The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) invested over Dh60 million in several start-ups and a fund manager via its ventures fund. The government entity invested in technology firms Securrency, Trukker, Sarwa, YACOB and Okadoc — all of which are either based in Abu Dhabi or are expanding into the emirate.
Nigeria was ranked the top startup investment destination in 2019, thanks to its attractive Fintech industry with raised most of the funds, an annual funding report by WeeTracker shows. Africa’s largest economy was ranked top both for the number of deals done and for their value as startup investment received grew nearly fivefold compared to 2018.
Leading community platform MAGNiTT in a January 7 report ranked Egypt as the country with the most startup investment deals closed in 2019 in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report showed that these business agreements drew 25 percent of 564 sealed deals in the Middle East and North Africa.
African tech startups had the "best year yet" in investments in 2019, as 311 companies received $491.6 million in funding, according to the African Tech Startups Funding Report 2019.
In just a few weeks, the world has been turned upside down. The COVID-19 pandemic, with almost 1.5 million confirmed cases and the number of deaths approaching 100,000, has shut the world down, and an era of economic contraction is coming.
About a year ago, Abu Dhabi’s start-up space Hub71 opened its doors on Al Maryah Island. It was the capital’s boldest step to becoming a destination for technology entrepreneurs. The space, created with Dh520 million from Abu Dhabi’s Ghadan 21 stimulus programme, is attracting high-tech founders and the people who support them.
Dubai International Financial Centre’s FinTech Hive has tripled in size to accommodate additional start-ups and host more events and workshops. The financial freezone, which launched FinTech Hive in 2017, has developed it into one of the biggest FinTech accelerators in the region.
The Lord Mayor of the City of London William Russell said that his country supports Qatar’s aspirations to become a financial technology hub in the region, praising the new legislations related to financial technology and the establishment of a regional financial centre, QNA reported.
At a recent UK-Saudi Smart Cities and Technology Forum held in London earlier this month, Saudi and British public and private sector delegates concurred that a prime opportunity exists for a joint collaboration in the tech arena between both countries through the Saudi-British Joint Business Council (SBJBC) and other key stakeholders.
Coronavirus-triggered social distancing, isolation and lockdowns have driven-up the use of financial apps in Europe by 72 per cent in a week, according to deVere Group, an international financial advisory organisation.
Mobile phone apps that point shoppers to discounted groceries, codes on chicken and cheese that display their origin, and water dispensers and degradable packaging that slash plastic use.
Customer experience continues to be one of the greatest challenges to businesses across Middle East and Africa, at a time where customer expecations are the highest they have ever been. Only 9% of organisations say customers rate brand experiences as fully satisfactory, with satisfaction around AI and robotics experiences faring even worse.
Ghana is using delivery drones to test people for the coronavirus more quickly outside major cities. They will be provided by US-based start-up Zipline.
A pan-European approach for Covid-19 mobile apps should be drawn up by April 15, the EU said in new proposals aimed at using virus-tracking digital tools safely and more effectively.
The efforts to save Nigerian tech startups that are likely to go out of business as a result of the coronavirus pandemic could benefit immensely from the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF), supposing it is available and accessible.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention has launched an AI-powered preventive healthcare platform dubbed “Enayati” to monitor health indicators and predict any possible health risks that may put patients’ lives at risk.
From genome sequencing to artificial intelligence and connected care, then, the region’s widescale embrace of technology could see GCC quickly gain market leadership in technology-driven healthcare.
The UAE's telecoms regulator recorded an 11 per cent monthly rise in cyber-attack attempts against the country’s federal government entities in March. More than 34,930 attempts were stopped last month, an increase of 3,449 on February's numbers, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
Organisations in the Middle East and Africa should develop a reliable information-sharing mechanism with the public sector to beef up the cybersecurity framework and cut down costs predicted to grow more than five-fold in the next three years, say industry experts.
Government spending on information and communication technologies in the Middle East and Africa region will surge at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 per cent to reach $15 billion (Dh55.05bn) by 2023, up from Dh46.97bn last year, predicted International Data Corporation.
Kaspersky conducted a recent survey in collaboration with popular Arabic technology news portal – AITnews. The survey aims to understand how knowledgeable online users are about threats and the best ways to respond to them.
When dealing with the COVID-19 crisis many people struggle to find the best sources of information. As a contribution to the business community, Infomineo has put together a repository of the best sources of information which we will keep updating during the COVID-19 crisis.
The arrival of the COVID-19 crisis in the GCC countries has created a shift in the request of healthcare services across customers: the demand within some segments is dropping and purchasing habits are changing, as people reprioritize their necessities. Find out more about the recent trends in the healthcare and pharma industry in the GCC in our report.
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