• The region’s leading tech hub hosted high-level guests and professional development workshops at its pavilion.
• The in5 stand saw numerous one-to-one meetings between start-up founders and angel investors, while the incubator signed a series of MoUs to bolster its start-up ecosystem.
Dubai Internet City (DIC) and in5 concluded their activities at the close of GITEX Global with DIC hosting a series of knowledge-sharing workshops at its pavilion, while the incubator’s stand saw start-up founders gaining invaluable brand exposure while interacting with potential clients and investors.
Throughout the Middle East’s largest technology event, DIC, the region’s leading tech hub, saw a number of high-level figures visit its centrally located pavilion, including His Highness Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai.
LinkedIn, Huawei and htc were among the tech giants that had a presence at the pavilion, where they held a series of professional development workshops across a range of topics over the course of GITEX. LinkedIn offered attendees advice on topics such as how to maximize their SME’s presence on the platform; Huawei’s talks included discussion on the importance of the cloud in an organization’s digital transformation journey; and htc’s workshops explored the rapidly expanding scope of business opportunities in virtual reality, including game development, training, health and safety, and design.
A haven for founders and investors
At the in5 stand in Zabeel 6, start-up founders were able to sit down one-to-one with angel investors and venture capitalists to discuss potential partnerships and funding opportunities, among other things.
For Atif Ahmed, CFO of ViewIT, a property technology (proptech) start-up, being hosted at the in5 stand at GITEX has been an invaluable experience. “It’s a fantastic experience for a young start-up like ours, which only launched on the Apple and Google app stores six months ago, to be here.
“In5 has got a beautiful setup, and we’ve actually been able to sit down and talk with a number of investors, which is crucial for a seed-stage start-up like ours. Our product video has been playing on a loop, and that has attracted a lot of curious visitors who we have had the chance to educate about our offering.”
Viewit is a platform that allows real estate agents to visit a listing and create a walkthrough video for a verified listing in three easy steps. Viewit seeks to solve two issues: The prevalence of misleading images – the platform doesn’t actually allow pictures, only video – and fake listings.
Andrew Widera, Co-founder of Veehive.ai, a mobile-first online streaming community that offers creators tools to easily manage and monetise their content, also feels that he had taken a lot away from GITEX, where he spent day one at the DIC pavilion and day three at the in5 stand.
“It’s been great to get the exposure and brand awareness with regards what we’re doing. Being recognized and able to represent in5 at GITEX has also given us a lot of confidence.
“It’s a really good opportunity for us to meet people – potential customers, investors and various people in the ecosystem.”
Widera added that being present at GITEX has also given his team the chance to develop deeper relationships with the people at in5.
On Monday, in5 signed a number of agreements to further enhance the strength and offering of its ecosystem. Pen was put to paper on MoUs with Tie Dubai, TomTom, Gellify and Parsons to improve in5 start-ups’ access to mentorship networks, cutting-edge location technology, appropriate investors and market access to large corporate projects. The agreements followed in5’s announcement that its start-ups had raised a collective AED 1.4 billion in funding from VCs and angles investors so far.
The Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI) also had a presence at the DIC pavilion, where five projects created by the institute’s brightest students were on display. Developed from first- and last-year studio briefs, the projects address and tackle health, environmental and social challenges.