On the penultimate day of the Big 5 Global, the Start-Up City Pitch Competition wrapped up.
This year, Start-up City welcomed 50 start-ups from 20 countries, showcasing innovations from 3D printing to IoT, AI and concrete technologies, smart energy management systems to sustainable construction materials, and more.
As part of the competition, one-on-one mentoring sessions were organised with the region’s leading accelerators and investors in the start-up ecosystem, such as Rainmaking, Founder Institute, Astrolabs, Flat6Labs, Plug & Play and Zacua Partners.
Supported by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy (DCDE) and Enterprise Greece, Start-up City also hosted key sessions outlining insights to navigate the funding landscape, where Betty Alexadropoulou, Executive Director, Member of the Board of Directors at Enterprise Greece with fellow panellists Abe Seksek, CEO of MENA and Africa, Rainmaking and Laura Mansoor, Program Director at Flat6Labs discussed the regional and global outlook for the start-up ecosystem.
The finalists at this year’s Start-up City Pitch Competition included Angelswing Inc., ArenPro, BuildHop, Carbon Limit, innotech, METGUARD, Smarter Habitat GmbH & Co. KG, SURVIOT Monitoring, Urban Canopee and Verofax Limited.
Carbon Limit, which provides a solution comprising a negative powder additive made of active minerals highly reactive to CO2, was selected as the winner this year.
It won a $25,000 bespoke marketing package.
In addition, DCDE offered significant rewards for the top three winners, whereby the winner, Carbon Limit, secured a cash prize of AED50,000, followed by AED30,000 to Angelswing in second place and AED20,000 to Arenpro received as the third winning start-up.
ALEC, Founder Institute and Nirman Ventures, as the other partners, also selected Angelswing and Verofax; Arenrpo and Surviot; and Arenpro and Carbon Limit for various opportunities as their winners, respectively.