HUB71 GROWS STARTUP COMMUNITY TO OVER 200 TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES WITH LATEST COHORT

• A 60 per cent increase of applicants received from startups in the UAE and worldwide compared to previous cohort
• 12 of the 21 startups hail from six countries including USA, Egypt and South Africa, while the remaining 9 are UAE-based companies.

Abu Dhabi, UAE – 28 November 2022: Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, has grown its community to more than 200 startups following the selection of 21 companies to join its latest cohort.

The new cohort marks Hub71’s third intake of startups this year, which received a 60 per cent increase in applications from founders worldwide seeking to join Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem.  

The startups will gain access to Hub71’s vibrant community within a vast tech ecosystem of active investors, corporate, government, and academia partners that act as key drivers for business growth. Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem is designed to support founders in scaling successful tech companies and maximize investment and commercial opportunities for them from the UAE’s capital. The startups will also benefit from flexible incentives to ease the process and cost of setting up.

Hub71 is welcoming its new cohort of startups from six countries globally. Of the 21 startups in the cohort, nine are UAE-based companies while the remaining 12 have relocated to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the UAE capital’s ability to attract high-quality companies that continue to build on the global diversity of Hub71’s community.

Supporting Abu Dhabi’s economic transformation, Hub71 selected startups operating in strategic sectors of the economy. Sectors include CleanTech, where Hub71 selected 44.01, a carbon reduction company eliminating CO2 by transferring it into rock. AgTech companies were also selected with the addition of Finland’s iFarm, which creates innovative agriculture technologies to facilitate automated vertical farming. FinTech, where Abu Dhabi is rapidly embracing the convergence of finance and technology, was also a focus. Dutch FinTech startup, Thndr, has already raised over AED 80 million (US$22 million), offering a digital investment platform that is regulated by the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority.

Badr Al-Olama, Acting CEO of Hub71, said: “Hub71 has now reached a key milestone of building a community of over 200 tech startups in Abu Dhabi. This success is testament that Abu Dhabi is becoming a destination for high quality startups that showcase great potential and impact. The startups in our latest cohort have reinforced themselves with half a billion dirhams of funding, and we look forward to their evolution towards global prowess on the world stage.”