Welcome to the Capital of Capital Opening Doors to New Opportunities

[Music] hi everyone it's a great pleasure to be back today in Abu Dhabi Finance week and uh it's a great honor for me to moderate this panel you know to be able to explain the growth of our ecosystem in Abu Dhabi on the Innovation and startup side so as you know it will be disclosed soon but the lots of report for the growth of the Innovation ecosystem globally I've been able to rank Abu Dhabi as the fastest growing emerging ecosystem in Mana we're seeing 4.2 billion USD as ecosystem value Ahmed you're the CEO of h71 maybe you can introduce yourself and after we will go to the other members of the panel it's always the you know for all the technology work we do the amount of times we get technical difficulties with mics um thank you so much erod it's an honor and a privilege to be here sitting in front of you my name is Ahmed alwan I'm the CEO of hub71 um we've blessed to be uh partnering with uh for the Venture park at abudhabi Finance week and also grateful to have great Partners a great network of our um Community um here sitting amongst them uh just briefly Hub 71 is Abu zabi's Tech ecosystem enabler what we do is that we have a a range of programs and initiatives that support startups across their Journey The Gents you see on my right are two of such uh cases we also work with a whole host of Partners to support facilitating opport opportunities for the startup Community which is a great segue to introduce a great friend and partner Alex Mason thanks ahed good uh good to be here I'm uh I'm Alex Alex menson Ventures um back ban andart we we build Ventures um we set out to rewire the DNA in banking serve clients the way they want to be served um reconcile um uh Financial Services with society's expectations of what Financial Services would do and the way we do this is build companies we have about 30 companies of which you know 10 are now operating in this part of the world one way or another some of them are homegrown and more coming it's about 150 people in the region we're very very big buyer of the opportunity and very excited to be here hi everyone so moving to the entrepreneurs now John from H2 uh thank you my name is John Lee I'm a founder and CEO of H2 Hospitality uh we provide a digital transformation solutions to tourism related properties like uh accommodation hotels Resorts Leisure facilities amusement parks also we're trying to expand to the airports right now uh we're currently in around 12 different countries uh and trying to be more Global through our Abu Dhabi entity thank you and Omar from ABI hi thank you um I marari CEO and co-founder of Abby uh we are a YC backed uh lending fintech in the region started off in Pakistan but now headquartered in the UAE we're in Sai UAE and uh and Pakistan doing everything from working capital financing for smmes and Clos Loop financing for their employee base so as I was saying in the beginning it's been a great journey that started around 5 years years ago with f71 and it's a great honor to see you know that companies who were convinced to set up shop in Abu Dhabi started with f71 being able also to get the support of adio are now trying to conquer the word you know from Abu Dhabi and having really Global expansion from Abu Dhabi so maybe let's start with the ecosystem enabler and with with up 71 so Ahmed can you explain us you know because up 71 has been really instrumental in being of course you know position Abu Dhabi as a global startup Hub can you explain us what is the unique value proposition of Abu Dhabi ecosystem and um how we can support the grow and the scale of these companies yeah um thank you elod I think for Hub 71 uh it's a bit of also kind of spending time um talking about top 71s history um you know when we started in 2019 we identified that Abu Dhabi has great macroeconomic enablers uh great uh uh societal enablers that would um enable any business to grow and Thrive um the missing component at the time was really a um a Launchpad a soft Landing location where these startups can set up their businesses because abudhabi historically um um focused on larger scale businesses and that was really the um focus um so our job was um to ensure that we create a community create a value proposition that would support any startup to grow and scale out of Abu Dhabi and that's really the Inception of hub71 in 2019 um we ensured that we had a lot of workshops with founders with uh investors to identify how we can support soft Landing companies into Abu Gabi so um a lot of uh the feedback we got were like yes ababi is a great uh it has great microeconomic factors safety Securities tax environment rule of law especially in adgm that is a great now location for funded startups and investors inter AAL companies to be a springboard but the common feedback we got that it's a bit too expensive um which is uh um which is fair for any startup that looking you know for cost effective means so when hub71 um started its incentive Pro uh its program it was really an incentive uh program in order to support alleviate some of the cost uh structure elements of these startups so as we evolved um we continued to focus listen to our founders and made sure that we create programs that uh support their soft Landing journey and that was uh basically Hub 71 over the P past 5 years I think one of the thing the great unique things that we are starting now to tap into as h71 and Abu zabi is to evolve not only from an entrepreneurial soft Landing value proposition but into the technology value proposition and this is something you will see continue to emanate out of the Hub 71 and ababi ecosystem thank you Ahmed I think the best way to explain how Abu Dhabi ecosystem and also h71 is able to support you know the startup Ventures is also to get the testimony of entrepreneurs of course so Omar ABI is a fintech platform that started a couple of years ago in Pakistan from there you moved to YC you were part of one of the cohort of YC but you decided to come back to the region and to get your uh company based in obs 71 can you explain us a little bit how was your journey in uh in Abu Dhabi and especially on the capital raising and also being able to access you know broader markets from Abu Dhabi absolutely um so we as you rightly said started the company uh four years ago in Pakistan um very quickly became one of the the largest fintechs in the in the country uh but if anyone follows the news probably saw there was quite a bit of macroturbulence that happened in the country uh uh about two years into our journey um thereafter we were looking to expand out uh into the GCC uh UAE was in Abu Dhabi was uh the clear spot for us I mean one I finished high school in Abu Dhabi so it was an easy place to come back home to um but beyond that it was that we had interacted with uh various people within the government and wanted to be able to launch a or enter with a Launchpad for us to be able to hit the ground running and that's really where Hub 71 was instrumental in our success uh for the UAE because at that time it wasn't and we weren't looking for Capital that time it was not the capital which was important for us it was our goto market and our regulatory we're lending fintech uh and whenever we enter new markets the first people people we speak to are The Regulators now h71 was the reason why we got a front seat at adgm for us to speak to the regulator and the central bank as well to say this is what we plan to do how do we do it uh in a legal manner we're not looking to play the gray area we don't believe in that we believe in regulation so we went down that route and we wouldn't had that meeting if it wasn't for that that was step one step two was the ability for us to then go to market and actually get customers very quickly again hub71 gave us a list of companies that they were very close to uh very simple example is emer's post said can we speak to emer's post now a lot of other people say can get a meeting and say yeah we'll put you in touch with someone this was the CEO and CFO of emeres post on day one it was fantastic so allowed us to go live in the UAE with a customer base at scale much quicker comparatively to anything else I've ever seen and then lastly was the capital so as we established ourselves in the UAE and then expanded out to GCC further we were able to raise Regional Capital having Abu Dhabi as our headquarters uh as opposed to just having AB Pakistan and so that's kind of the spectrum of how it really helped Abby in our journey over here I think I can't take more what you're saying you know I think we've been seeing in the last years that Abu Dhabi has a lot to offer but the two main differentiator I think is on one side you know how supportive are our Regulators toward Innovation which is very key to be able to support vertical like fintech and on the other side you know is how at the end Abu Dhabi is a village and where everyone is interconnected and everyone is there really to support you know the growth of the ecosystem I think this is really like the unique position of Abu Dhabi John so H2O is an Hospitality um uh focusing is a stter focusing on hospitality and especially on the digital transformation of the tourism industry so you started a company in Korea and decided to move your team and your operation towards Abu Dhabi you've been able to get of course the support of of f71 but also adio towards your journey can you explain a little bit you know how you did this move was it easy to scale your operation from Abu Dhabi and why the choice you know of our city to be able to support the digitalization of the tourism industry uh so one of the things that I initially was very attracted to about Abu Dhabi uh was Innovation uh adaptation in terms of tech in our industry overall travel industry is very behind but the the overall government was already investing in digitizing a lot not only the property operation side but also the traveler uh data side as well which we focus a lot what we normally provide is not only the pure solution itself but also we're developing an infrastructure so that the country or the company itself can have its own customer data platform which our industry never possessed before but unlike a lot of the Asian countries that we're in uh when I speak about these uh CDP or CRM the government itself like Department of culture and tourism here fully understood what we were trying to do and they were very supportive that was a main aspect that we decided uh another aspect that was very intriguing to me was I I actually moved here about a year ago and my definition of global really changed uh I was actually born in Canada but I lived most of my life uh in East Asia in Canada and us so my definition of global was actually just North America and some countries of Asia but as soon as I came here uh I got to learn more about the overall Middle East North Africa uh India Pakistan middle Asia Europe so as an entrepreneur uh seeing New Market becomes a huge opportunity and I decid what we decided to do within six-month frame was we actually decided to set our adgm entity as our Global hold C so we're actually acquiring an American company now next year which will go under our adgm entity uh that's how uh important for us to uh become more of a global company through adgm uh which I think it's like a proof of how um it's a great environment to set up your uh Global entity here Alex I think you wanted to share something I'm just going to pile up on what these two uh guys said which is which is great and the best testimony you know I was intrigued by how you introduce Ahmed as the ecosystem enabler and um and ecosystem means different things to different people right back to to our biology or Life Sciences classes but now I have this mental Association when I think what does ecosystem mean I think of Ahmed right and um and uh so so we open in Hub 71 officially 10 months ago and you could say what what's a big deal it's an office it's place to work right but actually it's the connections across the ecosystem so what does it take it takes Founders takes Venture Builders it takes technologists but then takes Academia it takes journalists it takes uh Regulators it takes you know that ecosystem comes to life in in in such a special way and I I just wanted to to get back to it and you know for better of for I have this mental Association you're going to have a hard time getting getting rid of it but it's well done I I can't Echo that more and I think this deserve a round of applause because behind all of this connection this is not a but our Digital support there are human being trying to understand you know and get the best of the local ecosystem to be able to support our entrepreneurs and it's a lot of hard work from the team Alex so can you please share a little bit more about your Venture Builder so as you were saying you moved months ago to Abu Dhabi you decided to pick up Hub 71 to be able to build the next you know Ventures covering different type of sectors including fintech supply chain smmes can you explain us how was your journey and how was also the balance between the local investors but also getting International investors like yourselves so so back back to ecosystem right building on on this the point is we don't do anything alone we do everything in Partnership and so we constantly looking for likeminded partners in fact today we're announcing M with with two two partners one 7x formerly known as as M post the other one is Lulu Financial in in Abu Dhabi and we're very excited about this um but but it starts with uh it's it starts with with looking for like-minded partners that we can build businesses with you asked a question about International versus local think of it from the standpoint of a Founder which you know by the way any investor Builder who thinks it's about them and not the founders has got it wrong it's all about the founders and the little Ventures and you know until they grow and and and and and all this if you think about the founder how do you think about your board would you like a board who's essentially an accountant and controls you and you know which is part of governance obviously it's sound governance or do you want a board that's going to take your places and so if you think of the composition of your board well you want a combination of local and international investors and part ERS and Commercial anchors and and have people who will take you places and help you scale and that's where the cooperation comes in so of course you need to cooperate of course we complement each other of course we bring different things to the table and that's the mindset in which we're approaching the whole region by the way we're open for business please engage we're not just open for business we're open for building and scaling businesses in this part of the world thank you Ahmed for the entrepreneurs and Founders who are listening to us do you have any specific specific clusters or sectors you are focusing on where you think abudhabi has a very strong Val proposition yeah it's a great question elod and I'll talk again about our journey so when we first I'll just acknowledge the great work that and thank you for the shout outs to hub71 but this obviously always a testament to the hard work um and openness that all you have um um it's U very humbling and fulfilling to always be for h71 to be the center of all of this um all that continue make continues to make us um want to continue elevating Hub 71 and the ecosystem here um and that's exactly the Mantra we adopt when we think about uh uh hub71 um and the tech ecosystem here so when hub71 started in 2019 we were sector agnostic um we welcomed any sector within technology um as long as you a startup where we had our ears open um the idea was not to crowd out uh um other sectors why because if few start doing top- down analysis for Abu Dhabi which sector would you focus on you're right oil and gas but we wanted to make sure we have an environment that support any technology 2019 um some people heard of AI but it wasn't a front and center like it is today but what happened to us in 2019 we started seeing a lot of different startups that were AI enabled back then to this day obviously but AI was made an enabling tool machine learning that supports optimize your business is something that startups could have done that the corporates couldn't do because corporates take them 10 years to identify technology um well some corporates not all of them um um um um uh so we started now looking well there are natural sectors that are forming around what we're doing at top 71 so to 2022 with the great work of the team uh we started focus on fintech edch health Tech Mobility Logistics and travel food Tech and climate Tech all with different reasons we saw and obviously where Abu zabi had the Great um areas um or important areas or Focus for Abu Dhabi but at the same time we saw where are um naturally clusters we had forming obviously Hub 71 being at the adgm the financial free zone of Abu zabi fintech was a common one now what does the future hold sectors are great are cool but today we're all about cross cutting technologies that will enable all of these sectors and there are three specifically that we continue to be passionate about and we will continue focusing on um these are digit assets um in a world where digital assets face some stigma for different reasons um we knew that the importance of having an a strong regulator to ensure that you have compliant scalable growth and that's why today Abu Dhabi is becoming one of the great launch pads for any D assets business having the presence of adgm as a regulator and then overlaying Hub 71 as an ecosystem um uh Builder um secondly AI if I said this a couple of times before but if you thought Abu zabi is here in terms of AI it's actually here we're doing a couple of great things when it comes to AI we've always seen startups but the value that a lot of different Abu Dhabi based entities have um um um either committed to or offer in terms of AI is tant amount and over the next few months uh hopefully you will see a lot more of that coming uh to life and last but not least software as a service very crosscutting um we want Abu zabi to be a place where you can be the best in class in any um of these businesses and that's the journey we're embarking on thank you ahed couldn't couldn't be more aligned couldn't be more aligned all the ventures we have are across these things directly linked I mean everything you've mentioned is uh feeds directly into Vision 33 and and and all that makes perfect sense we think of Abu Dhabi as a hub for our digital assets Ventures we have software as a service coming here you know if you don't have 10 15 use cases at the moment going to 50 and 100 and more in a little startup for AI then you're not doing your job Etc ET I think it's very interesting to see how Abu Dhabi is always you know trying to choose I would say the hard way meaning going with the Technologies which are the difficult ones but we know that will be You Know instrumental to change the economy of tomorrow and going back to digital assets you know I remember when we launched the digital asset vertical in up 71 a couple of years ago it was just after the issue of FDX people were looking at us like like Pioneers convinced us everyone's looking at are you sure you want to do this used to had growth and strategy at top 71 by and and thank you and now is uh the new US president elect that sounds like something that needed to be done for the word I assume coming back to to our Founders and our entrepreneurs Omar do you have anything to share especially regarding the opportunities you know with the growing interest of digitalization of the finance area for fintech startup for the region yeah I'm sorry um for us there is ample room I think there's uh it's interesting we were sitting with some with a couple of regulators um a few weeks ago um everyone historically has thought the region is small from an opportunity standpoint and came here only to be able to raise Capital to then go build elsewhere uh I think that's changing dramatically I mean we're seeing it ourselves well the UAE is has become one of our largest parts of businesses part of our business um because the depth is there the opportunity for you to be able to launch product is there it's just that the execution wasn't there before um so for us you don't even need to look left or right when it comes to the domestic system because as you rightly mentioned regulation for us is hugely important the regulator is open the regulator has an open door policy you can go speak with them and then for you to launch new products over here automatically you can be a lot more viable as a business for example for us our average ticket size here is five times what it is in any of other markets so automatically from a profitability standpoint despite it being a smaller population Etc you're still building a very large business from here and then your ability to then catapult yourself from here elsewhere becomes even easier so I'd say for us the digital infrastructure over here is now moving towards what we seeing in other Emerging Markets it's seamless with the launch of ani for example uh it allows us to really play uh something where infrastructure doesn't play even in the US uh so so yeah we we're we're seeing a lot of growth still in in the UAE thank you John if there was one thing you want to share you know what was really the game Cher when you decided to move your operations and your company to Abu Dhabi uh I think it's very industry specific but of the biggest things that I experienced was especially the travel industry uh because the governments and the GCC countries have been and are uh investing heavily in the uh tourism industry a lot of the global headquarters of these travel companies hospitality companies are actually based in UAE so when we were actually approaching companies like IHG or a core in Asia headquarter they were saying oh it takes about 2 years to get approved through the main headquarter in the states or in Europe uh when we spoke to the Head Regional headquarter in Mina region which are mostly based in UAE it was immediate decision-making process within three months so I totally agree with Omar in terms of the market size and opportunity uh because within 12-month frame uh before we came here our Revenue became from 40 million to 100 million within 12- month frame which is a big jum jump and this was mostly coming from the newly developed markets within this region so I think there's a big opportunity definitely uh however one different thing is once you decide to come here it's more of a b2g aspect that you need to consider and what you need to consider more is rather than what you want to take you have to consider what you want to give first how you're going to add value to the economy of Abu Dhabi I think the most question that I received during the investment committee process of uh adio was what type of economic value are you bringing to Abu Dhabi I think I got that question most more than 20 times and I I truly believe that we had a Clear Vision and clear Targets in ter in terms of what H2O hospitality is going to add value to the ababi economy so you really have to think about that before planning to expand to the region and specifically for Abu Dhabi as well and I I just want to build on that because I think it's an important aspect to mention um both umir and John did not yes we open the door with them but their journey to enter wasn't easy um I I would say this on your behalf they had to really be resilient uh I think John it took him at least a year to keep knocking on the same doors saying I want to be here until you finally he got a a great deal that allowed him to Skyrocket now the great thing about uh um Abu zabi both by the way the both ABI and the H2O got support from the Abu Dhabi investment office why because like John said they showed commitment to invest out of this Emirate and it's another case study to show that yes the entry we're by the way we're continue to optimize it we are we want to ensure that there is responsiveness there's a clear path on what it is that um Abu Dhabi is looking for and what it take for you to succeed but it is a journey um but there are great examples to Showcase that Abu zabi will invest and will reward those that invest in it um Alex is a different example all open doors he just said he thought about coming to Abu Dhabi the offices were made open for him immediately thank you so it's time to ramp up that panel I have one last question for all of you if you you had to pick up one word to discuss to describe the Abu Dhabi Innovation ecosystem what a family show guys huh family show Alex open AR um resilience resilient sorry this was not a prepared question so I would say Center flexible well thank you so much gentlemen it was a pleasure spending that time with you and uh we hope to support the success of more companies coming to Abu Dhabi thank you [Music] [Applause]