From UAE to the World, Innovation meets Impact - Hub71 x ADIO

[Music] I want to start off with a quick question to you guys how many of you have been in Hub 71 or have engaged with the ecosystem in Hub 71 okay if you have to describe what you saw in one word what would that be anyone okay someone else awesome thank you so I think we're all of the above I was waiting for someone to say community or ecosystem but we'll get to that in a bit um elod maybe you want to start off quickly by just telling us a bit what adio does I know a lot of people are familiar with Hub 71 but maybe a bit of perspective on adio sure so adio is the government agency you know from Abu Dhabi working on attracting investors ERS so our main mission is to see how we can support you know the economic development of the Emirates not only Abu Dhabi as the capital but also the different cities within Abu Dhabi Emirate and as Hub 71 you know is working more on the tech side and is working more on early stage startups the mission of adio is to cover all the sectors of the economy including of course Tech but also all the type of legal entity who wants to grow in Abu Dhabi so we are talking about like Asset Management we are talking about like mature stups we are talking about r& Labs we are talking about manufacturing capabilities so all the value chain that you need to be able to grow one sector of the economy so I think what would be interesting you know um so in my my past Journey a couple of weeks ago I was still with Peter at HUB and I think it would be interesting maybe for you to describe you know because Hub was launched four years ago under the hadan 21 vision and it would be interesting for the audience you know to understand because as you were saying you know Innovation very Dynamic you know community ecosystem so what was the Journey of Hub you know what has been achieved in the last four years and what are your currency building for the future especially on on climate impact um so I think the words that you guys mentioned futuristic Innovation are all outcomes of what we've been doing um if I to describe Hub 71 in one word it's an ecosystem so if we go back in time a bit to 2019 when Abu Dhabi government was looking at accelerating the economy the first thing they looked at is how do we diversify the GDP from a very heavy um oil and gas sector um one of the initiatives that came out of that program was let's build a Global Tech ecosystem so that was the starting point of H 71 the Northstar we've always been working towards is how do we become a Global Tech ecosystem um an ecosystem for us at the center of that ecosystem there's startups technology startups that have been disrupting the world disrupting different Industries and making the world we live in Greener more Dynamic more Innovative um that's at the center to be able to help these startups scale and become large companies themselves and change the world the way they are uh separately we need to build a supporting ecosystem and that ecosystem is not just limited to HUB 71 Adu Abu Dhabi government entity this ecosystem is linked to Talent young Talent it's linked to private sector it's linked to uh VCS investors um so what we did was bringing the startups to Abu Dhabi we provide a set of incentives to these startups that support them grow out of Abu Dhabi support reduce their operating cost in a way so that they could focus on building their products and less on just fundraising that's the first element of support we accelerate these startups and then once they're ready to go to their customers ready to start fundraising we bring in that ecosystem that we build around them so we support them in opening the doors to their customers the large corporations the governments we support them in connecting with the investors to raise funding we support them in getting regulated um so in general if I want to summarize it's an ecosystem a global ecosystem the startups are at the center we give incentives we accelerate these startups but the most important point is we engage them with that ecosystem we open these closed doors that you see in other regions between them and the customers and the regulator and the investors I think you know double clicking on one of the fact is that when you look at Abu Dhabi you know and Peter and myself have been serving Abu Dhabi government for several years now and we are getting very exciting you know of what's happening now we've been the past editions of Abu Dhabi Finance week you know in the last years and it's becoming each year you know way and way bigger with more and more you know like International companies who want to have a look at what could be done in Abu Dhabi and not only by focusing Abu Dhabi but also as using the capital you know as a hub to access to huge emerging uh regions which are like Africa and Asia which are growing very fast so what is quite interesting is that you know we had to work especially on the tech side in up 71 but now we are doing the SE work in Adu you know we are building some of the sector and some vertical of the economy some of them from scratch and that's very interesting because we are starting with a green fileld that give us hope that we don't have to fight like in more mature ecosystem if you take Savvi for example which is the cluster we just released a couple of weeks ago uh within AIO to focus on autonomous vehicle you know air Land and Sea it's very interesting because we have we know that the future of this sector you know will go for the adoption and the support of the regulator and I think that's the biggest strengths of Abu Dhabi you know same thing on the tech side for the startup is that we have The Regulators by our side that doesn't mean that our Regulators are flexible they are not because that's not their role but they are with us to be able to build in a safe way this kind of new economy and we believe that especially with the help of Hub also you know which is bringing a lot of very descriptive fers by as adio bringing the other part of the stakeholders you know mapping the stakeholders and bringing the other pieces of the puzzle that's how we will be able to have also this ecosystem you know integrated and our mission is really to make sure that the path of any company who wants to call Abu dhabi's home is as smooth and as fast as possible possible so so that's now the the type of mission we are working on I think it's a great segue into what I wanted to discuss next the clustering approach adio the Abu Dhabi government in general is looking at breaking down the economy into different clusters different sectors because what we notice at least on the tech tech side of the equation is the more you put relevant people together Under One Roof and we saw this this week literally everyone you need to talk to whether it's your investor your customer your regulator even tech companies that you work with globally have been in this island in these few buildings around just a few minutes away and that's I think the Beauty and the strength of Abu Dhabi that you won't find anywhere else when you enter a new market as a startup even as a non-te company it takes you months to figure out who do I need to talk to when you come here in one day you need to meet two three people and they'll introduce you to everyone you need so what we did in Hub 71 and to answer your initial question of what's coming next we started clustering the tech ecosystem as well and that's in alignment with with adio and Abu Dhabi government um just yesterday we had more than 250 um web3 companies large scale companies like the coinbase Solana young startups entrepreneurs that were all in hub71 gathered under what we call the digital asset clusters which was formed around the regulations of adgm um today is the first day of cop 28 in the UAE um we're all working towards the uae's vision of achieving Net Zero um so the next cluster we're launching and that's something you'll see uh happened during cop 28 is how do we focus on climate Tech how do we support technology and Innovation to come into Abu Dhabi and support The Wider country's Vision to achieve Net Zero and that's something that for me I would describe as consolidation making sure everything's in one place um everyone's in one place and working towards uh the same objective but then maybe I'll ask you a question about Adu and the Clusters so what what's the logic behind the clustering in general in in Abu Dhabi what's how did this start what's coming next so what we are currently working on with the DD team so DD being like the the Department of Economic Development the equivalent of Ministry of economy for abudhabi Emirates so what we are currently working on is how we are able in a couple of years from now you know to uh match a tra in GDP e eony so for that we are working also in alignment with DED you know on what should be the sector of the economies that we're also calling clusters you know that we should really focus on so the work we are currently doing and we release the first one which is Savvy as I was mentioning a couple of weeks ago but uh several other ones will be announced soon uh so keep posted but what we are currently working is to try to understand you know what is the value proposition of of Abu Dhabi for these kind of sectors what do we have to offer that can compete with more mature ecosystem you know at a global scale and from there what we are working on is to look at what is ex existing in the country you know what are the different players that are here already available you know to do business with this kind of investor that we'll bring in and from there we are designing the ecosystem you know trying to understand what are the different of companies are we talking about companies which are trying to do POC because we talking about an addressable Market that will be ready maybe in 10 years from now are we talking about other sectors where the vision will be ready to support on manufacturing capabilities and see how we can help them because the UE Market of course has like quite an average size how we can help them you know to export from Abu Dhabi so what we are currently doing is doing that per cluster mapping the different type of companies we want to attract and from there putting together you know like value proposition and value packages for each of these companies so when this work will be ready soon uh we will of course announce it officially with the name of the Clusters and the type of support we are able to bring and part of the work by the way that we've been initiating in Hub with piter we tried it on the startup side I think it was quite successful and now we want to replicate it um at the scale of Abu Dhabi Emirate and all the sectors economy is the value creation support it was born you know with what um some V's were doing on the tech scene you know is that when you put some investment in the company you just are not a gambler and want to see who is who is winning and who is failing but maybe you can go you know the extra step and see how you can support them you know for that gross so what that's what we want to do also uh within AIO that's why we are launching you know and I'm heading this new Department called value creation the idea is really to see how we can bring value for the investors that that believe that there is a pass for their companies in Abu Dhabi and how they can bring value also to Abu Dhabi so that's really what we are working on based on these different sectors think what I want to share one funny thing that I've been hearing for a while U the past week and we've been getting a lot of companies introduced by adio by mubadala we send companies to adio every single person I meet ask me what's the catch here why are you guys being so supportive why do you want to take me to the next building to meet the next person I think the catch for us is when more companies come here when more companies succeed and scale out of here and raise funding and revenue this is affecting the Abu Dhabi economy this is affecting the GDP in a way positively and that's that's why we exist so I urge you all if you're a tech company if you're a VC if you're a corporation regardless who you are you will find the right entity to talk to an Abu Dhabi and everyone will be supportive to help you soft land here and scale from here to the world not just the UAE Market Market but it's a very centrally located City and country that could help you go if you're coming from the West go east if you're coming from the east go west so we're here to support you we all work very closely together and that's a single door that you need to open to access the whole city and maybe I have I will have a more phys philosophical approach to that you know is like welcome and welcoming people are part of the Arab culture and it's part of the Middle Eastern culture that's something we want to share you know everyone is welcome if they're of course committed to build line with our vision you know that's why we tell people stop of course you need to to start coming back and forth you know to try to see if Abu Dhabi could be a fit for you but if you think that should be a fit please try to localize some of your team members in the country try to understand how we do business try to connect with the support of f71 and AD you with the right people and the second thing is that maybe also we want to share back what happened to us when we move our family you know like what does of years ago when some of our kids were born in the UI and they are calling now this place home you know I I would be really happy you know that some other people can experience what we've been experienced you know and what the country has been able to give to us and our families I Echo the same thank you thank everyone