Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced their collaboration at the GITEX Technology Week, to provide tech startups with support to build scalable and secure cloud-based services that accelerate their growth.
The cooperation offers Hub71 startups access to AWS Activate, a programme that provides tools and resources to help startups innovate and scale faster.
Through AWS, startups can experiment frequently and optimise business performance, while reducing technology costs. Hub71 startups will benefit from AWS Activate credits worth up to US$100,000 for each, in addition to AWS Support credits. They will also have access to technical support and architectural guidance from AWS Cloud support engineers, as well as technical and business success training by AWS experts.
AWS recently announced it will open data centres in the UAE in the first half of 2022, as part of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s (ADIO) efforts to attract investments that build technology capabilities in the emirate. The new collaboration with Hub71 comes as an extension to the collaboration between AWS and ADIO across Abu Dhabi’s knowledge economy on various ecosystem and education initiatives, training, and startup enablement programmes.
Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said, "Abu Dhabi is on the cusp of widespread digital transformation that will positively impact all innovation-focused businesses in the emirate. The collaboration between ADIO, AWS, and Hub71 intensifies Abu Dhabi’s support for startups, ensuring that innovators and entrepreneurs can take full advantage of the wave of digitisation sweeping across all sectors and take their businesses to the next level. From technical guidance to infrastructure requirements, startups will have complete access to all the support they need to succeed. In parallel with Abu Dhabi’s innovation focus, ADIO is committed to providing businesses of all sizes with an enabling environment to pursue impactful solutions."
AWS is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering, with more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management.
Jida Itani, Chief Operating Officer, Hub71, said, "Our support infrastructure for the startups community continues to expand the more we learn about our founders’ needs. Joining forces with Amazon Web Services unleashes a multitude of opportunities for our startups, who will be able to take more advantage of cloud solutions as they look at scaling their businesses."
Isabella Groegor-Cechowicz, Vice President of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), AWS Worldwide Public Sector, said, "Cloud computing has revolutionised the way businesses operate, especially for startups. We are pleased to be extending our collaboration with ADIO and supporting Hub71 to empower startups to use AWS Cloud to innovate and grow. With the upcoming launch of the AWS data centres in the UAE, startups will have even greater access to advanced, secure infrastructure and technologies to bring their ideas to life and scale rapidly."