Monday, May 22, 2017

Abu Dhabi: India is seeking to deepen its relationship with the UAE at the private sector level, with a Start-up India summit beginning in Dubai on Tuesday, New Delhi’s ambassador to the UAE has said.

More than a dozen Indian start-up firms will be taking part in the two-day event, which will be held at Emirates Tower in Dubai on May 23 and at Abu Dhabi Global Market on May 24.

Representing sectors like fintech, healthtech and artificial intelligence, the Indian start-ups will be looking to connect with their counterparts in the UAE and to find potential venture capitalists to invest in their firms.

Among the companies taking part in the two-day event include CloudCherry, Capillary, Fyle, Hotel Logix, Capital Float, Niramai, Team Indus, Faircent among others.

According to the Indian embassy, Team Indus is planning a privately funded spacecraft to land on the moon, paving way for private participation in future space exploration.

Faircent is another start-up, which enables individual lenders and borrowers to transact directly without the intervention of any financial institutions or bank, the embassy said.

“We are targeting potential customers and venture capitalists for these companies. UAE is a uniquely placed in the region as a hub for technology and innovation. It has a reputation for an early adopter to technology and has a futuristic vision with a minister for future,” Ambassador Navdeep Singh Suri told Gulf News in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Through the event, the Indian embassy is seeking to provide a platform for the start-up ecosystem in both India and the UAE for greater collaboration, exchange ideas, interact with investors and industry and provide access to funding, Suri said.

Highlighting the start-up scene in India, he said Indian government is encouraging start-ups in a big way with a much better legal system and much better eco system for them.

“Companies like Flipkart and Paytm with multibillion valuations are successfully operating in India,” he said.

Bilateral trade

On trade relations between India and the UAE, Suri said it is growing at a healthy pace with total bilateral trade valued at more than $50 billion (Dh183 billion) for 2016.

“There is a vibrant relationship between the two countries. We [India] remain the UAE’s second largest trading partner and the UAE is India’s third largest trading partner. There are multiple things happening in the economic sector with companies like Emaar, DP World,

Dubai Holdings, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority investing in a big way,” Suri said.

The India-UAE relationship is on an upswing following high profile visits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 to the UAE and the subsequent visits by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to India in 2016 and early this year.

“We are really working to diversify relationships in all possible areas. We wanted to move beyond government to government relationships to deepen our relationship at private sector level,” Suri said.

Ronaldo Mouchawer, founder of Souq.Com, is expected to deliver keynote address at the summit in Dubai on Tuesday.

Participating companies in the summit include CloudCherry, Capillary Fyle, Hotel Logix in Saas (software as a service), Capital Float, Faircent, Tone Tag and Kred X in Fintech, Aindra, Niramai, Sigtuple, Tricog in Healthtech, Allgo Vision, Locus, Posist and Tessaract in Deeptech, Oziom and Team Indus in innovative sectors.

By Fareed Rahman Senior Reporter

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