“Abu Dhabi has developed into the capital of capital”
“Abu Dhabi really has developed into the capital of capital,” OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved told Fintech.TV’s Vince Molinari during Abu Dhabi Finance Week in November.
Earlier the same day, OurCrowd announced the launch of Integrated Data Intelligence Ltd., a new company created with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to provide artificial intelligence products for business. IDI has taken offices in Hub71, the high-tech campus on Al Maryah Island operated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
“OurCrowd is a great example of a company that has benefitted from Abu Dhabi’s enabling ecosystem to achieve accelerated growth,” said Eng. Abdulla Abdul Aziz AlShamsi, Acting Director General of ADIO. “In just a year, OurCrowd has moved from an initial licence to an established market player, with its new investment centre and tech hub bringing additional VC and tech specialism to Abu Dhabi and expanding the availability of solutions and technology to companies.”
“ADIO, together with us, is putting together a $60 million project to develop a company which is called Integrated Data Intelligence,” Medved told Fintech.TV. “This is an OurCrowd subsidiary. We will be running it here in Abu Dhabi. We’re going to be growing our team from four to 60 people. We will be developing artificial intelligence for FinTech and for the broader technology industry.”
Integrated Data Intelligence will be led by Dr. Hasanat Dewan, a world-renowned innovator in the field of artificial intelligence for business. OurCrowd Arabia’s investment operations are led by Dr. Sabah al-Binali, its Executive Chairman.
“It's exciting to see what’s going on here, because Abu Dhabi really has developed into the capital of capital, as the Chairman of ADGM said so eloquently in his opening remarks,” Medved said. “Not only are there enormous sovereign wealth funds, really smart investors and family offices and other parts of what is often referred to as Abu Dhabi Inc., there are also tons of entrepreneurs now and there’s a buzz in the air. You look at Abu Dhabi Finance Week and it’s pretty much been the center of the finance world.”
“The falcon is soaring,” Medved said, referring to the Falcon economy promoted by the Abu Dhabi authorities.
The current energy crisis created by Russia’s assault on Ukraine has shifted the global balance towards the Middle East, Medved.
“This was always an important part of the world. It’s now an even more important part of the world,” he said. “What’s remarkable here is the shift into the transition to renewable energy, to financial services and a knowledge-based economy, which the Emiratis are pulling off remarkably. They are professional. It’s a welcoming place.”
Medved revealed that he had been doing business in the Gulf for more than a decade, but could now operate openly as a result of the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, signed in 2020.
“I’m an Israeli. We’re here as a result of the Abraham Accords. We are living it. It’s an unbelievable change,” Medved said. “I’ve been doing business in this part of the world for about 15 years. For the first big chunk of that, I really couldn’t talk about it. We did it, and we felt at home and welcomed. They said the relations between the UAE and Israel was the worst-kept secret in the Middle East. Now it’s not a secret, it’s out in the open. The number of Israelis who are here, the number of Emiratis who are coming to Israel, the amount of joint activity – we’re not just investing in each other, we are building the future together.”
“I think the world will start to look at the partnership between Israel and the UAE as a source of inspiration,” he said. “We are tackling real challenges on food security, on climate change, on energy transition, on healthcare, on carbon sequestration – and how to finance all of this.”
“To be in the middle of all this is heady, it’s exciting.”
Watch the full interview here.
