Innovation centre open doors to tech entrepreneurs

Dubai: Dubai Internet City’s tech incubator hub — In5 — aims to support young entrepreneurs and technology innovators in the region, in addition to driving the growth of the small-and medium-sized enterprises.

“The volume of entrepreneurs setting up business in the region continues to grow every year and with this centre our aim is promote Dubai as an ideal location for tech start-ups,” Malek Al Malek, Managing Director of Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource Zone, told Gulf News.

He said the centre had some success stories before setting up the innovation hub at Dubai Knowledge Village.

The centre was officially opened by Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, on Sunday evening.

“We can support around 100 entrepreneurs annually. We have supported around 80 firms since inception in late 2011,” Malek said.

When asked why not more than 100 entrepreneurs, Malek said the centre does not have the capacity to accommodate more.

Some firms have “moved to the next stage after getting funding for their project. The hub will grant the selected entrepreneurs with key five benefits — set up and logistics support, mentoring, training, networking opportunities and access to funding.”

According to Frost and Sullivan, startups in the Mena region have grown in number by more than eight times since 2005. Investments in IT startups in region last year stood at $124 million.

In5 seeks to provide entrepreneurs in the area of ICT, mobile and digital media with the infrastructure and support needed to launch their ideas, and to compete in the global marketplace.

“The advantage of In5 is that they don’t take an equity stake like in many other places. They have a long way to go and it is a positive start,” Ash Bashir, Business Development Manger at Promocaso, who is also an entrepreneur at In5.

Promocaso is a mobile marketing platform which allows merchants to create tailored promotions and make it available on our apps platform. It is available on iOS and will be available on Android soon.

“We developed a prototype and secured some funding. We had the opportunity of incorporating our company under In5. We looked at other opportunities to set up our company, including Tecom, but it was expensive. With In5 we fitted well,” Bashir said.

He said that In5 grants us a number of introductions to clients, lot of visibility and opportunities to get seed investments.

“We are at a funding stage and looking between $500,000 and $1,000,000 as investment,” said Bashir.

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