promotion Pipeline

The pipeline consists of 5 different phases explained below:

Discovery: This phase is an introductory phase for any sort of pipeline. If it targets forming SMEs, it covers helping individuals discover the basics of starting a business. If it focuses on building communities, it represents the discovery of a group of individuals who can form and establish a community. Examples of this phase are UniTech by Hub200 and The Metro by The Station.
Mastery: This phase represents sharpening the outputs of the first phase in different domains of interest, regardless of being individuals, communities, or any other segment. Good examples of this phase are: The Academy by The Station, Mahara & Khibrat Programs by Makers of Baghdad, and the CS50 program by Hub200.
Launch: This phase represents the platforms where individuals and/or groups can launch their ventures and businesses. Good examples for this phase are: LunchPad by hub200, Climathon by Makers of Baghdad, and Orange Corners by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, executed by 51Labs in Erbil and KAPITA in Baghdad.
Growth: This phase represents supporting the launched entities moving along a growth stage. Good examples for this phase are: CoGrowth by The Station, Scale up Academy by KAPITA, Edara by Makers of Baghdad, and the Accelerator program by 51Labs.
Funding: This phase involves actions and activities for different entities to acquire access to new funding. Good examples of this phase are the Shabana program by KAPITA and the National Bank of Iraq‎ (NBI).

Irada’s Success Interactions and Initiatives

GEW 2023 and 2024: Even prior to its official registration, Irada played a role in coordinating efforts in the Global Entrepreneurship Week between its member partners to align and execute different activities in the past two years.
National Awareness (Raqami): In Partnership with Zain Iraq, Communications and Media Commission (CMC), GIZ and Cisco, Irada is launching Raqami platform on social media to promote digital literacy across the nation as a means to educate people about the digital realm and contribute to the government digital transformation strategies and actions.
Policies and Regulations: Irada maintains a bridge with the CMC for an open dialogue regarding different planned regulations and coordinates efforts to support the government with inputs from the ground through its network of startups, experts, and entities in various fields.
Regional Visitors: Irada coordinated the visits of both Flat6Labs to Baghdad in 2024, which resulted in them investing in Andalusi, a graphic design application to facilitate digital content design with access to hundreds of templates, and the visit of Endeavor to Baghdad in February 2025.

Irada’s Upcoming Initiatives and Future Moves

Sensitization: In partnership with Zain and GIZ, Irada is coordinating a participation for a 19-person delegation from Iraq to attend the next WSA Global Congress in Hyderabad, India, in April to connect with the global network of WSA experts coming from all United Nations member states.
Business Development: As international funding is being cut around the world, Iraq is included. Enablers need to rethink their programs’ dependence on donor aid. Building sustainable financial models has become more urgent than ever for the survival of the Iraqi ecosystem.

Irada is currently helping some enablers in building more effective internal financial structures in addition to supporting the building of business cases for partnerships with the private sector for sustainable funding that produces win-win scenarios and creates synergies between the private sector and entities.

World Summit Awards 2025: Irada is aligning with WSA for 2025 to call for applications to educate and empower more startups to apply for this international awarding system. The World Summit Awards (WSA) is a global initiative operating under the mandate of the United Nations, recognizing digital innovations that create social impact. Each year, 40 winners are selected across 8 categories through a multi-stage evaluation process by international jurors. By facilitating access to WSA, Irada is helping local startups gain global visibility, connect with international networks, and showcase Iraq’s innovation potential on an international stage.
Techstars Collaboration: Irada is in talks with Techstars about introducing Techstars SCP in Iraq.

Current Internal Team

Irada Foundation currently involves the following members: