ABU DHABI: Aldar Properties (‘Aldar’) has chosen three Prop Tech startups as part of the inaugural Aldar Scale Up accelerator programme, which focuses to give a gateway for international businesses with cutting-edge real estate technology to enter and set up in the UAE.
Chosen startups will gain from sustainable growth opportunities by pilot projects with Aldar and other leading industry players in the region. The Scale-Up accelerator programme was built in partnership with startAD, the Abu Dhabi-based accelerator, powered by Tamkeen and anchored at NYU Abu Dhabi.
The main release of Aldar Scale Up was dispatched in February 2021, and applications were available to new businesses around the world with a center around three key zones: sustainability, data analytics, and smart development. The program got in excess of 200 applications from 31 nations, with nine new companies acknowledged to participate in curated virtual training sessions, work with devoted mentors, and interface with Aldar business units. Three arising PropTech organizations have now been granted pilot projects with Aldar, while the leftover ventures will keep on drawing in with Aldar on future tasks. The organizations chosen for pilot projects include Envio, a German startup that offers inventive IoT items that permit structures to work in a completely integrated ecosystem that connects, collects, analyses, and optimizes data, autonomously or manually from web-enabled devices.
GBuilder, a company based in Finland that built a platform that allows digital communication between the customer, project team, and construction site.
Metrikus, a UK-based startup providing property software solutions with the help of an innovative digital platform, with a center on operational efficiencies, estate optimization, and indoor air quality.
All selected new businesses have additionally been shortlisted to join Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s worldwide tech ecosystem, which offers generous incentives, a progression of significant worth creation services, and admittance to driving corporate and government partners that work with freedoms to scale items, capitalize on market opportunities, develop talent and raise funding, as part of a vibrant fast-growing community.
Talking on the program, Maan Al Awlaqi, Executive Director, Strategy and Transformation, Aldar Properties, said: “The global startup market has led the charge towards innovation and technological development in recent years and we are now seeing the ramp-up of investment activity in the Middle East. In 2020 alone, more than one billion dollars was invested in startups within the MENA region, according to MAGNiTT’s 2021 MENA Venture Investment Report. The UAE, in particular, has been at the forefront of this boom, accounting for one-fourth of all startup transactions in the region.
“Aldar Scale Up programme has been instrumental in enabling us to tap into the global PropTech startup market and harness the latest innovative concepts to enhance our competitiveness. We congratulate all those who participated in this programme on their excellent concepts, which will undoubtedly drive positive change in the industry.”
Managing Director of startAD and also Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at NYUAD, Ramesh Jagannathan, said: “Real estate constitutes over 50% of the world’s assets however, only 58% of real estate companies globally have a digital strategy in place. With technological advancements and digitization, the quest for sustainability, and changes in consumer behavior, it is clear that there is an undeniable need for the industry to evolve. In the UAE, real estate has significantly contributed to economic growth over the past two decades; accounting for AED 38.4 billion in the gross domestic product of Abu Dhabi in 2019. startAD is proud to partner with Aldar in driving the digitization of the global real-estate industry from Abu Dhabi, building a shared economy and smart, sustainable communities.”
All the participating startups who give innovative and sustainable solutions in the real estate sector will be able to use the business network access given to them by Aldar to more forward their projects in the UAE market.
Aldar Properties is focused on cultivating development, in accordance with the UAE’s National Innovation Strategy. The organization has built up a structure to drive forward innovative practices, with a center around three key zones: corporate innovation, incubation programmes for startups in complementary sectors, and investment in new tech-enabled businesses. As a component of this methodology, Aldar proceeds to set up and support various incubators and projects to advance the development and backing of emerging tech concepts and young talents across the region.
Aldar Scale-Up Program is the most recent exertion by Aldar Properties to help advancement in the real estate industry. Different initiatives dispatched by Aldar in the UAE market lately incorporate Manassah, a six-month entrepreneurship incubator pointed toward supporting pioneering ability and progressing local retail ideas in the GCC; Manassah Youth at Aldar Academies, which expects to build the next generation of regional entrepreneurs through a dedicated training programme; Ibtikar, Aldar’s internal innovation incubator; and the Innovation Champion programme, which is an upskilling initiative that enables Aldar employees to drive innovation at a business unit level.