His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has launched Ignyte, a digital platform aimed at accelerating the growth of over 100,000 start-ups.
Curated by Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the platform aligns with Dubai’s Digital Economy Strategy.
It connects entrepreneurs with 5,000 investors, mentors, and corporate partners to foster global expansion and save start-ups collectively over $100 million through exclusive perks.
Start-ups will also benefit from access to some 5,000 vetted mentors and industry 0experts, offering critical guidance to help navigate growth challenges.
Ignyte’s Leap marketplace offers startups exclusive perks and deals on services and software.
Launch partners for the marketplace include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dropbox, Github, Google Cloud, HP, HubSpot, Microsoft Azure, Mixpanel and Zendesk.
Ignyte also incorporates Challengex, a dedicated platform for coding competitions and challenges, and offering access to AI models and data.
According to DIFC, the new startup platform will also provide a bridge for startups to engage with some 500 corporate organisations and government entities, creating opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
Dubai has long been positioned as a startup hub, but during the past ten years, it has worked methodically to remove many of the barriers for startups trying to form in the emirate or enter the ecosystem from abroad.Â
The result has been to dramatically increase the emirate’s attractiveness as a startup destination, in particular for AI, Web3 and emerging technologies.
