Dubai: AstroLabs is paving the way for a growth platform for technology start-ups looking to set up bases in Dubai.
The entrepreneurship platform inaugurated the Middle East and North Africa’s only Google-partnered tech hub at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) on Monday evening officially. The soft launch happened in April.
Mohammad Makki, founding partner of AstroLabs Dubai, said the strategy is to raise the profile of Dubai as the “best destination” for global start-ups to expand into emerging markets.
He said the platform hosts 42 start-ups across 15 verticals from 27 different countries currently.
The 6,500-square-foot facility can hold up to 100 start-ups in the first phase and the fee ranges from Dh1,500 to Dh3,000 a month.
Under the concept, a collaborative co-working space and educational centre is provided at the DMCC to support the start-ups.
“We are facilitating to lower the barriers to entry to [the] Dubai investment environment to encourage creativity and innovation. We are building the right facility now to help start-ups expand to promising markets through Dubai,” Makki said.
He said that more than 25 per cent of the members are women.
AstroLabs would like to focus on mobile app development, which they see as a huge growth area in the Middle East, due to high smartphone penetration rates.
Regarding funding, Louis Lebbos, other founding partner of Astrolabs, said the funding is to come from angel investors and venture capital funds existing in the region or to be opened up in the region.
“We will be creating a vehicle where they [investors] can get exposure to opportunities to high-tech ventures,” he said.
Astrolabs has tied up with Nasscom of India to navigate Indian tech start-ups to the Mena region. Other partnerships are with Russia, Pakistan, Morocco and Turkey.
Makki said that there is a momentum for tech start-ups in Dubai than anywhere else in the world.
David Grunwald, senior partnership manager for EMEA at Google for Entrepreneurs, said that the AstroLabs members are eligible to apply for Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange, a global immersion programme suited to help start-ups gain access to new markets and insights.
Mohamad Mourad, managing director at Google Mena, said that there are more than 200 million internet users in the region and people are connected to smartphones for six hours per day.
“The Mena region requires of product and services to satisfy the demand and this would be a good start,” he said.
AstroLabs is hosting the Google for Entrepreneurs Exchange programme which will be held in Dubai for the first time from December 5-11, focusing on travel technology.
