#ICYMI 20/01: UAE Tech & Digital News at a Glance
Sustainable innovation and technology were on everyone’s minds this week, with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability week that had taken place this week. The event held many forums including Solar & Clean Energy, EcoWASTE, Water, Smart Cities, and Climate & Environment. Read to find more about investments made in sustainable innovations and technology in the region, along with the latest news from the start-up world.
Sustainable development is the way
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City hosted 20 start-ups and small and medium enterprises in sectors including artificial intelligence, agriculture technology and urban sustainability from the world to showcase in an exhibition during the Sustainability week.
Aldar unveiled a $490m sustainable city project in Abu Dhabi. The new project will have provisions for vertical farming, sustainable mobility and waste management.
Last week in Start-Up News
Wa’ed, Saudi Aramco’s entrepreneurship arm, and Fintech and venture capital firm Flat6Labs will join hands to launch a 12-week accelerator programme to boost the growth of FinTech companies in the kingdom.
In its latest funding round, Saudi Arabian Fintech start-up, Lean Technologies has raised $33 million, which will enable it to expand its operations to new markets.
A Saudi tech start-up Lucidya raises $6m to fund its expansion plans across the MENA region. The start-up aims to expand its product offering and strengthen its consumer insights.
Rain, a MENA-based cryptocurrency platform headquartered in Bahrain, raised $110M in its latest funding round. Currently, Rain has subsidiaries in the UAE and Turkey.
New clouds in the UAE sky
Oracle, the US technology giant, opened its new cloud region – a facility that houses at least two data centres – in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
How do you say “security” in French?
Technology companies from France plan to expand their presence in the Middle East security sector to tap into the multi-billion dollar security market.
The security market in the UAE is worth $490 million, in comparison to an estimated $4.9 billion for the MENA region.
Luxury EV maker to set up shop in Saudi Arabia
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors plans to build a factory in Saudi Arabia by 2025-2026 to meet the rising demands for electric vehicles in the region.
Metaverse hiring spree on the horizon
There is a rising consensus that more major brands will be investing Web3 projects soon, increasing the number of hiring opportunities for candidates comfortable with Web3.
“The metaverse…is slowly registering a growth in demand for jobs in a sign of its imminent integration with the future digital economy.”
Make way for Metaverse Planners and Metaverse World Builders.
