The founders of 23 startups have arrived in Abu Dhabi as part of Hub71’s latest cohort. These startups have collectively secured over $53 million in funding, and were selected from a pool of 1,400 applications from over 100 countries.

While 40 percent of the tech startups hail from the US, the rest come from various countries in the region, including the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as companies from the UK, Canada, India, and Armenia. These startups operate across 11 industries, including fintech, climate tech, healthtech, and edtech.

The 23 startups in Hub71’s 13th Cohort. Courtesy of Hub71

As the UAE is hosting the COP28 in November, climate change has been the key focus for 2023 in the country. The UAE has a strategic initiative to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment also announced a comprehensive roadmap to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared to a business-as-usual scenario.

This year’s cohort also highlights two climate tech startups that have developed innovative technologies to shape a more sustainable future. Here are some of the innovators of this cohort.

Aquaai, which has secured $1.5 million (AED 5.5 million) in funding, is a software and hardware service company that delivers data from waterways using 3D-printed, bio-inspired fishlike drones. Founder Simeon Pieterkosky built the startup out of a promise to his 8-year-old daughter to save lives in the oceans. Aquaai has developed an integrated AI-powered web platform and a specialized fishlike autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to collect and deliver real-time visual and environmental data. The data is accessible through an online dashboard for multiple industries and applicable in a myriad of environments from aquaculture, ports, during and post-flooding, fish farms, rivers and open ocean.

Aquaai’s fishlike robotic drone. Courtesy of Aquaai

Carbonsifr, a UAE-founded climate tech platform, enables businesses to neutralize their carbon footprint through solutions like an emissions calculation engine, an AI-based reduction platform, and a checkout tool to engage consumers in climate-friendly practices. The startup has also taken real-life actions in carbon removal, from planting mangroves in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil to supporting the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment’s target to plant 100 million mangroves by 2030.

In addition to ClimateTech, the region’s strong interest in Web3 technology has led to the establishment of the Hub71+ Digital Assets, an ecosystem dedicated to unlocking the growth potential of Web3 and digital assets. Seven startups from this year’s cohort will also join the ecosystem and get access to a network of 13 dedicated partners and other commercial and investment opportunities necessary for scaling their businesses.

Avantgarde Finance, one of the seven startups, is a UK-based company that has raised $5.5 million in funding and offers a platform for digital asset investment managers to plug into, launch their strategies, and scale their operations.

The region’s long-lasting demand for AgriTech has also attracted more startups in this vertical. According to the UAE’s Ministry of Economy, the country’s food consumption is to grow at an annualized rate of 3.5 percent to an estimated 10.3 million tons in 2023.

One of the startups, Sustainable Planet, is an AgriTech company utilizing sustainable technology to combat food insecurity and climate change. Its innovative solution is to grow premium plant-based protein on desertified land. At its flagship project in Mozambique, it uses non-agricultural, salt-impacted land to grow the smallest flowering plant on the planet—water lentil. Water lentils actually flourish in a certain level of salt, which hastens their growth. Due to their regenerative qualities, after a few years, the water lentils actually clean the saline soils on which they sit, acting much like tiny vacuum cleaners, regenerating them for future use in traditional cropping.

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