Funding or access to capital has significantly hindered the growth of start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the UAE. Funding Possibilities is a sought-after platform for both seekers and providers of capital, providing access to various forms of capital beyond equity, including traditional debt, alternative and structured finance. It aims to make private markets more accessible and transparent.

It seeks to give retail investors access to start-ups and enable retail investors to contribute to the overall start-up ecosystem and new-age businesses.

Funding Possibilities is a sector and stage agnostic platform aiming to build more than ten profitable unicorns, i.e., Profi-Corns, in the coming decade.

The launch of Funding Possibilities comes barely three weeks after the launch of the Dubai Economic Agenda ‘D33’ by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that includes 100 transformative projects, with economic targets of Dh32 trillion over the next ten years, doubling its foreign trade to reach Dh25.6 trillion and adding 400 cities as key trading partners over the next decade. More than 400,000 SMEs operate. They represent more than 60 per cent of the UAE’s non-oil economy and provide employment opportunities for 86 per cent of the workforce in the private sector, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development reports.

“Dubai will rank as one of the top four global financial centres with an increase in FDI to over Dh650 billion over the next decade and an annual Dh100 billion contribution from digital transformation. Over 300,000 global investors in Dubai today are helping build Dubai into the fastest growing global city,” HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in a statement.

Dubai is home to more than 10,000 small and medium start-ups. Funding is crucial for the success of start-ups as well as MSMEs. Funding Possibilities would play a significant role in helping start-ups and new-age businesses to grow and become profitable unicorns, i.e. Profi-Corns in future. This will help these businesses play an essential role in realizing Dubai Government’s D33 Vision.

Sheetal Soni, CA, CFA Charter Holder and Founder of Funding Possibilities, says, “Increasing funding options is necessary for the UAE’s small businesses and start-ups. Funding Possibilities is set to fill a clear gap in the start-up and MSME space providing quality funding channels for them to grow and fuel the growth of the UAE economy.

“The launch of Funding Possibilities is well timed with the announcement of D33 – which will accelerate the growth of the economy of Dubai and the UAE in the next decade. It will bring investors closer to the start-ups for multi-stage funding and provide small businesses with the working capital requirement.”

Start-ups across the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Turkey raised $7.2 billion through 1,473 deals. Last year, despite macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, according to a report by data platform Magnitt. With Funding Possibilities, this number will multiply to help thousands of start-ups in the early stage of incubation.

The Funding Possibilities comprise highly-qualified chartered accountants, certified public accountant professionals, tech geek, and serial business entrepreneurs.

Prateek Toshniwal, CA and Co-Founder of Funding Possibilities, says, “We will serve the business community with curated deals to suit their needs, ease informed investment through a four-dimensional due diligence process, provide ease of exits and need-based relevant information at the user’s palm.

“In a nutshell, we want to build a community of start-ups, investors, bankers, alternative finance providers, wealth managers, private equities, family offices, venture capitalists and all other private institutional players.

“We will create a knowledge and resource bank for start-ups, create an eco-system to find the right co-founders, help them in ease of capital raise through various sources of capital, handhold at various stages of their journey from incubation to profitable unicorns.”

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Manish Mishra, Head – Middle East & Africa at Freshworks, said while delivering the event keynote speech, “the last two years have accelerated the pace of change globally, creating higher expectations from employees and customers. At the same time, the Work-from-Anywhere workforce model and the Engage-from-Anywhere customer experience model have put pressure on organizations to deliver faster time-to-value for technology-enabled initiatives. Our event arms regional businesses with unparalleled insight into the key CX trends they now need to navigate. Together with Freshworks, they can break down silos to empower employees to more easily create delightful experiences for the people most important to their business.”

The event included a customer panel, headlined by Silvia Gomez, Director of Customer Experience at BitOasis, Shubham Grover, Product Manager at Swvl, Divek Karagwal, Head of Omnichannel Experiences at the Landmark Group, and Zachariah Manyapye of Fine Hygienic Holding.

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Seamless Middle East returns again this year with its 22^nd edition on the 31^st of May and 1^st of June. This means that the city will be rife with the brightest minds in the fintech, payments, identity, e-commerce, and retail industries. At Seamless Middle East, all topics within these industries will be discussed at the conference from keynote panels such as ‘Discovering augmented ID: an enhanced, adaptable, and self-sovereign identity that creates a safer digital self’ and ‘Stimulating digital commerce growth: staying ahead of the industry’s tech trends’ to having various technological solutions demonstrated on the exhibition floor.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior. Seamless Middle East will gather like-minded individuals and global industry heads to enable and strive for a more advanced technological age within these industries for UAE.

Spanning two days of exciting experiences and content, Seamless Middle East will cover topics ranging from omnichannel optimization, intelligent e-commerce, digital transformation, warehouse automation, instore tech, and so much more. With their exhibition floor hosting innovative solutions and advancements.

Seamless Middle East’s conference, which will be held will be hosting 300+ speakers. This will include globally recognized people in their industries such as Dr. Bijna Kotak Dasani, the Executive Director of Morgan Stanley, and Ksenia Ternyuk, Global Head of Retail Development of Alexander McQueen. Both of whom will be speaking live, on stage at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Joining as Seamless Middle East’s title sponsor is Dubai CommerCity, the first and leading e-commerce free-zone in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region. Facilitating the growth of regional and international businesses to capture exponential e-commerce growth opportunities with these regions. Keynote Speaker at Seamless Middle East, DeVere Forster, Chief Operating Officer at Dubai CommerCity commented: “we continue to witness a surging demand for the e-commerce market, with the continued increase in the number of internet shoppers across the different sectors. At Dubai CommerCity, we strive to keep up with this increase in demand by providing any customer looking to setup or expand their e-commerce business with all-inclusive services, solutions, and packages to grow and scale their business.”

“We look forward to our participation in Seamless Middle East and being a Title Sponsor for the event, which is going to bring industry experts together to outline the future of the e-commerce industry. Between 2019 and 2022, the UAE was one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the MEASA region with a compounded growth rate equivalent to 38.3%. In the upcoming edition of Seamless Middle East, Dubai CommerCity will be showcasing its strategy to maintain and boost the market growth in the e-commerce sector.” Forster added.

Combined with the conference is a free-to-attend exhibition, Seamless Middle East offers attendees the chance to explore their exhibition floor, that’ll host the latest advancements in technological solutions and innovative ideas live and in-person. From the 350+ showcasing exhibitors, the likes of automyze, Cardel, eFunder, lemnisk, LikeCard, Telr, Verimsoft, and so many more will be a part of the exhibition floor.

They offer other free-to-attend features such as the E-commerce University, the Start-up Showcase, and the return of face-to-face networking.

Seamless Middle East will be held at Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE on 31 May – 1 June 2022. Visit the link for more information and to register: https://bit.ly/36CzyIE

Event Details:

• What: Seamless Middle East
• Where: Dubai World Trade Centre
• When: Tuesday 31 May – Wednesday 1 June

Social Media:

• Twitter @SeamlessMENA
• LinkedIn: Seamless Middle East & North Africa
• Facebook: @seamless middle east

#SeamlessDXB

The post Seamless Middle East Will Be Opening Its Doors to Heavy-Weight Individuals in the Fintech, Banking, Payments, Ecommerce, and Retail Industries appeared first on The Integrator.

The new store best reflects the company’s tagline, ‘Experience the future of electronics,’ as it showcases today’s leading innovative brands and their products. The newly renovated store will showcase a wide portfolio of electronic products and accessories–close to 10,000 products across 100 leading brands from drones, laptops, tablets, mobiles to TV’s, gaming accessories, electronic toys, wearables and cameras. In total there are eight E-City outlets spread across the UAE.

“We are very pleased to announce the re-opening of our newly renovated outlet in Dubai Mall, which is expected to consolidate our position as the Middle East region’s first ‘Technology Convenience Store. This new outlet has been carefully designed to uplift the brand’s appeal by featuring vibrant new products, a new signage and an improved store plan crafted specifically to the needs of our customers,” said Jaouad Dakir, CEO, E-City. “We would like to give our visitors and customers a truly unique experience–showing them the future of electronics and what it can offer. Looking around the new outlet is already an experience in itself as you will see the strong focus we have placed on innovative gadgets and electronic novelties”.

The new E-City store features the company’s new rebranding initiative, throwing the spotlight on its new logo and identity, which demonstrates its unique concept of using technology, fixtures, lay-outs and displays that have never been used across today’s retail segment. The technology and fixtures used are one of a kind, utilizing European standards. In fact, every inch of the store has been designed to give customer’s the benefit of convenience and a unique experience. Digital pricing and features have also been integrated to make it easy for customers to compare products–including QR codes to look up more info about the product on the internet via the mobile phone. Digital screens have been placed strategically around the store to broadcast E-City’s latest promotions and novelties.

The post E-City inaugurates newly-renovated store in The Dubai Mall appeared first on The Integrator.

E-City is the electronics retail arm of Albatha Retail & Home Products Group of Albatha Holding, which is one of the leading private business groups in the UAE. The group maintains a staff of over 7,000 employees, consisting of more than 25 autonomous companies across diversified sectors such as automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, FMCG, engineering, electronics, food and real estate.

According to Jaouad Dakir, CEO, E-City, investing in the renovation of all its UAE outlets proves to be both timely and strategic as the country’s retailing industry is currently witness to a very positive business climate and continuing growth and development. The move also complements objectives set forth in the UAE Vision 2021 of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The eight outlets will be carrying the company’s new rebranding initiative, which showcases a new logo and identity that demonstrates E-City’s unique concept of using technology, fixtures, lay-outs and displays that have never been used in today’s industry and the markets. The rebranding move fully complement the company’s tagline, ‘Experience the future of electronics,’ which also covers the showcase of today’s leading innovative brands and the products and services E-City offers–some of which have never been experienced or witnessed in the UAE. The company shared that the technology and fixtures to be installed and implemented across its stores are strongly unique–with every inch of the outlet carrying a design that is aimed towards giving customers the advantage of convenience and unique purchasing experiences.

“Over the years, we are proud of having been able to achieve a leading position in the country’s retailing industry, particularly the electronic retail segment. In line with this, we are living up to our promise of customer convenience and providing them a unique shopping experience with the implementation of a massive renovation initiative of our stores in the UAE,” said Dakir. “Once completed, all of our outlets will be able to give our customers the privilege to ‘Experience the future of electronics.’ The move to renovate complements our rebranding strategy–with a new logo and identity that consolidates our reputation of being a one-of-a-kind specialty consumer electronic store.”

The renovation will cover all of E-City’s stores spread across the UAE, which includes branches in the Mall of Emirates (Dubai), The Dubai Mall (Dubai), Mirdiff City Centre (Dubai), Al Wahda Mall (Abu Dhabi), Dalma Mall (Abu Dhabi), Sharjah City Centre (Sharjah), Matajer Al Mirgab (Sharjah) and Fujairah Mall (Fujairah).

“These new stores will showcase a redesign that incorporates a strategic lay-out aimed at improving the overall customer experience–a smart and friendly shopping environment for them to enjoy. The outlets will make use of the latest in innovative technology and digital visual merchandising to give an added ‘Wow’ factor and attract more customers into the store,” concluded Dakir.

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The event played host to a number of live product demos and industry specific conferences for retail sector. Several prominent speakers from reputed brands like Paris Gallery L.L.C, McArthur+Company, Safeer Group, Chalhoub group, NCC Group, Axiom Telecom, Sedar, Elo Touch Solutions, Xplace GmbH, Philips Lighting, Umdasch Shopfitting L.L.C and Retail Arabia took part in the Smart Stores Expo conference during the first two days, held as part of the event.

Exhibitors and visitors hailed the show a resounding success, and expressed their confidence in the Middle East as one of the key growth markets for latest retail technologies. Several prominent retail chains who visited the event found it to be extremely informative, offering them a rare opportunity to learn the latest trends and innovations in retail technology. With technology influencing customer purchase decisions, visitors also noted that incorporating it in store will help retailers in providing added value to customers and help drive profitability.

Prashant Menon, Director – Projects, iSolve IT, leading providers of retail solutions including POS systems, ELS, and asset tracking said, “Smart Stores Expo is a platform to network with the regional retail sector. We are showcasing some really interesting concepts like digital signage, mobility devices, particularly the industrial models. As we all know, retail market is ever-changing and consumers are constantly on the lookout for superior shopping experience. Our stand has been designed to offer the visitors a unique experience, and showcase the benefits of using in-store technologies. Customer buying habits have changed tremendously and the retail environment is definitely set to see a huge change. People are going smart, and this certainly calls for use of smart technologies.”

According to Emil Zagirov, Director International Expansion, Xplace GmBH, “The retail sector is increasingly focusing on adopting new and smart technologies and working to improve consumer experience, but there is no common platform to share knowledge and showcase developments in the sector. We see Smart Stores Expo as an ideal stage to share knowledge and latest innovations, that can significantly contribute to enhancing efficiencies and improve services in the retail sector.”

“We are very happy with the results. The feedback from exhibitors, visitors and industry leaders is very positive. We also hosted a successful conference, followed by panel discussions on a variety of topics on the first two days that focused on innovation and future of the retail industry. We believe that the discussions were productive in generating awareness about the existing and future opportunities in the retail sector in the region. We are now eager to expand the event in the forthcoming years.” commented Jayaraman Nair, Chairman of VIS Exhibition – organisers of the show

The post Smart Stores Expo ends on a positive note appeared first on The Integrator.

According to experts in the retail sector, ESLs will be a key link in the retail technology chain. These labels use e-paper as its display component; it is an advanced version of segmented e-paper displays. The ESL links the product price to the centralised store server and enables retailers to remotely change the price of the products, allowing real-time product positioning and an interactive in-store environment. The major benefit of these labels is energy efficiency and its ability to project graphical objects such as logos and callouts that help in real-time product positioning. Changing all the prices in a normal sized hypermarket takes 5 to 10 days, but with ESL it can be done within minutes and without any errors.

“ESLs are the perfect starting point for regional retailers, looking into providing smarter store environment. It also opens the opportunity to provide additional information such as place of origin and discounts. Though ESLs are a relatively new concept in the region, we have seen a significant growth in inquiries from retailers, since we launched the solution in the region,” says Monesh Rughwani, Managing Director, Nirsun Technology.

He added, “In addition to ESL, we have something new called ISL (Interactive Shelf Labels) that facilitates interaction between the label, employees and the customers. Traditional ESL systems are designed to push information to a screen describing the product and the price dynamically. The interactive labels are the next step, enabling not only a dynamic display for information to the customer and employees but it also allows interaction between the label, employees and customers. We believe, this level of interaction will open up a whole new range of possibilities to retailers around the world.”

However, the ideal scenario for a future brick and mortar store is a tightly integrated system that consists of ESL, smartphone applications, beacons, indoor location, mobile payments, digital loyalty coupons, customer analytics, and omnichannel marketing and pricing.

“Shoppers in the region are increasingly demanding interactive and real-time information, hence, technologies like ESL are gaining popularity. With more number of retailers using technology to improve customer experience, drive revenue, and streamline the entire shopping experience, physical shopping experience is expected to evolve further,” said Jayaraman Nair, Chairman, VIS Exhibitions and Conferences, which is organising Smart Stores Expo 2017 in January.
The event will provide the exhibitors with an ideal platform to launch, showcase, and present their latest innovations, services and products; along with meeting industry peers, building brand awareness and meeting prospective clients. The exhibitors and visitors will be sharing latest trends in the retail industry, both regionally and global.

The event will be held from 23-25th January 2017, at ADNEC (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company).

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Omega Software is a leading worldwide Point of Sale company providing Information Technology solutions for the Hospitality and Retail industries. Samer EL Deek, Managing Director at Omega Software UAE elaborates on trends in retail and opportunities for software providers in the fast growth segments

With the retail segment booming in the UAE and the GCC, do you see the prospect for POS solutions as a good opportunity for solution providers? 

Retail sales reached $5.4 billion (AED19.9 Bn) last year and will likely see a 7.7% expansion this year, according to an analysis by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and industry. Dubai’s retail market is set to surpass $52Bn (AED 191 Bn) sales by 2020. Definitely this expectation creates a big opportunity for us as software providers.

Despite all what is going on regionally, the GCC in general and UAE in particular remain the best markets to invest in especially on the level of technology and software sectors. We are witnessing a big expansion in the retail market and tourism sector. Surely it is an opportunity not to miss and Omega Software has solutions that are addressing some core requirements of these growth areas. We are working hard to seize all the opportunities possible.

Comment on your retail management solution ‘O market’ – discuss its scalability features and the inroads it has made in the region’s market?

Our retail management solution ‘O-market’ is a robust and stable solution which are a must for any successful retailer. It has all the features needed supporting pos and back office operations. Plus, it supports 8 main languages (including English, Arabic, French etc) and therefore is a helpful tool for the foreign staff who are working in this region. It is quite user friendly, enabling faster transactions and offering much more including powerful theft control which improve operational efficiency and margins for the retailer.

You have solutions for retail management, hotels and call centres – elaborate are they further customized for different customer types?

Omega Software has a large range of solutions that cover f&b, retail and hotels sectors. We have the O-Live for f&b, O-Market for retail sector and O-tel for the hotels sector.

Under these three categories, there are an additional solutions to empower  any business’ operation like call center for delivery, corporate communication for connecting the head-office to its multiple branches, pos mobile, reservation software, catering, inventory, merits the card less loyalty mobile app, accounting software and others.

Discuss the adoption of Mobile PoS in this market and your solutions for Mobile interface?

It is a fact with the need of advanced sales techniques, any business owner tends to increase his margins by reaching closer to his customers and by faster ways. PoS mobile allows this target to be achieved.

In the restaurant industry, every second counts. With our PoS mobile, you can speed up your service, eliminate inefficiency and free your valuable time to concentrate on your customers. It is a genuine way to increase your sales.

What does O-live focus on as a solution? Is this meant only for the restaurant/hotel segment? 

O-Live solution is focused for any f&b business like restaurants, cafeterias, night clubs, delivery outlets.

It consists of 3 modules: friendly point of sale, advanced back office and easy inventory management. Also, it is integrated with a smart accounting solution O-Impact and/or O-Tel solution for an easy management and consolidation of financial bills.

O-Live solution is the only system that offers mobility, delivery, loyalty and much more in one powerful POS. It is everything a business owner needs for his successful restaurant whether he serves dine-in, takeaway, delivery orders and any customized revenue centers.

Does O-Tel primarily target mostly room reservations and tickets sales for theme parks/event etc?

In fact, our O-Tel solution targets medium-sized hotels, motels and hotel apartments sectors. With our O-Tel, you can manage reservations and guest information smoothly, organize your daily tasks efficiently, monitor business performance, book more revenue and save both time and money. It is completely customizable to fit your business, whether for group or individual reservations, room management, multi-currencies settlement and bill printouts, hotel status by room, room rates and much more features. Further, with integrated solution O-Live and O-market, you can do ticket sales to various type like parks, events or theater.

As a software provider, do your solutions integrate easily with different hardware from windows to Linux interfaces and android to iOS?

Our software is implemented in any windows based hardware like Window 7 to Windows 10. Our mobility solution is only integrated with iOS like ipads and mini ipads.

Do you work with channel partners for increasing market inroads?

Inspired by our owner’s culture, we thrive to be loyal towards our suppliers and business partners, knowing that our solutions can be implemented in any hardware model from PoS touch screen to desktops and laptops. We have gained our trust in the market based on that fact.

For that reason, our partner channels and we work hand by hand to serve our customers in the best way. As our company motto reflects “we make software easy to use so you can focus on your business”, we cannot do it without carefully choose reliable channel partners.

The post Enriching retail experience appeared first on The Integrator.

The store opens to the public on July 3, and will feature more than one hundred innovative robotics and unique brands such as EZ Robot, Wonder Workshop, DTS Robotics, Amaryllo, Quitbit, and Sen.se, to name a few. Innovators will enable visitors to have a hands-on experience with the latest robotics technology and innovations from some of the world’s latest brands. It will have a dedicated section for robotics, where shoppers can interact with the many robots and learn more about their functions, and even purchase their very own robot.

“The future of consumer electronics is in innovation, and we foresee that real value will be delivered by products that are apart from traditional electronics. The introduction of robotics into the consumer electronics space is proof that customers demand more from their devices. The world is embracing robotics, and we are proud to be the first to offer robots that suit a variety of segments such as education, services, recreation and for domestic functions. We are making some of the world’s best brands accessible to our customers in the region,” says Cizar Abugazaleh, Managing Director, Action-to-Action.

“Innovators” is unlike any other traditional consumer electronics store in the region. The store is the worlds first electronics store to not list traditional electronics products such as laptops, tablets, desktops and mobile phones.

“At Action-to-Action we are enabling innovators to take their products to a wider marketplace. “Innovators”, as the name suggest, will give innovative technology startups a platform to make their products accessible to customers in the region. The very DNA of the “Innovators” is to deliver only the most unique consumer electronics experience to customers. We are the only store in the Middle East to focus on robotics and innovation and we aim to stay away from the traditional products to focus on advanced technology that simplifies life of our customers,” added Abughazaleh.

As a means to opening up the market to new inventors, Innovators will be allocating marketing funds to support new innovative brands listed at the store, and will not ask brands or innovators for fees to promote, list and display products.

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