FAQs
To be eligible for support under this program, you must meet the following criteria:
Be a company legally registered, and operating out of the West Bank and Gaza; or in the process of legal registration; or committed to register with Ministry of National Economy
Firms are IT services companies and business service providers working in the technology field in software development, computer programming and consultancy, data processing, hosting or related activities, or mature tech / tech-enabled startups1 that have some traction in the market and are already generating revenues.
Be operational for at least 6 months prior to applying to the program. A company is considered operational if it engages in activities on a daily basis to increase the value of the enterprise, has existing customers, or has employment contracts and paying salaries
Projects have minimal or non-existent environmental impacts.
After potential beneficiary firms have passed the initial eligibility criteria, further evaluation of their applications, based on selection criteria, will be conducted to decide if they are admitted to or rejected from the program.
Please refer to each window’s specific selection criteria.
After potential beneficiary firms have passed the initial eligibility criteria, further evaluation of their applications, based on selection criteria, will be conducted to decide if they are admitted to or rejected from the program.
Student Internships Stipend Window Selection Criteria
1. Firms should provide evidence they have growth potential and a commercially sound business plan, including company vision, workforce expansion plan and can showcase the use of the student intern in their business development activities.
2. The company has experienced and complementary leadership and a management team with the right skills and personal strengths to succeed in the market.
3. Firms should have a solid and targeted training/ internship plan and scope of work for student-interns; students must be in their final two years at university planning to graduate with an IT related degree to qualify.
4. Firm should provide the list of proposed student interns that passed the company interview.
5. The position(s) requested is/are aligned with the specific skills/ technologies.
*Student interns shall not be an immediate family member for the owner/manager or an immediate family member for the spouse of the owner/manager of the IT firm. Immediate family members include spouse, child, niece/nephew, parent, siblings, grandchild, in-laws.
Train-to-Hire Stipend Window Selection Criteria
Firms should provide evidence they have growth potential and a commercially sound business plan, including company vision, workforce expansion plan and can showcase the use of the trainees in their business development activities.
The company has experienced and complementary leadership and a management team with the right skills and personal strengths
Firms should have a solid and targeted training plan and scope of work for the trainees.
Firms should provide the list of proposed trainees that passed the company interview; trainees need to be new hires without a current local full-time job
The position(s) requested is/ are aligned with the listed skills/ technologies
*Trainees shall not be an immediate family member for the owner/manager or an immediate family member for the spouse of the owner/manager of the IT firm - immediate family members include spouse, child, niece/nephew, sibling, grandchild, in-laws.
On-the-job Training Stipend Window Selection Criteria
1. Firms should provide evidence that they have growth potential and a commercially sound business plan, including company vision, workforce expansion plan and can showcase the use of the resource in their business development activities.
2. The company has experienced and complementary leadership and a management team with the right skills and personal strengths to succeed in the market.
3. Firms applying must have a Letter of Intent (LOI) or similar from the international client stating the need for number of trainees and the skills that they will be trained.
4. Firms must show evidence (as part of the LOI) that the proposed trainees specified in their application have been approved by the international client; trainees need to be new hires without a current local full-time job.
5. Firms should present a brief plan mutually agreed with the international client for the scope of the assignment, the specific technology required, the number of trainees and the duration of the assignment/ training.
6. The position(s) requested is aligned with specific skills/ technologies.
*Trainees shall not be an immediate family member for the owner/manager or an immediate family member for the spouse of the owner/manager of the IT firm - immediate family members include spouse, child, niece/nephew, sibling, grandchild, in-laws.
Expatriates & DiasporaStipend Window Selection Criteria
Firms should provide evidence they have growth potential and a commercially sound business plan, that they have plans for business expansion, workforce expansion plan and can showcase the use of the stipend windows in their business development activities.
Firms have experienced and complementary leadership and a management team with the right skills and personal strengths
Firms should present a brief diagnosis of existing technological gaps and a credible plan for the utilization of the expatriate staff to address those gaps to help the firm upgrade the workforce capability, processes, and product development and contribute to the growth potential of the firm.
Firms should clearly define the role and scope of work for the expatriate, including clear KPIs during the contract, proposed duration of the contract with the expatriate, and present the technological experience and / or leadership skills that the expatriate has in order to fulfill that specific role.
Firms should submit a clear handover / knowledge transfer plan from the expatriate to a local resource that will replace the expatriate once the assignment period is over
.
*Expatriates shall not be an immediate family member for the owner/manager or an immediate family member for the spouse of the owner/manager of the IT firm - immediate family members include spouse, child, niece/nephew, sibling, grandchild, in-laws.
Applications will be processed on a rolling basis and evaluated based on eligibility and selection criteria. After potential beneficiary firms have passed the initial eligibility criteria, further evaluation of their applications, based on selection criteria, will be conducted to decide if they are admitted to or rejected from the program.
*Please refer to each window specific eligibility and selection criteria.
>The applicant firms may be asked to revise or provide additional information to their application by DAI representatives.
>Applicants are solely responsible for all relevant required documents to be uploaded in the appropriate sections of online portal.
*Failing to satisfy any of the above requirements can lead to the application being rejected.
If your questions or concerns are not answered in the FAQs or the Overview sections of the program, please navigate through Contact Us section or contact us by email at:
Local and foreign IT companies/ entrepreneurs that are in the process of establishing new IT companies/ branches/ subsidiaries and operations in West Bank and Gaza, including mature tech and tech enabled start-ups. Firms are considered mature tech or tech enabled start-ups if they can prove traction / demand in the market and are generating revenues. IT services provided may include software publishing, computer programming, consultancy, data processing, hosting, HR IT and training, or related activities.
*All companies must comply with the guidelines of TechStart’s Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF).
Companies can apply to benefit from the grants they need under the PIONEER Program. Each applicant will be evaluated based on the general eligibility criteria, in addition to the specific selection criteria for each grant window that they apply for.
Firm Eligibility Criteria:
Each applicant applying to this program must meet all the following eligibility criteria to be considered for further evaluation:
Selection Criteria
After potential Beneficiaries pass the initial eligibility criteria, to be admitted in the specific program windows, an evaluation of their application against the selection criteria will be conducted for each window they applied to:
“New IT services operations” Selection Criteria
1. Applicants, firms, or individual entrepreneurs, need to demonstrate a track record of at least three years of cumulative experience providing the relevant services on a commercial basis to local or international clients.
2. The applicants must provide a Business Plan that will include comprehensive information about the business model, market analysis, proposed organization and management, marketing plan, financial model and growth potential.
“Establishing New IT Training service providers” Selection Criteria
1. Applicants need to provide a Business Plan that will include comprehensive information about a commercially suitable business and financial model, market analysis, proposed organization and management, marketing plan, and growth potential.
2. Applicants (or their international partners) will need to demonstrate that they already have international presence and a global track record of getting trainees in technology fields employed by local or international companies.
3. Applicants will need to provide a comprehensive training plan for 1st year of operations, that include an in-person training and/or a hybrid module of online and in-person (training plans relying 1 Firms are considered mature tech or tech enabled startups if they can prove traction / demand in the market and are generating revenues only on online modules will not be considered). The training plans should also include information about full/part time trainers and curriculum provided.
4. IT training service providers need to provide training in medium and advanced value-added services/ technologies.
“New HR service providers for IT sector” Selection Criteria
1. Applicants need to provide a Business Plan that will include comprehensive information about a commercially suitable business and financial model, market analysis, proposed organization and management, marketing plan, and growth potential.
2. HR service providers will need to demonstrate that they have modern HR IT recruitment best practices, technology, databases, psychological selection tools, or candidate management practices to bring them to the Palestinian market.
3. Applicants need to demonstrate that they have a track record of streamlining applicants and recruiting IT employees for the IT sector internationally.
“Upgrading IT business infrastructure” Selection Criteria
1. Applicants need to provide a Business Plan that will include comprehensive information about the business model, market analysis, proposed organization and management, marketing plan, financial model, and growth potential.
2. Beneficiary firms will need to demonstrate in their proposals that their ability to fulfil client demands is affected by under resourced business infrastructure capacity.
* Only existing firms can apply for this grant; newly established firms which benefited from the other seed grants of the PIONEER program/ windows will be eligible to apply for basic infrastructure grant only after one year of operations, based on demonstrated business needs to scale.
While completing the online application, applicants should consider the following:
1. All information provided in the application must be true and accurate.
2. All applications, including information and documentation, must be submitted in English. Documentation such as: lease agreements, employment contracts, company registrations, tax files, and other government-issued documents are acceptable in Arabic.
3. Only applications submitted via the program’s online portal will be considered.
4. All application supporting material must be uploaded to the relevant section of the online portal (no hard copies will be accepted).
5. Only complete applications that have all required supporting documents will be considered for selection.
6. Uploaded Documents:
What is meant by target threshold in the New IT Training Service Providers Window?
The funding in this window will support the cost of the trainings based on results, during a maximum two-year launch period. Results will include a mix of outputs and outcomes, as detailed below:
a. 80% of the training cost will be based on the actual number of trainees who benefited from the training provided against the planned number; the amount will be disbursed according to the grant agreement.
b. 10% of the training cost will be disbursed based on the number of trainees who secured employment in the six months following the training and for a period of at least six months.
c. The remaining 10% will be disbursed based on the number of women who gained employment in a six-month period following the training. Note: Achieving 75% percent of the agreed target for employment (points 1and 2) will entitle the applicant to get a full reimbursement of the remaining 10% percentage/training costs. Achieving less than 75% will be calculated based on the actual percentage scored.
Please Check the following link for more info
https://www.techstart.ps/en/Article/126/Grant-window-2-New-IT-training-service-providers
The company can apply if it meets the grant's eligibility and selection requirements and is getting in partnership/collaboration with an international training service provider that already has a validated business model and an international track record of getting trainees employed by international companies. The company needs to provide commitment letters/MOUs/evidence to ensure that the training is provided for the benefit of the IT sector as a whole and not specific companies. Will companies receive financial coverage by TechStart only after meeting the desired training goals or is it possible to get the grant before then? The grant window supports two types of costs financially:
Is the company still eligible if it provides trainings in different fields besides IT?
Any training company that is specialized in providing Mid/ High technology trainings as its main line of business can apply to the Pioneer Program.
In this window, the grant can cover the following expenses (as an example), on the condition that evidence to prove the business need is provided, and eligibility and selection requirements are met.
1. Technology, Office equipment, and office appliances may include:
a. Laptops, routers, switches, links and highspeed internet connection equipment.
b. Collaboration tools like (Zoom, office 365 including MS team, etc.), and cloud applications licensing such as (Amazon AWS, and Google cloud applications).
c. Leasing or acquisition of photocopiers, printers, projectors, etc. in addition to basic office furniture (desks, chairs, etc.)
Other tools/Licenses that helps the service or the product development of the company backed by evidence of such needs