SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
The startups competing for a Dh1 million support package at this year's Khalifa Fund Entrepreneurship Competition gathered in Abu Dhabi this week for a two-day bootcamp, a pressure test for their ideas and a chance to sharpen them under mentorship.
The concepts on show ranged across community services, sustainability, genetics and manufacturing. But all shared the drive to solve real-world problems.
Take Mohammad Ahmad's Khutbah Flow, for example. Walk into a UAE mosque for Friday prayers and, in Ahmad's vision, the sermon would scroll across installed screens in your own language.
"Many of the UAE's expats are Muslims. They go to Friday prayers every week and don't quite understand what is being said," Ahmad explained.
"The solution is to translate every khutbah into 30 different languages so that everyone who attends can understand the message."
Khutbah Flow, he said, is rooted in the UAE's multicultural reality and its culture of tolerance. "We have more than 190 nationalities, and it is important to make everyone feel welcome.”
Ahmad entered the competition seeking funding, exposure and, more than anything, a validation of his idea.
Nature and Community
Sustainability brought Bashayer Al Hashemi to the bootcamp with Erth Revivers, a concept that folds outdoor adventure, a café, and a shop selling organic products into a single community-focused experience. Where many green initiatives operate at a distance from everyday life, Al Hashemi's approach is local.
“With the rapid development of cities, there are increasing carbon emissions in the air. We need to raise awareness within society and encourage people to take responsibility," she said.
Her goal is to make sustainability feel participatory rather than prescriptive. "I want every person to feel they can make a difference."
She was candid about why she sought outside support rather than going it alone. "I realised I needed guidance and mentors. By choosing Khalifa Fund, the journey becomes easier.”
Making Data Work for SMEs
Customer retention may sound too mundane next to genetic science and eco-tourism, but Abdel Rahman Al Matrooshi, CTO of Beloyal, is betting that small businesses are sitting on a goldmine of data they are yet to discover how to use. His platform converts customer behaviour into loyalty strategies, with a geolocation feature that connects users to nearby cafés and SMEs.
"Instead of scattered customers, businesses would have centred customers they can target and retain," he said. For him and his platform, data that currently falls through the cracks becomes a tool for growth.
Building Resilience
Healthcare rounded out the field, with Dr Omar Najim presenting Baynounah Gene Solutions. The company is the first in the Middle East to manufacture DNA-based materials for molecular diagnostic tests covering human, animal and plant health.
Its origins lie in the supply-chain vulnerabilities that Covid-19 and recent geopolitical disruptions brought to fore.
"It remains on us, including startups, to come up with solutions that address this now and into the future," Dr Najim said.
For Ali Abdulla Al Saadi, Director of Enterprise Development and Support at Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, the competition is designed to do exactly that: channel innovation toward challenges that the public and private sectors have jointly identified.
Financial rewards reach up to Dh1 million. But the non-financial side of the prize carries weight too as this includes “mentorship, enhanced business and financial planning, and matchmaking opportunities that connect startups to the wider entrepreneurship ecosystem”, Al Saadi told Aletihad.
Dr Najim put it plainly: "Being associated with Khalifa Fund is a badge of honour that you carry around when you get introduced to government entities and potential customers.”