Dubai International Financial Centre launched a venture studio platform exclusively focused on "ubiquitous finance and digital asset technologies" as Dubai seeks to further develop its start-up infrastructure and promote itself as a centre for innovation.
Venture studios build start-ups, starting from idea conceptualisation to launch, while also providing capital and guidance. They also support their growth using internal capabilities and external support.
DIFC's new Studio Launchpad will be supported by an international group of venture building experts, digital asset operators and emerging technology strategists, and it aims to attract a consortium of start-up and corporate venture studios, it said on Thursday.
Over the next five years, more than 20 studios are expected to set up in the DIFC and launch more than 200 new ventures, including more than 100 scale-ups (a company with 10 or more employees that has an average annual growth of 20 per cent over the past three years) and 10 that will be valued at more than $1 billion.
These companies are expected to create more than 8,000 "innovation" jobs in Dubai and attract more than Dh2bn ($544.5 million) in venture capital.
“We see great potential to leverage the venture studio model to accelerate creation of scale-ups and unicorns from Dubai that will contribute over-proportionally to new job creation and economic development," said Essa Kazim, governor of DIFC.
"DIFC is building an ecosystem from the ground up that will support studios and founders with everything they need to be successful and reimagine virtually every aspect of the financial services value chain to help realise Dubai’s ambitions for the digital era.”
Dubai is seeking to become a global centre for start-ups and scale-ups and has introduced regulatory changes such as golden visas, green visas, freelancer and entrepreneur visas to support the ecosystem.
The emirate, which is home to 39 per cent of the Middle East and North Africa’s scale-ups, accounted for almost 57 per cent of the scale-up funding in the region last year, a report developed by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy with Mind the Bridge and Crunchbase, showed.
Mena scale-ups collectively raised $9.1 billion, representing 0.12 per cent of the region’s total economy, the report found.
Currently, there are more than 730 active venture studios in the world, with 50 per cent of them launched in the past five years, DIFC said.
The financial hub has already broken ground on a new 13,935-square-metre purpose-built facility that will house the Studio Launchpad team who will work alongside corporate sponsors, investors and the new ventures they co-create, the statement said.
Part of the Launchpad offering will be a research living lab that will support thought leadership and research to seek new opportunities and produce data and insights for future business models, laws and regulations.
"DIFC is creating an environment where ... entrepreneurs, leading venture studios and forward-looking corporations come together to imagine a new world where financial services are digitised, decentralised and ubiquitous," it said.
The new platform is being developed by DIFC in partnership with Dubai venture studio Enhance Ventures and US-based advisory group Silicon Foundry.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
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Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
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Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus
Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tamkeen's offering
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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