Today, Etisalat Digital announced strategic partnerships with four scale-ups as part of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators Program,’ bringing to a close the 4thcohort of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators’ which kicked off in March this year.
The program pairs innovative scale-ups from across the globe with Dubai government entities, allowing them build, test, and deploy solutions for 21st-century challenges.
Francisco Salcedo, Senior Vice President at Etisalat Digital, said, “We are pleased to be part of the fourth cohort and partner with these pioneering companies to provide them with a platform to showcase their innovation and digital capabilities to such a global audience.
“This accelerator program helps them engage with our experts, have access to our network, utilise our digital technologies to build viable products and new revenue streams, and bring to reality these new solutions that will help transform our visitor and customer experience.
“Etisalat Digital’s participation with the Dubai Future Accelerators program is part of our efforts and investments focused on the development of smart city technologies, creating digital solutions, nurturing entrepreneurship and providing the right platform to accelerate, innovate and achieve the UAE’s digital vision.”
In January, Etisalat Digital offered two challenges, as part of the program, to companies throughout the world. They had the opportunity to network with a number of key stakeholders and had access to resources and expertise from Etisalat Digital.
Product engineering experts Mobiliya, technology powerhouse Digicomm, and AI/imaging company Sturfree were among those selected to address the first challenge aimed at transforming the visitor experience at city attractions such as Expo2020, museums, libraries, and landmarks by leveraging extended reality, augmented/virtual reality, and artificial intelligence at every stage of the visitor journey by the year 2021.
The second challenge sought to accelerate Etisalat’s transformation to a digital telco by increasing customer adoption of digital self-care channels, thereby enhancing customer experience and reducing 50% of calls to Etisalat Customer Care over the next year, using AI, analytics and insights, and machine learning.
Digital specialists, KocharTech, were selected for this challenge, offering an integrated solution to Etisalat with multiple technology stacks using AI, SIM, Robotic Process Automation and Digital Enablement solutions for their subscribers.
The companies were shortlisted based on their capability to build and launch their core technology and demonstrate traction and/or substantial use cases. Over the nine-week program, Etisalat Digital engaged with the shortlisted companies – from ideation to prototyping and testing new innovative solutions.
Towards the end of the program, Etisalat Digital signed MoUs with selected companies who will then be brought on board the Etisalat Scale-Ups Program, where they will receive access to Etisalat Digital resources and experts, office space, and support needed to deliver joint projects.
Dubai Future Accelerators was launched in 2016 by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the Chairman of Dubai Future Foundation under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The program is a government initiative that aims to bring the world’s most exciting and transformative technology start-ups to Dubai to collaborate with local entities and find solutions for future challenges.
