Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, has grown its community to more than 200 startups following the selection of 20 companies to join its latest cohort.

The new cohort marks Hub71’s third intake of startups this year, which received a 60 percent increase in applications from founders worldwide seeking to join Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem.

The startups will gain access to Hub71’s vibrant community within a vast tech ecosystem of active investors, and corporate, government, and academia partners that act as key drivers for business growth. Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem is designed to support founders in scaling successful tech companies and maximize investment and commercial opportunities for them from the UAE’s capital. The startups will also benefit from flexible incentives to ease the process and cost of setting up.

Hub71 is welcoming its new cohort of startups from six countries globally. Of the 20 startups in the cohort, nine are UAE-based companies while the remaining 11 have relocated to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the UAE capital’s ability to attract high-quality companies that continue to build on the global diversity of Hub71’s community.

Supporting Abu Dhabi’s economic transformation, Hub71 selected startups operating in strategic sectors of the economy. Sectors include CleanTech, where Hub71 selected 44.01, a carbon reduction company eliminating CO2 by transferring it into rock. AgTech companies were also selected with the addition of Finland’s iFarm, which creates innovative agriculture technologies to facilitate automated vertical farming. FinTech, where Abu Dhabi is rapidly embracing the convergence of finance and technology, was also a focus. Dutch FinTech startup, Thndr, has already raised over AED 80 million (US$22 million), offering a digital investment platform that is regulated by the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority.

Badr Al-Olama, Acting CEO of Hub71, said: “Hub71 has now reached a key milestone of building a community of over 200 tech startups in Abu Dhabi. This success is a testament that Abu Dhabi is becoming a destination for high-quality startups that showcase great potential and impact. The startups in our latest cohort have reinforced themselves with half a billion dirhams of funding, and we look forward to their evolution towards global prowess on the world stage.”

List of startups

1. 44.01: a carbon removal service company fighting climate change by transforming captured CO2 into rock.
2. Bloom: a digital consumer bank that allows East Africans to receive remittances instantly, save in USD, and spend as they go in local currencies.
3. Dayra: a data-driven fintech company providing financial services to unbanked workers and microbusinesses via API integration.
4. Distihain: a platform that delivers white-label B2B Marketplace Infrastructure-as-a-Service (MAAS) using blockchain and AI, digitalizing global trade with end-to-end transactions through its ecosystem of supply-chain, verification, and trade finance providers.
5. EYOUth: provides online interactive learning programs for youth (between 18 and 35 years of age). Using AI, they connect users with hiring companies.
6. HCMS.ai: utilizes AI, Data Science, and Machine Learning to help shorten the skills gap between the educational institution and the job market.
7. HeroGo: a D2C platform that eliminates food loss and waste working with local farmers and food importers to reclaim close to expiring or excess produce and sell it at up to 50% discount to customers, diverting food from landfill.
8. iFarm: creates innovative agriculture technologies to facilitate automated vertical farming around the world.
9. iSchool: an online coding platform for 6 to 18-year-old students that offers 1:1 or 1:6 live coding classes in AI, data science, game development, VR, and AR, helping them start a tech-based career, freelancing, or even launching their own startups.
10. Mesha: an all-in-one financial solution for web3 organizations, providing treasury management, corporate cards, and payments for the web3 industry.
11. Mobimatter: a telecom/travel tech platform that allows telecom operators to fully sell their connections digitally.
12. Omni: retail and quick-commerce operations cloud software that helps retailers convert any retail store into a 30-minute fulfillment hub without disrupting the walk-in customer experience.
13. Pemo offers an all-in-one spend management platform that includes smart corporate cards, invoice payment systems, and expense tracking functions.
14. Perform: boosts the efficiency of underperforming oil and gas, geothermal, and mining wells with safe and advanced drilling technology. They restore up to 80% of initial production with less than 10 percent of initial cost, disrupting a $50bn market of 800,000+ wells.
15. Revoltech: invented a patent-pending technology to make it possible to have restaurant-quality healthy food frozen in 5 minutes using microwaves and ovens.
16. SoftSmile: an innovative software-driven by machine-learning algorithms that are designed to help doctors model the most optimal treatment for their patients.
17. ToothPick: an online dental marketplace and ecosystem that offers products for dentists and suppliers all across the MENA region.
18. uMore: a behavioral screening app that allows users to check their mood, and collect biomarkers such as heart rate, sleep and step count. They then predict health outcomes and provide targeted activities to improve psychological behavior towards better personal life outcomes.
19. Vezgo: provides a complete API solution to Web3, FinTech, and Crypto companies enabling them to access all of their users’ crypto investment positions, balances, tokens, and trades history.
20. Thndr: a self-directed digital investment platform, regulated by the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority.

Source: Zawya