Abu Dhabi based Hub71 announced the outliers that rose to the challenges set by Hub71 corporate and government partners. The first edition of Hub71’s The Outliers program, an annual initiative that bridges entrepreneurs with corporate and government entities to promote innovation and address industry challenges, has gathered exceptional talent from more than 40 countries.
Each startup will benefit from up to AED 100,000 in cash grants to fund the development of their proof of concepts (POCs) that will solve challenges of leading major corporate and government partners in Abu Dhabi.
Hub71 launched The Outliers to facilitate better market access for entrepreneurs worldwide to address challenges set by ADCB, Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH), Etihad Airways, Mashreq Bank, Mastercard and Thales. Each challenge is aimed at startups that have proven products with strong potential to commercialize and go-to-market.
Six challenges were set, and seven startups were selected to build and scale their POCs. Each startup will now work alongside their respective partners to develop their corresponding tech products at Hub71 and take them to market.
Innovation challenges and enabling solutions
Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI), ADCB set a challenge to develop an AI predictive engine that enhances recommendations for customers, based on their individual preferences. In response to the challenge, UAE-based, Genify, an AI-specialist for banks, developed a state-of-the-art transformer-based recommendation engine and wrote a detailed roll-out plan, which was selected by ADCB.
As part of its work to improve health outcomes for citizens and residents in Abu Dhabi, DoH searched for human ingenuity and advanced technologies to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. The Department selected UAE-based, Alliance Care Technologies, which provides analytical and productivity tools to hospitals, physicians, and patients to improve quality, efficiency, and patient outcomes across the spectrum of care. The startup will deploy its S3 ACT solution comprising early warning pathogen detection, encrypted de-identified patient data extraction, pattern recognition and predicative analytics AI.
In aviation, Etihad Airways searched for ways to manage and scale its acceptance of different forms of payment across the markets it serves to provide guests with continued flexibility in choosing their preferred payment method when booking and purchasing services from the airline while ensuring efficiency and reducing operational overheads that result from managing multiple payment platforms. The UAE’s national airline selected BridgerPay, a SaaS payments intelligence platform from Cyprus, focused on bridging merchants and payment providers with AI technology.
Meanwhile, Mashreq Bank selected two winners of its challenge to become a Value Added Services partner. The bank selected Zoko from India, which makes it easy for online merchants to conduct sales, marketing and customer support using WhatsApp. The startup has since joined Hub71 to benefit from its new flexible incentives. Mashreq Bank also selected Letswork, a startup dedicated to the future of co-working spaces.
In 2020, Mastercard pledged $250 million and committed to connect 50 million micro, small and medium-sized businesses globally to the digital economy by 2025. As part of its efforts, it launched the inaugural Mastercard Middle East and Africa (MEA) SME Confidence Index. Mastercard selected SEDRA, which provides cutting-edge payments and software solutions to enterprise businesses that simplify their services using blockchain; machine learning and AI; data analytics and science.
Finally, Thales targeted the services of startups to develop a hands-free voice-activated chatbot to guide experts during radar maintenance procedures. The company selected AR Engineering, a UAE-based company that deploys interactive augmented reality (AR) virtual reality (VR), mixed reality and extended reality (XR) to improve the user experience and bring the physical world closer to a remote setting.
At GITEX Future Stars, Hub71 and its partners showcased the winning startups and their innovative solutions that will be developed to solve each challenge.
Jida Itani, Chief Operating Officer at Hub71, said “ The Outliers program is a platform that gathers great minds with large institutions and seeks to find innovative solutions to real challenges faced by key sectors driving Abu Dhabi’s economy and solving global issues. Not only are we supporting founders, corporations, and government, but the program emphasizes the impact that cutting-edge technologies can have on advancing industries aimed at supporting the nation’s continuous development and contributing to a better world.”
