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UAE: Entrepreneurs share their ups and downs at Investopia

100 companies rewarded for exemplary innovations

From having eureka moments to struggling to find funding for years, several top entrepreneurs shared the ups and downs of their journey at the Investopia. They were speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the first ever Future 100 list. A list of 100 companies that will shape the future of UAE, it recognises the incredible work of exemplary entrepreneurs in the country.

One of the companies placed on the list is AR Engineering that turns complex textbooks about aerospace into graphics using 3D technology and AR. According to one of the co-founders Akram Amir, it was his own experience that led him to establish the company. “I am an aerospace engineer and while we were working, we faced these problems,” he said. “We did some research on why when we study something from the textbook and then when we go to work, there is a gap between it. Then we found that the issue we face is the same in America and Europe and every other country. We spent a lot of time researching about it.”

However, he admitted that the entire team worked for over three years before they received any investment. “It was extremely hard,” he said. “The aerospace industry is a very traditional one and no one likes to change things as long as it is working. But we managed to power through and recently we were lucky enough that Boeing decided to invest in us. It was a huge win for us.”

The Future 100 companies were selected through direct applications and nominations made by leading UAE entrepreneurship ecosystem stakeholders. After receiving more than 1,000 entries, the top 100 were shortlisted after engaging in more than 200 online interviews with 45 subject matter experts. The criteria based on which the applicants were assessed included innovativeness, business model viability, market potential, and environment, sustainability, and governance (ESG).

Eureka moment

Agritech business Pure Harvest, which delivers over 15 million kilogrammes of produce per year using just a fraction of the water required by traditional farmers, is another company on the list. Chariman of its board David Scott shared his eureka moment.

“We were meeting someone to ask them to invest in our company and our very first produce had been harvested,” he recalled. “It was the middle of August and our team brought some of the tomatoes onto the table. I remember eating it and thinking it was far superior in quality to not just local tomatoes but even from my hometown in the US. And we were producing this in the middle of summer. At that time I had a clear vision that our company is going to be successful.”

Since then the company has company has secured millions of dollars in investment and has grown exponentially. David said that company, which began in Abu Dhabi, faced several challenges. “The humidity in Abu Dhabi is very high and the conditions are quite extreme,” he said. “But this meant that it prepared us to be successful in every kind of atmosphere.”

He said that recently they were given land in Singapore who was trying to up their domestic produce. “They first spoke to us and then went shopping around the world,” he said. “When they came back to us, they said that they couldn’t believe that the best agriculture technology they had seen was coming from the UAE. We take that as a compliment.”