Dawood Al Shezawi, the Chief Executive Officer of AIM Startup, an initiative by the UEA government to foster the entrepreneurship, has signed two landmark Memoranda of Understanding with Saudi Arabia to nurture the startup ecosystem in the region.
AIM teamed up with Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business and Badir Program for Technology Incubators, confirmed as a Gold Sponsor of the Saudi AIM Startup 2017/2018. Upon signing of the contracts, Al Shezawi commented that the main aim was to equip the Arab young people with the right tools to become job creators and not job seekers. According to him, the partnerships with the leading Saudi institutions would have a positive impact on the startup movement in the region:
“The agreements with our Saudi Arabian partners focus on supporting the public sector initiatives with private sector participation and help the development of a healthy entrepreneurship eco-system that will continue to develop and help fund start-ups and create new tech-based employment.
Founded in 2017 by the UAE Ministry of Economy, under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, AIM startup is a platform to connect promising startups with venture capitalists and investors from all over the world. It will host the second edition of the Innovation Showcase and Pitch Competition during the UAE’s Annual Investment Meeting in April next year.
Recent research by the startup online community platform Magnitt found out that the number of the startup funding deals in the UAE has increased in the first six months of 2017. For instance, Amazon has acquired the local online retailer Souq.com. Also, the German Daimler along with the Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding invested USD 150 million in the ride-hailing startup Careem. According to Magnitt, USD 140 million has been invested in 87 transactions ( besides the Careem and Souq deals) in the first half of 2017, compared to USD 193 million in 75 deals for the same period last year.
There are numerous factors behind the surge in investments in SME’s and startups in the region, but among the main ones is that the local governments have been working hard to diversify the economy and make it less dependent on oil revenues.