The Need
While Israel has a thriving start-up ecosystem, the Arab community does not play a role in any significant way and therefore does not enjoy the resources and opportunities that it has to offer, despite the real progress made in high-school and higher education over the past decade. Based on research that MasarUp has conducted, the reasons for this under-representation in the ecosystem include a lack of awareness and familiarity with the success and progress that entrepreneurial endeavors can offer as well a feeling of discrimination by those that are attempting to participate. 

The time is ripe to address these and other challenges associated with engagement with entrepreneurship, as Arab society displays a new openness regarding career options for the younger generation.
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Our Role
MasarUp will operate as an umbrella organization to bring about a shift in the engagement of Arab society with entrepreneurship. As such MasarUp will:

• Act as a coordinator and convenor of organizations involved in promoting and supporting entrepreneurship, and serve as a representative body
• Increase awareness of entrepreneurship amongst the younger generation and their parents through social and public media campaigns
• Create and maintain a knowledge base of the Arab entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Conduct research to identify barriers and initiate strategic interventions to address these barriers
• Develop policies and engage with government
• Promote innovation and entrepreneurship within the education system
• Address gaps in the ecosystem with regard to access to finance and access to markets for Arab entrepreneurs