ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi’s massive investments in healthcare and technology make it a prime market for “patient-centric” healthcare startups looking to reach new markets, according to venture capital investor Isaac Applbaum.

The cofounder and general partner of MizMaa Ventures, an early-stage deep tech fund with headquarters in Tel Aviv and offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong, said he is looking at what portfolio companies can “leverage the high quality of care and the high quality of technology, so I’m going to look at things that are patient-centric” to introduce to Abu Dhabi. 

“I’ve been investing in the region for a very long time. If I may just say, with the Abraham Accords, things have just opened up in an extraordinary way,” he said. 

Applbaum, speaking at the Forbes Middle East Healthcare Summit in Abu Dhabi, said in the current risk environment founders must get products to market as fast as possible.

“Particularly in the digital health space, and the device space, and in healthcare, understanding how you get your product to market as quickly as possible, how you solve problems that aren’t 100 years away, but are actually solvable problems now,” he said.

“It’s really important: you need to be capital efficient… how you’re going to make your money back becomes way more important than it ever was, because it’s much more difficult.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is increasing its allocation in private equities and eyeing investment opportunities in energy transition and technology. 

ADIA, which re-invests oil revenues outside the UAE on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government in equities, fixed income, infrastructure, private equity and real estate, released its 2022 annual report today. The fund increased the allocation range for private equity to 10%-15% of the total portfolio, from 7%-12% in 2021. 

The sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the Gulf and fourth-largest in the world, has estimated assets of $993 billion, according to Global SWF, a figure that is more than four times the size of Abu Dhabi’s economy in 2022.

As of December 31, 2022, Adia’s 20-year and 30-year annualized rates of return, on a point-to-point basis, remained flat: 7.1% and 7% respectively, compared with 7.3% and 7.3% in 2021, according to the report.

ADIA is finding public equities are more attractive after the 2022 market correction, spurred by high inflation and increased interest rates. It is also looking at the private credit market amid a more cautious lending environment, according to Managing Director Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. 

“Equities – both public and private – should continue to find support, especially if profitability remains resilient despite lingering tensions in supply chains and the availability of labor,” Al Nahyan wrote in the report.

Remarking on the challenging economic environment, Al Nahyan singled out infrastructure and the energy transition as investment opportunities.

“The new landscape may also increase the appeal of physical assets and alternative approaches that are better suited to managing inflation risk. One positive consequence of this trend may be greater alignment between investment goals and societal imperatives. Over time, global investors have played a vital role in supporting and accelerating social progress and this is expected to continue. One example is investment in infrastructure projects, where estimates suggest that more than $3 trillion a year is needed to support global economic growth aspirations and provide citizens with essential services. Importantly, this includes ventures aimed at accelerating the energy transition.”

“Looking ahead, [private equity] is positioning for the continued growth of private equity markets including private credit as an increasingly important alternative to traditional bank lending,” according to the report.

The fund, which rarely discloses asset activity, outlined some of its private equity transactions last year, reporting a “roughly equal” allocation between direct investments and funds, alongside an increased allocation to secondaries. 

ADIA’s private equity department completed 24 direct investments of more than $150 million, in line with 2021. In industrials, ADIA supported the merger of e-commerce and logistics automation firms MHS Global and Fortna. It also acquired a stake in Emerson’s Climate Technologies, a leading player in HVAC and refrigeration end-markets. 

In financial services, the department “continued to focus on multiple themes, including insurance brokers and digital transformation, while remaining mindful of valuations in the sector.” 

The department led the funding round of US insurance broker Acrisure. It also invested in Merchants Fleet, a leading provider of fleet management services. 

ADIA revealed a “more difficult” period for consumer private equity. Despite this, the department invested in AmeriVet, which partners with veterinarians across the U.S., and in McWin, a platform of European quick service restaurants. 

In healthcare, ADIA made private equity investments in China including American Sino, a provider of premium private healthcare services; Taibang, a provider of bloodplasma products in China; and early stage biotech company Sironax. 

ADIA also noted an increase in take-private transactions, including that of U.S. Zendesk, a provider of software for customer service management. 

The fund has undergone a restructuring over the last several years, Reuters reports, combining middle and back office activities and centralizing processes. Last year, it separated its infrastructure and real estate investment teams into standalone departments.

The changes have resulted in a reduction in its workforce to 1,380 at the end of 2022, the report showed, down from 1,520 reported in its 2021 review.

ADIA is also building out a quantitative research and development team to integrate artificial intelligence and investment decisions. It currently has more than 50 on this unit’s staff and is still recruiting, the report said.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Four years after opening up to international tourists for the first time, Saudi Arabia marked progress on its massive $800 billion investment drive to lure travelers as it played host to the United Nations’ World Tourism Day. 

Riyadh welcomed over 500 government officials, investors, international press and U.N. delegates from 120 countries last week to underscore the importance of the global tourism industry. The occasion was also an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to set out more bold plans for its young tourism sector as it seeks to diversify its economy beyond oil revenues.

“If you want to introduce your country to the world, then tourism is the best way to do it,” Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary-general of the U.N. World Tourism Organization, said during a  roundtable discussion. 

Neom has signed around 18 hotel deals – including with luxury brands like JW Marriott, The W and German boutique concept 25Hours – and has a target of 200 total, most of them to be built on The Line, a spokesperson for Neom Hotel Development told The Circuit. 

First unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, Neom is a $500 billion mega-project in the northwest of the country along the Red Sea coast, with construction underway on a variety of zones such as a mountain ski resort, an island getaway, a major port and a city-of-the-future concept known as The Line, where the majority of the hotels will be built. 

The flurry of deals in Neom marks a shift for the kingdom, which has always catered to  Muslim pilgrimage tourists. The majority of hotels currently open in Saudi Arabia are centralized in Medina adjacent to the holy site of Mecca. 

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb announced the creation of the Riyadh School for Tourism and Hospitality to build a pipeline of talent to staff the fast-growing industry. Set to open in 2027, it will cost more than $1 billion to build and be located in the capital’s entertainment and tourism project known as Qiddiyah.

Pololikashvili also announced the creation of a center for the study of sustainability — of which the UNWTO was working closely with officials in the kingdom to accomplish. The program is due to be launched in September and will offer a bachelor’s degree program with students spending time pursuing studies in Madrid, Spain and the Swiss city of Lucerne. 

Al-Khateeb said the kingdom will invest $800 billion to develop tourism over the next decade as the contribution of travel and tourism to the nation’s economy begins to pick up pace. The goal is for the sector to contribute up to 10% of gross domestic product  by 2030, up from a current 4.5%.

The kingdom has also raised  its tourism targets, setting a goal of attracting 70 million international visitors annually by 2030, up from 50 million, Bloomberg reported.  

Among the various delegates in attendance at World Tourism Day was Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz, who arrived in the kingdom on Tuesday, becoming the first Israeli minister to lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia. The visit comes at a time when Israel and the kingdom are moving closer towards a U.S.-brokered normalization deal.

Pololikashvili said Saudi Arabia was obliged to admit the Israeli minister for the U.N. event even though the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations. “All our member states are invited to take part in our events – independently of where they are held,” Pololikashvili told The Circuit.

Saudi Arabia’s push to develop an electric vehicle industry took a step forward last week when California-based Lucid Motors opened the kingdom’s first automobile factory. 

With initial plans to assemble 5,000 EVs a year at its new plant outside the western port city of Jeddah, Lucid expects to boost that number to 155,000, underlining Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a significant manufacturer. It would be a major leap as much for the country as for the luxury carmaker, which produced 7,180 vehicles last year at its sole factory in Casa Grande, Ariz., hampered by supply chain issues and recalls. By comparison, Elon Musk’s Tesla sent almost 1.4 million cars off its assembly lines in the U.S., Germany and China last year. 

Riyadh is looking to supply the domestic market but also to transform the kingdom into a regional car hub as it diversifies its economy beyond oil revenue – and it’s looking beyond Lucid to meet its aims. 

While the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund has put a total of $5.4 billion into the loss-making Lucid to become its largest shareholder, the government has also signed a $5.6 billion deal with China’s Human Horizons to develop and manufacture EVs. Meanwhile, major players from Hyundai to Peugeot have already said they see a road to Middle East manufacturing and sales of EVs running through Saudi Arabia.

Market research firm Mordor Intelligence valued the EV market in the Middle East and Africa at $2.7 billion this year, dominated by Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Nissan and Hyundai but estimates it will grow to $7.65 billion by 2028. 

The kingdom is eyeing the domestic development of EV parts both for home and export as well. PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn founded the Saudi electric car company Ceer Motors in 2022 and the pair is in talks to build a $9 billion plant to manufacture microchips and electric-vehicle components. 

While the new Lucid plant will see workers reassemble premade American-designed and built “kits,”, the kingdom is planning to domestically design and manufacture EVs as part of its Vision 2030 reform program to shake up almost every sector of the society and economy over the next seven years under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

“As Saudi charges toward its Vision 2030, our facility will pave the way for the country’s electric automotive industry and the expansion of the supply chain, and with the support of the Saudi Government, we are proud to drive local talent development in the technology industry,”  Peter Rawlinson, CEO and chief technology officer of Lucid Group, said at the opening of the plant in Jeddah on Wednesday. “We look forward to delivering Saudi-assembled cars to customers in Saudi Arabia and beyond.”

But Saudi Arabia will face strong global competition in EV manufacturing and regional challenges from long-established car industries in Morocco and Turkey; the latter says its membership in the EU Customs Union gives it a strong advantage. 

While the kingdom plans on 30% of car sales to be EVs by 2030, it may face consumer hesitation. Gasoline is subsidized at $2.35 a gallon this month – compared to an average $3.85 in the U.S. – and less than 1% of passenger car sales are currently electric. 

Another major speed bump is a lack of charging infrastructure as well as maintenance and specialized technical knowledge.

However,  the government launched the Saudi Electrical Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Development Initiative in 2021 with the target of 50,000 charging stations across the nation by 2025. 

A poll by General Motors and Morningstar in June 2023 found that 63% of Saudi respondents were “strongly considering” a future EV purchase but only 1 in 5 said that they knew of a charging point in a convenient location for home or work. 

The same poll found that knowledge of EVs in the kingdom was already very high, no doubt boosted by some of the kingdom’s flagship projects like the NEOM McLaren Electric Racing team competing in the Formula E championships as well as the off-road all-electric Extreme E race.

While the kingdom is aiming for net zero by 2060, most respondents to the survey said that it was the cost of fuel, potential savings and the improvement in available EV options that was driving them to look at buying an electric car. 

JERUSALEM – Perched on seven whirring propellers, the sleek black-and-white cockpit lifted vertically toward the sky and circled above the hills and valleys of the pine-filled Jerusalem Forest.

Two years from now, the remote-controlled aircraft could be ferrying passengers to Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport and suburbs teeming with tech startups as drone-taxi service is introduced to Israel. Among the objectives is to whisk travelers above the traffic jams that snarl Israel’s highways, and ultimately cut down the number of vehicles on the road.

In a combined effort by industry, government and regulatory authorities, Israel is conducting test flights to determine how it can safely unleash fleets of drones with fare-paying passengers into its Mediterranean skies. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore are among a number of ambitious nations vying to be first with a pilotless air-taxi system operating at a competitive cost.

“We have built a concept of operation to reduce traffic around the world,” Yoely Or, CEO of Cando Drones, said during a recent demonstration for reporters of the aircraft’s capabilities on the grounds of Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital. Or said he expects the drone taxis to operate commercially by 2025 with more than 100 aircraft making short hops between Israeli metropolitan areas.

At the hospital, the helicopter-like EVTOL drone – electric vertical takeoff and landing – sat on a helipad waiting for its test flight. Inside are two comfortable-looking seats for passengers, although not much room for cargo. A drone pilot operates the aircraft sitting in a screen-filled command-and-control room in an office building miles away. As it took off, the drone’s lights turned green and it lifted silently to an altitude barely visible to a naked eye. After a 15-minute flight, it descended directly onto the helipad.

The taxi demonstration was part of Israel’s National Drone Initiative, which is holding flight tests and demonstrations in locations around Israel. The initiative is a partnership between government entities led by the Transportation Ministry, the Israel Innovation Authority, Ayalon Highways Ltd., and the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI). The goal of the initiative is to support and promote drone flight through technology, regulation and infrastructure.

“What we’re looking at here is how… to move beyond transporting packages to transporting human beings,” said Daniella Partem, a senior director of the Innovation Authority. “We are looking to improve the economic viability of this model and advance connectivity in urban areas and further afield around the world.”

Partem said the drone taxis would also be made available for use in emergencies like earthquakes to bring relief workers and medicine to an affected area. But CEO Or sees the commercial possibilities, saying the drones will be just like ground taxis but much faster.

While saying fares for the air taxi service would be moderate, neither Or nor Partem would put a price on the rides. “There are no prices yet because the flights are still experimental,” the Innovation Authority said in response to questions. “The operating expenses are not yet based on regular activity.” 

Each drone, manufactured by Guangzhou, China-based EHANG Intelligent Technology, can carry up to 220 kilograms (485 pounds) and fly 30 kilometers (19 miles), according to Or, who said they expect to increase the range within the next two years to make the 70-kilometer (43-mile) trip to Tel Aviv. The aircraft costs about $500,000 apiece, including import charges to Israel, and the company currently has two drones in testing. The company has raised $25 million from investors, including Israeli supermarket chain owner Rami Levy, who plans to use drones for grocery deliveries.

“Our vision for joint operations with Cando Drones is to create a system for operating an autonomous drone fleet for the purposes of security and delivery, from the stage of customer order up to delivery and mission completion,” Levy said.

Cando Drones, whose Dronery subsidiary runs the air taxi project, is not the only company in Israel developing air taxis. In June, Air One tested a similar all-electric two-seater drone taxi that can fly up to 160 kilometers (99 miles). Like Cando, Air One plans to operate a fleet of air taxis.

In the command-and-control center on the 17th floor of an office tower at Jerusalem’s Malha Technology Park, representatives from all of the parties in the initiative sat around a large table, surrounded by screens that show drone flights in real time.

“The challenge is not delivering food or medicine from point A to point B. The challenge is to make the skies over the city safe,” Libby Bahat, the head of aerial infrastructure at the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, said. “Free-market competition will make the prices reasonable, but the challenge is to make the skies as safe as possible.”

Israel faces some significant security issues in drone aviation. Large swaths of the country along the borders with Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are off-limits, as well as the sky over the Old City of Jerusalem.

“There are a few challenges to widespread operations of civilian drones,” Eyal Pinko, an expert in intelligence, cyberwarfare and national security at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, told The Circuit. “First is the cybersecurity issue and how to protect the drones from being hacked. Iran is trying to hack anything it can – water, electricity and transportation. Second is how to recognize the drone and see that it is not meant for terror activities. Thirdly is a question of real estate. Israeli streets have a lot of houses and electricity cables and in the populated cities, not much empty space.”

Pinko said that the three most advanced countries in civilian drone technology are Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In Dubai, there is already a plan for air taxi stations and UAE Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said the company will work with Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Joby Aviation.

In Singapore, where Pinko said regulatory structure is most advanced, a fleet of air taxis is set to start operating by the end of this year. Abu Dhabi-based Edge Group, a government-owned arms maker and defense conglomerate invested $14 million earlier this year in Israel’s High Lander Aviation, a platform that enables drone operations by managing traffic, aerial security, public safety and drone delivery networks.

“We see it as a strong strategic investment,” High Lander CEO Alon Abelson told The Circuit. “We had an option to work with VCs in Israel, but we see the Gulf and what is happening there as a clear target to lead the ecosystem in aviation.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — New York University is opening an outpost in the Middle East for its Stern School of Business with a new one-year MBA program at its campus in Abu Dhabi.

The new program joins France’s INSEAD and Boston-based Hult as top-tier business schools with a presence in the United Arab Emirates. The program targets early-career professionals to develop a pipeline of talent in the UAE and wider region amid public and private sector growth in energy, finance, technology, aviation and hospitality.

“The introduction of this full-time MBA to the MENA region is groundbreaking for students who want to earn an MBA from one of the world’s leading business schools in just one year and build a career in a region that is seeing exponential growth,” said Raghu Sundaram, dean of the NYU business school.

“Stern at NYUAD,” as the program is named, will open its doors in January 2025. Spring and fall modules will be hosted in Abu Dhabi and a summer session will be held in New York City.

Robert Salomon, a professor of management at Stern since 2005 who focuses on globalization, will be the program’s inaugural dean.

Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive and president-designate of this year’s COP28 environmental conference, called for a major overhaul of climate finance to bridge an anticipated $2.4 trillion investment gap by 2030 as he came to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

“Without major reform of the current financial system… we will not have the ability to invest in the resources and infrastructure that help developing countries – especially small island developing states and economies across the Global South – to cope with flooding, droughts, heatwaves, storms, and other climate shocks,” Al Jaber wrote in an op-ed for Fortune.

“If you want to understand the state of the world’s climate efforts, follow the money,” wrote Al Jaber, who will lead the two-week UN conference when it opens in Dubai Nov. 30. He is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and chairman of Masdar, a consolidated renewable energy subsidiary under ADNOC, Mubadala and TAQA.

Al Jaber’s full-throated support for climate finance reform comes as the United Arab Emirates is reportedly mulling a multibillion-dollar fund largely pulled from its sovereign wealth fund coffers for clean energy investments which it would roll out at COP28, Politico reported last month.

The Fortune piece was published hours before Al Jaber rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, becoming the first head of the UN climate conference to do so.

Following the market opening, he and the city’s former mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced a separate initiative within the Dubai conference, the COP28 Local Climate Action Summit. Bloomberg was appointed in 2021 as the UN’s special envoy on climate ambition and solutions.

The event, scheduled for Dec. 1-2, will bring together hundreds of “subnational” climate leaders like mayors, governors and business executives who are “increasingly critical in helping national governments reach emissions reduction targets and net-zero ambitions while building resilient and future-proof economies and societies”, according to a statement.

On Friday at the UN, Al Jaber also urged nations to agree on administering a fund to compensate developing nations afflicted by damage caused by climate change ahead of COP28.

The loss and damages fund was agreed on in Egypt during COP27 and a committee was set up to finalize the details of the fund. That group has so far met three times and will meet again next month in Aswan, Egypt. But so far leaders have yet to agree on how the money should be raised or disbursed.

“We need to stay very focused on ensuring that we operationalize this fund as soon as possible,” Al Jaber said.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Israel’s most active venture capital firm is looking to triple the head count at its Abu Dhabi office dedicated to artificial intelligence development as it ramps up efforts to develop tools for customers in fintech, energy, health care and government. 

The UAE venture, Integrated Data Intelligence, is a subsidiary of Jerusalem-based OurCrowd, the first VC firm to register in the UAE after the Abraham Accords were signed three years ago and with $2.2 billion in committed capital.

IDI, which is less than a year old, is the commercial byproduct of OurCrowd’s decade-long, $100 million investment into developing a new kind of investment platform that has made it among the most prolific VC investors in the world. The platform has allowed its 260,000 investors to invest in over 370 portfolio companies from almost every country in the world while adhering to local laws in those investors’ respective jurisdictions. 

“That’s a lot of data,” Sabah al-Binali, executive chairman of OurCrowd Arabia, told The Circuit.

The startup, which was seeded with an initial joint commitment of $60 million from OurCrowd and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), is the venture firm’s first R&D center outside Israel. It continues to develop AI for OurCrowd but is now using its technology as a blueprint for other platforms that will benefit by applying AI to their own data. The aim is to increase business efficiency, reduce costs and improve outcomes, Jon Medved, OurCrowd’s founder and CEO, wrote at the time the company was launched.

IDI has 16 people from 15 countries working in the Al Maryah Island office at Hub71, the emirate’s startup and technology campus, with two employees from Israel and two recruited from the first graduating class of Abu Dhabi’s AI research university. IDI is looking to grow to 50 employees by the end of 2024.

The company’s presence in Abu Dhabi is a reflection of al-Binali’s enthusiasm and optimism for a productive relationship between Israel and the UAE — and his almost dogged pursuit of finding ways to work together that go beyond the stereotype that Israel is a technology hotbed and the Gulf is a destination market to raise capital.

“In Israel they have a huge supply of AI talent but the demand for AI talent far exceeds that,” al-Binali said. 

“So I raised my hand, and I said, ‘What about Abu Dhabi?’” 

“It’s easy to attract talent here, because getting a visa is like this,” al-Binali said while snapping his fingers, adding that his understanding of the market and government initiatives helped to get the business set up.

Al-Binali, a Princeton graduate with a Ph. D. from Columbia University, worked for over 20 years in investment and financial services spanning the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including the acquisition of a Saudi investment bank by Credit Suisse and the 2012 sale of Zawya, a Dubai news service, to Thomson Reuters. 

With the Abraham Accords he sees an unmissable opportunity. He joined OurCrowd within a month of the landmark U.S.-brokered agreement and has been a connector for the firm ever since.

It was al-Binali who helped OurCrowd gear its investing platform toward an AI future. He recommended Hasanat Dewan, whom he met while they were both postgraduate students at Columbia in New York, to the role of chief innovation officer in 2021. 

Dewan had held posts in technology transformation for E*TRADE, BNY Mellon, Russell Investments, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. Today he’s based in Abu Dhabi as CEO of IDI. 

And it is a good time for OurCrowd to be diversifying into technology development amid a global slowdown in venture capital activity. 

True to form, al-Binali sees the current environment as an opportunity. 

Gulf startups traditionally have had strong access to early-stage capital, but later-stage investments – which typically command larger check sizes – are harder to come by. Venture capital firms tend to be smaller and more conservative. 

“Israeli VCs are much more comfortable at the higher risk segments and deploying that,” al-Binali said. “There are, at the B, C [funding] rounds, we see opportunities.” 

His advice to Israelis looking to forge ties in the Gulf? Pace yourself.

“If you sit there sending emails every week, you’re gonna burn out,” he said, adding that slowing down and being deliberate can be worth it.

“The payoff in the end is big. Not just in terms of investment size but in terms of commitment. Because once an Emirati or Gulf investor comes in, they’re going to back you all the way. It’s not hot money. So you have to earn that trust.”