Abu Dhabi woos startups across the globe to become an innovation hub
One of UAE’s seven emirates, Abu Dhabi is an oil exporting region aiming to diversify its businesses beyond the energy sector. Over the past years, it has expanded businesses into non-oil sectors such as real estate, financial services and tourism among others. It now wants to establish itself as a global innovation hub and with this aim in sight it helped over 50 companies from US, Europe and Asia through its $545 million Innovation program.
With an aim to move beyond their traditional businesses of oil and hydrocarbons, Abu Dhabi has set up Abu Dhabi Investment office (ADIO), the government office that helps attract companies globally to set up their bases there. ADIO is increasingly wooing innovative startups and companies from across the world to operate from the gulf emirates to become a global innovation hub.
“We support companies through our Investor Care services, assisting investors with information on data, networks, licensing, real estate, visas, banking and more. We connect investors with relevant stakeholders in Abu Dhabi’s innovation ecosystem, bringing together the right partnerships to help them grow and expand in the emirate,” said Abdulla Abdul Aziz AlShamsi, acting director general of ADIO.
As an effort to further attract investors and companies, last year ADIO also set up eight new offices in Tel Aviv, New York, San Francisco, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Beijing and Seoul.
Among the richest regions in the middle east, Abu Dhabi is also home to some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which has also been increasing its investments in technology and disruptive startups. ADIA also has investments in several Indian startups and companies like Lenskart, Dealshare, Kotak Mahindra Group, HDFC Capital and others. Their notable investment of $500 mn in Lenskart is their most latest one in Indian startups.
The Abu Dhabi government, with the support of ADIO, Mubadala Investment Company and Abu Dhabi Global Markets, has also established ‘Hub71’ as a global tech ecosystem to help founders access capital, global markets and a global network of partners to build the tech enablers.
In 2021, ADIO had further announced more than AED500 mn ($136 million) in incentives to bring global agrotech innovators to Abu Dhabi. Besides a Yas Creative Hub as the entertainment and media zone for the incoming residents, the Abu Dhabi government has also set up the Abu Dhabi Residents Office under Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) to support the integration and harmonisation of the international community with the local culture and society and taking care of the families’ healthcare and education.
