Abu Dhabi’s technology start-up centre Hub71 has accepted 16 new budding businesses to its growing community.
The list of new companies features early-stage start-ups with diverse representation from leading international tech hubs including the UK, US and South Korea.
They include Pakistan’s first digital bank, TAG; UAE-based Trade Capital Partners, a platform that boosts access to working capital for start-ups and small to medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets; and Zywa, the first neobank for teenagers in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The start-ups, which have already raised more Dh231 million ($63m) in funding, will benefit from structured programmes to boost investment potential, and a new range of flexible incentives, that allow founders to choose the level of support based on their start-up needs, Hub71 said in a statement.
“Our first cohort of the year reflects our ambition of matching our pace with that of global tech start-ups that have the highest growth potential,” said Badr Al Olama, acting chief executive of Hub71.
“What makes Hub71 so different is our founder-centric approach that puts emphasis on building leaders and teams to sustain exponential growth for start-ups.”
Hub71 is a flagship initiative of the Dh50bn Ghadan 21 economic stimulus programme and was founded by the Abu Dhabi government, Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Global Market, Microsoft and Japan’s SoftBank Group in 2019. It helps entrepreneurs to build tech companies with a global outreach, as the emirate seeks to diversify its economy away from oil.
Its start-ups have so far raised Dh1.5 billion of investment through the tech ecosystem’s corporate partners. The companies have been responsible for creating 1,000 new jobs.
The UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy, has taken various steps to encourage entrepreneurship in an effort to fuel its post-oil economy.
Last year, the country unveiled the Entrepreneurial Nation initiative, which aims make the Emirates home to 20 unicorns — a term referring to start-ups valued at more than $1bn — by 2031, as well as to attract and expand small and medium enterprises.
