An inventor who designed sight-saving technology after his grandfather went blind is among four aspiring entrepreneurs who won the chance to promote their business to a global audience.
Saif Al Darmaki won over a crowd of leading business figures by telling them he wanted to help the “forgotten millions” who have sight issues.
He was among four young entrepreneurs named as the winners of the Pitch@Palace GCC competition, held at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night.
They will go on to the global final in London in December.
The Pitch@Palace initiative, was founded by the UK’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, to encourage innovation, and he attended the Abu Dhabi event.
Another successful candidates was Hala Sulaiman, who said she wanted her company, an educational programme that translates Arabic text to audiobooks, to become the “Audible of the Arab world”.
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An app that links recruiters with jobseekers using algorithms, won over the judges, as did another app named Foodate, which aims to reduce food waste.
Mr Al Darmaki said his grandfather had gone blind owing to a condition linked to diabetes and that about 200 million others were at risk of a similar fate. He said his software, set up under his company Artelus, reduced the length of time it took to diagnose the condition.
"When I was 13 I noticed my grandfather was having sight issues," he said. "We took him to doctors but it didn't help. Two years later he was blind.
“The solution is using our detection system. Those with the disease will be referred to doctors. So far we have screened more than 32,000 people using our software, and helped save more than 7,000 eyes from blindness. Please help us deliver quality healthcare to the forgotten millions.”
The 14 finalists previously went through a two-day boot camp stage where they received expert tuition to prepare them for the final.
The Pitch@Palace competition, launched in 2014, has been embraced by the UAE in a drive to encourage more young people to enter the private sector, rather than taking on government jobs. It was expanded this year to welcome contestants from across the Gulf.
Of the finalists, eight were Emirati and the rest from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Hussein Al Nowais, chairman of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, which organised the event in partnership with the Duke of York, said the competition would boost creativity in the UAE.
"We remain fully committed to continue our quest for excellence and become a role model at the local, regional and global levels in fostering a culture of innovation that encourages entrepreneurs to dream big and to equip them with the resources to transform this dream into reality," he said.
The Duke of York called on established business people and investors to make connections with those pitching ideas.
“Entrepreneurship and building businesses is a team effort,” he said. “We need to build a community that gets behind and encourages these businesses. What we are able to do is create a doorway for these businesses to move forward.”
Among candidates who failed to win a place at the final was the creator of a tracking system for camels designed to prevent road accidents.
Abdullah Al Qahtani, of Camels Mate, creator of a wearable, solar-powered GPS camel tracker, said: "I have lost some of my relatives in camel/vehicle collisions. So sad. In a small city in Saudi Arabia, 200 people die in camel vehicle accidents every year.
"I love camels, I own some. I want to protect people and camels at the same time. I just want to be supported and tell people about the camels. They are part of our history and our culture. We need to save them and save people as well."
The four winners will now prepare to pitch for funding at St James's Palace, London, at the global final on December 12.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
