Building the future? Dubai is, are you?
This is a follow-up to “My Big Dubai Adventure” – an introduction to the Dubai Future Accelerators that I am an executive advisor to.
The results from the first Dubai Future Accelerators (“DFA”) program are in and they are nothing short of amazing for a program that started less than 6 months earlier.
Of the 30 participating companies, 19 companies received total commitments in excess of $14m for paid pilots/trials. Almost two thirds of companies received an average paid MOU of $750k, with ZERO equity give away, and flights and accommodation paid for.
I won’t pretend that it wasn’t bumpy journey along the way but when it came down to the wire, DFA pulled it off. We recognise that there is room for improvement and much of the feedback from the companies has been actioned and is being implemented.
If you are an ambitious startup that is making a real difference and is looking for a major customer or partner to implement its technology – you should seriously be looking to apply to the next DFA program which starts in mid February 2017.
The program has been engineered for later stage companies – typically Seed/Series A/Series B – rather than early stage companies that you would typically associate with an accelerator. The program has been shortened from 12 to 9 weeks and remains a ZERO equity model with flights and accommodation paid for.
Following the success of the first program, DFA has been expanded from 7 to 11 entities including Etisalat and DU the largest telcos in the region (a full list can be found on the website). If you are a startup or an investor in any of the following sectors, you should look at the DFA seriously.
- Transportation; Passenger experience; Payment & ticketing; Adoption of new transportation technology
- Security; Drone tech; Cyber security; AI; Facial recognition
- Municipality; Green building tech; Food safety; Waste processing
- Healthcare; Chronic disease management; Practise management
- Education; Micro-credentials assessment; Well being learning; Education assessment tools and data analysis
- Electric & Water ; Utility business transformation
- Economic Development; Business registration & licensing transformation
- Residency & Foreigners Affairs; Biometric identification; AI; Blockchain
- Dubai Holding; AI; Hospitality Tech; Property Tech; Entertainment Tech
- Etisalat; Chronic disease management ; Wearables; Telemedicine
- DU; Customer Service & Support Tech
You can apply for the next program here. Any questions, just reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter.
