Reanalyse, reinvent, and flip the script: UAE startups flex adaptive muscles

UAE - While businesses across the UAE scrambled to protect themselves against the lasting economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, several startups took the opportunity to reanalyse their business models and explore new opportunities that they identified in the market.

Highlighting the challenges that their startups had faced in the months following the lockdown, various entrepreneurs revealed the steps that they had taken to ensure the survival of their businesses, even as economic activity grinded almost to a halt in many sectors.

Shehzeen Jamil, managing partner of Sippy, a specialty café discovery app with the sole mission to give specialty coffee a voice amongst bigger commercial coffee giants, told Khaleej Times how the pandemic forced the Sippy app to a complete halt.

"Being a startup, we've realised that once your activity goes down, you also lose a lot of brand equity," she said. "We knew that once things would cool down, we'd have to restart and begin at the awareness stage again."

Sippy started off in March 2018 as an app that allows users to discover over 450 vetted specialty cafés within seconds. "We are a team that really love good coffee, but also value what specialty stands for - fair trade, sustainable, ethical practice, good quality, healthy, and, of course, incredible taste," Jamil said.

January 2020 saw the team launch 'Sippy Beans', a digital marketplace for specialty coffee beans from over 30 local and international roasters that are delivered directly to your doorstep. Jamil noted that as much as the pandemic resulted in Sippy's core business taking a hit, the team used the time to revamp the app, and schedule the 2.0 version for launch this September.

"If we have to establish ourselves again, might as well come back with something bigger and better," she said. "On the other positive side, Sippy Beans was actually the perfect model for this pandemic. Roasters essentially run a B2B model, so this avenue benefited both customer and roaster."

Zaid M. Kidwai, founder and CEO of BorrowBlob, an online rental marketplace where users can rent items that they need for a short while from other users who have uploaded them, also saw his business hit a wall after more than a year of successful growth.

"We had our official launch in October 2018, and have so far grown to become the biggest online rental marketplace in the Middle East," Kidwai said. "We did take a direct hit because of the whole Covid-19 pandemic situation, just as most businesses did, especially the ones in the sharing economy sector like Airbnb and Uber. There was a drastic drop in normal consumer activity and people were being extra careful about their interactions. So naturally, the idea of sharing things became a taboo."

Kidwai said that he immediately looked into the relief measures that were being launched to aid businesses across the UAE. "I am grateful to the Government of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Global Market, and Masdar, for providing us with the much needed waivers. It helped us to stay afloat when many startups around us were shutting shop."

Looking ahead, Kidwai is optimistic on business picking up again, especially as residents look to save money by avoiding unnecessary purchases. "We have sanitation measures in place, where each item is sanitized, and we provide delivery so that only our personnel are handling the item, giving our users that peace of mind."

Like Jamil and Kidwai, Karim Beidas, founder and CEO of Kidzapp, a platform that collects and curates the best experiences and most enriching activities for families through a free to download app and fully-fledged website, saw his business floundering when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic.

Launched in the UAE in 2017 and in Egypt last year, Kidzapp offers families opportunities to enjoy their time together through new experiences, as well as savings through exclusive offers and discounts. Kidzapp also collaborates with partners to hold family-oriented events, workshops, and community activities.

"For an app that's all about going out as a family - during lockdown when all venues were closed - our revenues suffered, and our app usage declined during the first week or so," Beidas said. "We had to respond very quickly to make sure we maintained our user base and stayed top of mind for families. So, we flipped the script and during the lockdown started focusing on including a lot more ideas for families to do at home."

This included the launch of Kidzapp TV, a daily Instagram live event that engaged parents and kids with fun science experiments; as well as a weekly facebook live collaboration with H2 Productions for 'Princess Storytime', which is an interactive story reading series.

Similar to Kidwai, Beidas said that Kidzapp received help after applying for Visa's #whereyoushopmatters programme, which saw Visa include the startup in its advertising and marketing campaign and on their website. During the lockdown, Kidzapp launched a series of online courses called 'The Summer Pass' in partnership with Babyshop and Barbie, and continued to work with partners such as Laila's Candy Cart and Storybook to provide activity kits that parents can order to their home for their children.

"One of the biggest things we have done post lockdown is deepen our partnerships with other family-oriented businesses," Beidas said. "We understand that everyone is in the same boat and we believe that the only way forward is to work together and build on our relationships."