Five One Labs — Iraq's Incubator for Local and Displaced Entrepreneurs

Five One Labs is a startup incubator headquartered in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a second hub in Erbil, founded in 2017 after a $30,000 crowdfunding campaign and an initial "Summer Startup Festival" that drew over 300 aspiring entrepreneurs. It was built specifically to serve both local Iraqi entrepreneurs and displaced or conflict-affected founders, including refugees, in a business environment where registering a company requires an office, a lawyer and an accountant.
The organisation runs a three-month, full-time incubator programme offering training, mentorship from a network of 46 experts, and direct seed funding, plus a dedicated Female Founders Fellowship and an early-stage investment initiative, Five One Invest. An early cohort tracked by Arab News in 2019 had graduated 11 businesses, including a buffalo dairy farm, a babysitting service and a medical-technology platform.
By its own most recent published figures, Five One Labs has run 11 incubator cohorts graduating 130 startups and supporting over 1,000 entrepreneurs in total, awarding more than $830,000 in seed funding, of which 61% went to women-led ventures, with 47% female participation overall and conflict-affected founders averaging about 30% of each cohort. These are self-reported cumulative totals rather than independently audited figures, and the organisation remains donor-funded (backers have included Spirit of America and the Dutch-government-linked Orange Corners programme) rather than financially self-sustaining.

Read the full analysis: https://fiveonelabs.org/