DUBAI — To bring together innovative and forward-thinking visionaries to build an entrepreneurship ecosystem in the UAE that engages not only entrepreneurs but also decision makers and encourages startups to aim higher in terms of visibility and impact on the global stage, Strategi Advisors initiates their startup arm, the Strategi Startup Studio. With an abundance in Risk Capital in the UAE and startup scalability being the new heaven for investments diversification, Investors at all levels like HNI, family offices, shares and crowd-funding see great potential in technology especially post COVID-19 but need guidance in paring up with an innovator with similar passion and vision. Mana Sultan Al Suwaidi, founder of Strategi Startup Studio, said, “The need for an evolving Startup Studio was evident way before COVID-19 but the recent crises strongly drive a larger force towards technology infrastructure and efficiency in all areas of business. We believe that successful businesses emerge when great ideas and entrepreneurs come together in a creative and nurturing environment to bring new concepts to life.” Strategi Startup Studio conceives, launches and scales local and international startups bringing innovative ventures to the city. Supported by Strategi Advisors that already has dedicated experts on board to cultivate a world class tech driven ecosystem, stakeholders can benefit from the team’s local know how, get clarity and be inspired to transform their businesses with the best global talent and capital. Al Suwaidi added, “We hope to build ventures with success stories for unicorns created in the UAE making local, regional and international impact. Experts from Strategi Advisors will represent, support, and protect the growth of the startup business community with world-class expertise in every discipline required to build a market-leading company. “Our objective is to collaborate with the most experienced and trusted partners to give direction to high growth startup entrepreneurs by listening, reflecting and guiding them.” Offering requirements of a conducive Tech Ecosystem with capital, talent, Infrastructure, market potential and supportive regulations, Strategi Startup Studio aims to make Dubai a thriving global startup hub by working in synergy with the local government, incubators and accelerators. According to Al Suwaidi, UAE is ready to create its own hub for building businesses and the young generation is ready for this. Coming from a pedigree of Emiratis keen on cultivating the vision and framework of leadership, entrepreneurship and "glocalization. Al Suwaidi and his peers aspire to demonstrate an advanced level of ecosystem development, characterized by cross-border venture building capabilities. In the last four months, Strategi Startup Studio has been in investment discussions with a sovereign fund in Abu Dhabi and other regional venture capital investors to invest $50 millions for exchange of equity in startups in the next five years. To investors, UAE’s strategic positioning as a vibrant hub for trade, finance, media, tourism, hospitality, talent and technology offers great potential for investment opportunities across multiple sectors as 60% of humanity exists within a 5-hour flying radius of UAE (China, India, Europe, Russia and North Africa). While neighbouring countries are competing as conventional economies, UAE is evolving into a knowledge economy offering the perfect platform to connect startups, investors and enablers with relevant resources, accessibility and opportunities and Strategi Startup Studio is the first step towards building an ecosystem that rivals entrepreneurial hubs like the Silicon Valley Today more than ever companies need a forward-thinking strategy with new set of tools and frameworks to navigate through uncertainty and stay relevant. Strategi Startup Studio aims to do just that and guide businesses to think and act differently as well as gain leverage as ecosystems gain relevance to impact economies in a meaningful way. — SG