Dubai: Dubai’s pioneering tech community -- Dubai Internet City -- reveals its great success story as it celerbates its 20th anniversary on Tuesday.
Dubai Internet City (DIC) was establish on October 29, 1999 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai as part of his vision to make Dubai as the regional technology hub.
Pioneering the first dedicated tech community in the world, Dubai Internet City provides extraordinary competitive advantages for tech companies, including world-class infrastructure, an ideal environment for business success, a culture that embraces rapid growth and innovation, and finally, unrivaled simplicity of doing business.
6,500 businesses in TECOM
The success of Dubai Internet City was the first in a series of achievements that translated the same leadership vision, setting the foundation for TECOM Group. Fast forward 20 years, the Group has ten thriving sector-focused business communities in Dubai that are home to over 6,500 businesses and more than 95,000 professionals.
In addition to Dubai Internet City, these business communities are Dubai Media City, Dubai Knowledge Park, Dubai International Academic City, Dubai Production City, Dubai Studio City, Dubai Outsource City, Dubai Science Park, Dubai Design District, and Dubai Industrial City.
Today, the Group—a member of Dubai Holding—is a major contributor to the rapid growth of Dubai’s knowledge and innovation-based economy and the transformation of the Emirate into a magnet for some of the world’s top companies and talent.
ECOM Group’s CEO, Malek Al Malek, said: “We started as a vision of His Highness and two decades later, we are proud to be a key economic contributor to the inspiring story of Dubai. In the past 20 years, we have successfully attracted thousands of businesses across core sectors, proving at the same time that we are a bedrock for homegrown innovation.”
Under the same vision of advancing the economy of the future and to support the budding entrepreneurship ecosystem, TECOM Group also launched startup incubator in5 in 2013, providing an innovation pipeline and a solid link between the top-notch educational institutions that host over 27,000 students within its communities and its business partners. This also provides opportunities for more businesses to succeed and equips upcoming talent with future-proof skillsets.
Startups
The incubator currently hosts over 200 startups who raised Dh400 million by the 3rd quarter of 2019. Having set the scene for the region’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem, Dubai Internet City is home to the biggest success stories that have inspired the region, such as the Careem-Uber deal, the Amazon acquisition of ecommerce marketplace Souq, and the funding deal of Anghami, amongst others.
Steady growth
The Group’s business communities continue to witness steady growth. Al Malek commented: “To further drive innovation, productivity and economic growth in Dubai, we are on a mission to set new world benchmarks when it comes to doing business. As our ecosystem matures, we foresee more innovations and local success stories coming out of our communities and soaring to global recognition”.
TECOM Group’s business communities comprise passionate and committed executives, who have risen through the ranks to form a team driven by 100 per cent UAE nationals who are leading the future of the economy of Dubai— qualifying a new generation of distinguished Emirati leaders.
