Finnish startups Funzi and ultimate.ai have been picked for the second batch of the world’s largest government-supported accelerator, the Dubai Future Accelerators.
Dubai Future Accelerators is a new 9-week programme connecting the world’s most innovative companies, entrepreneurs and businesses with leading government departments to create transformational solutions with a global impact.
The program aims to create a global platform to attract the brightest minds from around the world to find creative solutions for the challenges of the future and implement them in the city of Dubai. The inaugural program, which finished in December 2016, created $33 million in commercial partnerships and pilot programs.
“We are looking forward to forging partnerships especially with and through the Knowledge and Human Development Authority of the Dubai Government and growing our presence in the Middle East. Funzi is thrilled to take this amazing opportunity to accelerate our growth with leading experts in the DFA program,” CEO of Funzi, Tero Salonen, said in a statement.
Funzi is a mobile learning service that makes education accessible to everyone – for free for the end user. Funzi’s initial focus has been on livelihood and health related topics and courses are available globally on any connected device at funzi.mobi.
Ultimate.ai is building next generation artificial intelligence for customer service automation. It is already working with the government-owned Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du).
“We are honoured and excited to be part of this program and be able to work with du that is already a household name in the region. This opens a unique opportunity to bring the Finnish technology know-how and Dubai’s push for new innovation together,” said the CEO of ultimate.ai, Reetu Kainulainen.
The Dubai Future Accelerator is part of a larger program called the Dubai Future Agenda and is hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation in partnership with seven founding entities of the Dubai Government. Accelerator was launched in July 2016.
