The world has been shrinking ever since technology started driving and connecting people globally. London-headquartered firm, 4p Ahoy Limited's Thinkahoy.com has pledged to offer the UAE-based entrepreneurs all the assistance under its holistic platform from idea to actually launching the startup firm. The company began its UK operations last year by setting up entities there.
So what will Thinkahoy.com offer? The platform operates in the B2B space and brings opportunities for entrepreneurs, business service providers, mentors and investors alike. Entrepreneurs gain access to business services at a global scale; market insights that are customised for their businesses that are powered by big data analytics and artificial intelligence; on demand access to office spaces; simplified banking systems; and access to investors across the globe. In addition to this, the company is working towards infusing capital directly into IT and non-IT businesses. Service providers, mentors and investors gain access to a global network of entrepreneurs and SMEs who with their help and support can build companies.
"We plan to be operational in the UAE in the next three months as we are currently working with the authorities to get licences to be able to offer all the services of Thinkahoy and make capital investments to local IT and non-IT businesses in the Middle East market with Dubai and the UAE as our hub. We are also looking at establishing partners to help make this happen," said Vinay Datta, founder and CEO, Thinkahoy.com.
"In 2018, we will be launching Thinkahoy in several startup hubs in the UK, Europe, UAE, India and Hong Kong before moving to the US markets. In the initial stages we will be launching the business services and insights platform and then roll out our office space and fintech solutions in the Middle East. Be it the next big app or a restaurant that wants to expand, Thinkahoy is here for you," Datta adds.
Why Dubai? There are over 5,000 startups in the Middle East region with the UAE leading the way with over a 1,000 startups and several innovative free trade zones designed for ease of business. The UAE with its booming economy, strong political and legal frameworks has provided ideal conditions for entrepreneurs to flourish and accelerate their businesses growth and hence has been our natural choice to establish Thinkahoy in the region.
"We believe that once the concept of setting up businesses and running them is made easier through Thinkahoy, there will be more entrepreneurs and more businesses that are setup which in turn means that there will be more jobs," Datta informs.
The company has bootstrapped their operations and plans to raise £125 million this year, it is also on the verge of closing deals with couple of venture capitalists.
Anvesh Gopalam, co-founder and CTO, Thinkahoy.com, said: "It all began while me and Karthik Pisipaty, co-founder and director, Capital Investments, Thinkahoy.com, were pursuing our masters in business courses in Germany and were having a discussion with Datta on how having more entrepreneurs in an economy helps strengthen it because there'd be more jobs and more influx of money into that economy. However, we realised that there are lots of hurdles in the journey of an entrepreneur. While finding the right service providers such as HR, tax, marketing consultants or lawyers is a challenge, finding good banking solutions and access to capital is another major challenge. Vinay then said that entrepreneurs without resources and capital are as good as musicians without the right instruments and audiences. We saw a problem and then decided that we must build a solution to make the concept of building and scaling businesses simpler and approachable to everyone who has an idea. Thus Thinkahoy was born and we pledged that we'd build the most entrepreneur-centric company and provide 360 degree solutions to anyone and everyone who dreams of building their own business."
"At pre-launch stage the company has 18 entrepreneurs that are distributed across the UK, Europe and India that will be gaining early access to Thinkahoy and will be working with 22 business service providers, 9 investors and 11 mentors that are predominantly based in the UK and Europe and will gain early access to the platform. Apart from these, the firm has also identified a potential service provider network of over 40,000 firms specialising in various categories of law, tax, marketing, information technology and human resource consulting. "As we approach our launch in Q2-Q3 timeframe we are working to increase our partnerships across India and the UAE," Datta adds.
Sreekrishna Kotnur, advisor and executive director, an inventor, technologist, with a diverse experience of over two-and-a-half decades in the IT industry, holds over a hundred copyrights, patents and pending applications and has been mentoring several entrepreneurs in the past. He mentors the Thinkahoy's team on business and technology strategy.
"Thinkahoy is a 360 degree solution for entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses. It addresses grassroot level problems in the system and enables entrepreneurs to set up companies, track interactions with service providers, manage office spaces and gain access to a pool of mentors. However, another unique aspect to Thinkahoy's philosophy is from a capital investments perspective - several VCs in the market offer funds to ventures operating in trending fields like urban mobility, artificial intelligence or fintechs. But, once you provide funds to smaller businesses and non-IT businesses you enable their growth and impact the bottom of the pyramid. Thereby, creating a positive shift in ideology among people to realise their dreams of starting a business and solving real problems. Apart from the impact on society, the product will also create an impact on a region's economy through creation of employment and increasing the flow of capital into the region," Kotnur says.
"Our target customers are entrepreneurs and small business owners that are just setting out to build businesses or the ones who are aiming at growth. A pattern that we have observed in our clients is that a majority of them operate in the fintech and aggregators space and are excited to have the prospects to work with service providers across the globe. For instance, the company can connect a sports aggregator in one part of the world with legal professionals in another to help take his business global and on the other hand increase the business potential of service providers from one region to a global scale," Gopalam says.
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com
Published: Mon 19 Feb 2018, 6:00 PM
Updated: Mon 19 Feb 2018, 11:09 PM
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