As part of its development plans, Etisalat has selected four international firms for a digital scaleup program. Etisalat (“Emirates Institute for Communications”‘) is a multinational Emirati based telecommunications services provider, which operates in 15 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The company stands as the fourteenth largest mobile network operator in the world (serving 167 million users), and it is aiming to become bigger.
Etisalat is running a project called Future Now. The project aims to introduces new ways of innovating and collaborating with startups, IoT developers, government entities, enterprises and end-users. This is via four pillars, described as a scaleups program, a co-creation Lab, an IoT partner ecosystem and an innovation center.
Etisalat has selected four firms as part of the first wave, according to Fierce Telecom. These are: Yitu Technology (China), Com IoT Technologies (UAE), 300cubits (Hong Kong), and Tradefin (U.S.), who were whittled down from a short-list of promising technology-focused satrtups.
With these companies, both Yitu Technology and United Arab Emirates-based Com IoT Technologies have been picked to help develop video surveillance systems and solutions to improve traffic flows. Another par of the remit will include the use of recognition technology to assist with reducing crime levels.
With the third startup, Hong Kong’s 300cubits has been tasked with reducing the transactional costs that can hamper business process for banks, private organizations and government entities. This will be by developing blockchain. With the fourth startup, Tradefin will also work on a blockchain project. This will be to enable exchanges across various loyalty currencies and to transform loyalty currency programs into cryptocurrency.
As well as business opportunities and the path to scaling-up, the winning firms will have the opportunity to network with a number of key stakeholders and they will be granted access to resources and expertise across Etisalat’s client base.
