Revealed: The first few businesses that will come up at Expo 2020 Dubai site

The first cohort of 85 startups and small businesses will set shop at District 2020, the futuristic mixed-use community that will take shape at the Expo site, by the end of this year, it has been announced.

Tala Al Ansari, Director of Innovation Ecosystem and Scale2Dubai, a global entrepreneurship programme, said they received over 3200 applications for startups from 129 countries around the world.

"628 (companies) have been shortlisted, and today we are pleased to announce our first cohort of 85 scaleups from 27 countries around the world that will join us at District 2020," Al Ansari said at a press conference Thursday at Expo 2020.

"These 85 startups will receive a soft landing at District 2020 and will become part of our innovation ecosystem," said Al Ansari, who leads on curating District 2020s innovation ecosystem responsible for attracting global corporate partners.

She said it reiterates "Expo 2020's commitment and district's commitment to supporting entrepreneurs worldwide."

With seven days left for the curtains to fall on the six-month long world fair, 80 per cent of the Expo built structures at the sprawling 4.38 sq km site will be repurposed to transform it into a 15-minute futuristic, human centric city where people can work, live and explore. Encompassing government offices, Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, cultural attractions, accelerators, incubators, labs, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups, District 2020 aims to attract diverse talents from across the world.

“The main ethos behind the District 2020’s ecosystem is to bring together diverse thinkers and to enable partnerships and carry forward that legacy of the expo of connecting minds and creating the future,” she Al Ansari.

Al Ansari said Scale2Dubai will now be working with 85 organizations on their logistics of scaling and being part of district 2020. She said the first cohort will first come onboard in a virtual program in the summer and then join physically on the ground at District 2020 starting October.

Scale2Dubai will host new cohorts annually at District 2020 and selection is already closed for cohort 2, she added.

Nadimeh Mehra, Vice President of District 2020 said the selected startups can operate from District 2020 rent free for two years. “That is critical for as for a startup that's moving and scaling to a new organization. So, we're de-risking for them a lot of their operational costs,” she said.

Elaborating on why Dubai plays an important role in attracting the entire startup movement, Mehra said: “It is such fertile ground for businesses to expand and scale up.”

Anchor tenants like Siemens, Siemens Energy, Terminus Technologies, and DP World will also play a key role in developing tech-driven solutions and also collaborating and helping startups innovate and flourish.