Deep Tech: From Local Innovation to Global Scale
As Qatar undergoes a rapid technological shift, “deep tech” stands out as a key pillar for the future across scientific innovations, AI-driven healthcare, and clean tech. Playing a central role in this mission, Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) acts as a launchpad for startups to expand globally through all-around support and co-investment. MENA Tech interviewed Ms. Rama Chakaki, Head of QSTP, who shared a clear vision on integrating social and climate impact with financial returns, and discussed the criteria shaping the next wave of tech success stories for Qatar and the global market.
Since QSTP focuses on deep tech and impact, how do you define “impact” as something measurable for investors yet meaningful for society?
QSTP’s mission is to convene founders, operators, & investors to grow disruptive science and technology companies, and nurture those companies to achieve outlier impact and financial returns. We believe those two things are not mutually exclusive; the companies we invest in do both, and generate measurable social and/or climate impact.
On the social side, that means technology that improves quality of life for underserved communities, creates high-skilled jobs in Qatar, or expands access to education and healthcare. On the climate side, it means clean energy, carbon reduction, sustainable agriculture, and climate adaptation.
We track this at the portfolio level: lives improved, emissions reduced, jobs created, communities served. A founder who cannot articulate what they are changing and how they will prove it does not pass our screen. The rigor we apply to impact measurement is the same rigor we apply to financial return. That is the version of “deep tech with impact” we are interested in.
Given Qatar’s role in enabling regional and international expansion, what specific criteria define the ideal startup or founder for the QSTP Tech Venture Fund?
We back disruptive startups building scientific or engineering innovations, including novel algorithms, proprietary systems, and breakthrough discoveries. Their technologies have 10x advantages that represent a meaningful improvement over what currently exists, with network effects built in so that value compounds over time. The startups we back are headquartered in Qatar because they see Qatar as a genuine launchpad into the global market. Sectors include wherever deep tech meets a problem that matters to Qatar and the world.
Beyond capital, how does QSTP plan to support founders with research, talent, infrastructure, and international market access?
QSTP sits inside Qatar Foundation, which means our portfolio companies have a direct pathway to world class academic and research institutions including Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, and Sidra Medicine, among others. Beyond research, our industry partnerships with Shell, TotalEnergies, and Merck, for example, create real piloting and commercial pathways for our startups and portfolio companies.
Our internship program placed 83 active interns across 35+ startups this year, with a hire-to-founder conversion rate more than triple the regional benchmark. Through our co-investment model, founders also gain access to the networks of our VC partners, which translates directly into follow-on capital and market entry support.
The fund’s focus includes AI, robotics, biotechnology, clean technology, and advanced materials. Which of these sectors do you think could produce Qatar’s next global technology success story, and why?
I would point to healthcare and life sciences, specifically at the intersection of biotech and AI. Qatar has excellent clinical infrastructure and strong research talent coming out of Qatar Foundation’s Education City. The health challenges Qatar faces are shared across the GCC and developing markets globally. A company that solves a health problem here solves it for hundreds of millions of people.
We are already seeing this in our own ecosystem: QABY Biotech, for example, emerged directly from research spun out of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, our FemTech Accelerator attracted 240 applications from 47 countries in a market projected to reach $600 billion by 2030, and we incubate several AI-driven healthcare companies at QSTP.
QSTP is co-investing with local, regional, and global VC firms. How critical is this co-investment approach for enabling Qatar-based startups to scale internationally from local innovation?
Our fund invests alongside local, regional, and global VC funds that bring sector expertise, global networks, and follow-on capital with them. Our partner VCs give us access to a wider range of deal flow and enable us to participate in the region’s most competitive early-stage opportunities.
For the startups we back, it means having the combined capital, networks, and expertise of multiple institutional investors at the table, on top of QSTP’s own positioning within Qatar’s startup, research, innovation, and venture ecosystems. By connecting local, regional, and global funds with high-potential Qatar-based founders, we are also building the connective tissue that makes Qatar a compelling destination for founders and investors worldwide.
