Hub71 Drives Entrepreneurship In Abu Dhabi By Partnering With Endeavour UAE

Hub71 drives entrepreneurship in Abu Dhabi by partnering with Endeavour UAE

ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 16th Dec, 2019) Hub71 kicked off a partnership with Endeavour UAE to boost its offering to global scale-ups. The partnership began with a two-day retreat at Hub71 in Abu Dhabi on 22nd and 23rd October. This partnership comes weeks after Mubadala Capital’s ventures arm announced two new MENA funds with a combined worth of US$250 million, further catalysing Abu Dhabi as a regional hub for the world’s best tech talent and high-impact tech companies.

According to Scaling up MENA SMEs, a report by Strategy and Endeavour, scale-ups represent ‘five percent of MENA’s SMEs’ but grow ‘rapidly’ to enrich the ecosystem within which they operate, making a positive economic impact by creating jobs, wealth and innovation. Endeavour UAE defines a scale-up as a high-growth company with annual revenues over US$2 million.

Ibrahim Ajami, Head of Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, said, "The building blocks are in place and Hub71 is on its way to building a strong community of successful tech companies of all sizes with highly motivated and ambitious founders. We’re delighted to be working with Endeavour UAE to support high-growth scale-ups. Our strategic partnership with Endeavour UAE is deeply rooted in our shared goal of supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Abu Dhabi, bringing with it a multiplier effect on the economy and jobs."

During Endeavour UAE’s two-day retreat – a handful of the most promising MENA scale-ups came to Abu Dhabi representing seven different countries: Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Scale-ups benefited from practical advice from tech and business experts on themes such as ‘entrepreneur personal wellbeing’ and ‘how to deal with organisational culture in rapidly growing companies.’ The pre-selected scale-ups represented a variety of sectors including enterprise software & services, food & beverage, smart cities, retail & consumer tech, edtech and healthcare.

Noor Shawwa, Managing Director, Endeavour UAE, commented, "Through this partnership, scale-ups at Hub71 will now receive support at every stage of growth. By giving entrepreneurs access to our unparalleled global network of mentors, Endeavour supports entrepreneurs to transform communities, create quality jobs and to inspire future generations of founders. Now, with our Hub71 partnership underway, we’re positive that this will further drive Abu Dhabi closer to its goal of becoming a regional hub for tech startups."

With its global headquarters in New York City, Endeavour is a highly selective global mentor network with over 1,200 scale-up companies. Endeavour UAE was established in 2013 and has since selected 42 entrepreneurs leading 28 scale-ups. Known for driving long-term economic growth and building a strong entrepreneurship ecosystem in growth markets; this partnership is aimed at accelerating Hub71’s entrepreneurship ecosystem in Abu Dhabi, particularly for companies in their ‘scale-up’ phase. From its Abu Dhabi chapter based at Hub71, Endeavour UAE will be selecting scale-ups based on their global growth potential to receive mentoring and support to help them accelerate their growth and multiply their impact.

The tech hub recently launched its first ever round of applications to the public for the Hub71 Incentive Programme, which offers non-equity incentives such as subsidised housing, office space and healthcare for startups and scale-ups.