Services

Programs / Market Access — Flagship program

Warm intros. Real corridors. In-market from day one.

A 6–9 month structured expansion program for growth-stage founders and portfolios entering GCC, MENA and East African markets — with local operators embedded, not just consulted.

24

Live market corridors

180+

In-market operators

180+

In-market operators

6–9 mo

Program length

70+

Companies expanded

The premise

Expansion is a distribution problem, not a marketing one.

Most cross-border expansion fails on the same thing: no in-market operator, no real distribution, no local reference customer. Market Access solves the distribution problem first — everything else follows.

Live corridors

Twenty-four markets, four regions, one team.

FundReady is invite-only. We select for traction, coachability and readiness — not stage.

GCC

KSA · UAE · Bahrain · Kuwait · Qatar · Oman

MENA

Egypt · Jordan · Morocco · Tunisia

East Africa

Kenya · Rwanda · Ethiopia · Tanzania

Select global

UK · Singapore · Turkey · Pakistan

Program modules

Five modules, sequenced against your first paid pilot.

Weeks 1–3

Corridor diagnostic

Where does your product actually fit — regulatory, buyer, distribution — in each target market?

Weeks 4–6

Regulatory & entity setup

Local entity, licensing, banking, tax and IP — done by in-market partners we've already vetted.

Weeks 7-9

Channel & partner curation

Warm intros to buyers, distribution partners, corporate anchors and local funds already active in-market.

Weeks 10-11

In-market growth sprints

90-day sprints with a local operator embedded in your team — first paid pilots, first hires, first local revenue.

Weeks 11-12

Local hire assist

Country manager and first commercial hires sourced from our in-market operator network.

Adjacent programs

Smaller rooms. Sharper mandates.

Programs we run for specific slices of the ecosystem — often invite-only, always outcome-locked.

FounderNext

A quiet quarterly retreat for post–Series A founders navigating scale-up decisions.

FounderNext

A quiet quarterly retreat for post–Series A founders navigating scale-up decisions.

Corridor Lab

An invite-only working group between regional operators and sovereign-linked LPs.

Corridor Lab

An invite-only working group between regional operators and sovereign-linked LPs.

Grant Studio

Design and standup service for grant programs — from RFP to first disbursement.

Grant Studio

Design and standup service for grant programs — from RFP to first disbursement.

Ecosystem Fellowship

A 9-month fellowship placing operators inside emerging incubators across MENA and East Africa.

Ecosystem Fellowship

A 9-month fellowship placing operators inside emerging incubators across MENA and East Africa.

In their words

Words from the people we work beside.

"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Working with Merstra has been more than a partnership — it's been a shared mission to build lasting ecosystem infrastructure."
Amara Osei
Founder,
Northgate Labs
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Their program design gave our incubator a structure we could actually scale across three countries."
Daniel Reyes
Program Director,
Vantree Collective
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital
"Precise, consultative, and genuinely invested in the founders they support."
Priya Nair
Managing Partner,
Fieldstone Capital