The Entrepreneurs

Back on track

Modern rail travel rolled into the UAE in April 2009, high on fanfare but fairly low on functionality. The maiden voyage of the Palm Monorail was a triumphant moment: the sleek driverless train trundled up the trunk of the Palm Jumeirah, giving those onboard views of the ritzy, villa-laden fronds of this man-made island. However, it wasn’t all that useful: the mainland station was marooned and only accessible by car and the train just went to the Atlantis hotel and back. The monorail was more of a pleasure ride than proper public transport, which led some to question whether the UAE was really serious about tempting people out of their cars and onto the rails.

The picture today is quite different. The Dubai Metro, which has 47 stations, serves commuters with two lines and tram arteries that reach residential and industrial areas. It has also proved to be an engine for the economy as tourists can now get around easily. What’s more, the values of houses near stations shot up by more than 50 per cent in the first decade of the Metro’s operation. In little more than a decade, Dubai has built an enviable public-transport network that is showing other cities in the region how it can be done.

It’s fair to say that the car still rules here. Sheikh Zayed Road, the main artery running to Abu Dhabi, is a snarl-up come sunset, with more than half a million cars zipping back and forth every day. In the capital, a long-planned light-rail network hasn’t yet broken ground.

Meanwhile, there’s a broader vision for trains, which are set to connect the seven emirates. In March, Etihad Rail announced that 900km of track had been laid on its forthcoming freight and passenger network, running from Oman to the Saudi border. It will be some years before passengers are hopping aboard but the new line is a major logistical link, with the goal of raising industrial contributions to GDP by $81.7bn (€77.6bn) by 2031. That might all sound ambitious but the UAE is tracking well.

Round trip
Cycle culture

Monocle meets Wolfi Hohmann (pictured) at 05.00, as he and more than 100 of the so-called Dubai Roadsters gather for their Sunday cycle into the desert. They clock at least 85km, which takes three hours and includes a water break to watch the sunrise.

Hohmann arrived in the UAE from Germany in 2002 with a 12-metre container, half of which was packed with furniture and the rest brimming with bicycles. At that time, the appetite for cycling here was limited – partly due to infrastructure, partly because of the lack of shade. Today, Hohmann’s bike shop, Wolfi’s, has nine locations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “By 2026 I want every child in the UAE to be able to ride a bike,” he says.

Seeding cycling culture in these conditions has been an uphill struggle. Hohmann confessed that despite moving his family here, he only had a “plan A” but decades into his venture, he looks rather comfortable in the saddle. With royal backing, investment in cycling has ramped up, with more than 20 cycling tracks in operation in Dubai. In turn, success at all levels has followed. Members of UAE’s Team Emirates claimed second and third at the 2023 Tour de France.

The country is some way off having a bike in every home but Hohmann’s shops are helping to get things (and people) moving under their own steam.

Lasting impressions

The UAE is no stranger to the challenges of rapid urbanisation. But despite this being a nation where development and innovative construction has happened fast over the past few decades, it’s important that urbanism unfolds in the right way. Cue the Expo 2020 Dubai, which was postponed and only closed in March 2022. The landmark event was not only the global exhibition’s debut in the Middle East and the first hosted by an Arab nation, but it also delivered a new district: Expo City Dubai, which is now home to businesses and will be the site of 2023’s Cop28 climate conference in December.

“We want to draw on the lessons of what we have built here and offer Expo City Dubai as an example,” says Nadia Verjee, executive director of the Global Initiative of Expo City Dubai. “Urban centres are going to mushroom by more than half of the world’s population and many are yet to be built – all the cities that are being thrown up in the Global South by 2050.”

Just south of Jebel Ali in western Dubai, the purpose-built site was planned from the beginning as a future city. Some pavilions used by nations during the exhibition were built as permanent structures; many were repurposed by businesses, others bought by the nations as permanent display spaces. “That’s the China Pavilion,” says Verjee as she drives me around Expo City Dubai in a golf buggy. “It’s now a Chinese cultural centre, where the embassy holds a lot of activities. There were more than 27,000 attendees here for the Chinese New Year festivities, for example.”

Verjee has been on this journey from the very beginning. A chief of staff during the event, she is now part of the executive team responsible for the city that it created and fosters business here. “The only way that we could make this happen was by designing both the masterplan and the legacy plan for Expo City Dubai at the same time,” she says. “We didn’t have to remove or knock down most of what was already built; we could use everything in its second life. And that’s a big part of our strategy because it was anchored on delivering a sustainable built environment.”

The area’s green credentials are among its biggest calling cards. Companies including Emirates, Engie, Siemens Energy and DP World have all signed up for offices in its business hub. “We already have more than 3,000 tenants living or working here, while we’re continuing to develop the site and figure out mobility solutions,” says Verjee as we pass the Rove Expo 2020 Hotel. But it’s not only the big players that have seen the value in calling Expo City Dubai their home. Restaurants, retail and start-ups are also moving in, attracted by the space, which lies in between Downtown Dubai and Abu Dhabi and has a direct connection to the Metro. “It’s a great entrepreneurial hub. Small businesses are already setting up here and several of them have grown from the journey of Expo City Dubai itself, eventually fully relocating here.”

As we tour the site, one thing stands out: the large concourses connecting the city are pedestrianised and there’s a shuttle service as well as shade. “If you have a city that’s designed without vehicles as the primary way to get from one place to the next and provide the right kind of cooling, then it can really operate as a 15-minute city – even in this temperature,” says Verjee.

Businesses aren’t alone in setting their eyes on this part of town. “In true Dubai style, we have already sold out of everything that’s available on the market for our apartments and homes,” says Verjee as we pass a soon-to-be-completed residential block. “People will be moving into apartments and homes as of the third quarter of 2025.”

The masterplan for 2040 includes the creation of Expo Valley, a community of townhouses and villas surrounded by lush vegetation and cycling trails, as well as high-end amenities such as clubhouses, swimming pools, an outdoor cinema, gyms and hospitality. Prices start at aed3.5m (€900,000). “Even with the villas, we spent a lot of time talking about sustainability; how to keep water and electricity consumption down and how that affects residents. We wanted to have a good balance of greenery and what’s built. It’s not about maximising profit but delivering a vision for living.”

Welcome to the UAE

Success takes graft and good ideas. But let’s face it: sometimes, it’s also about being in the right place at the right time. That’s how this UAE special, our first dedicated country issue of our business-minded magazine, got off the ground. A series of conversations with readers, business owners and eventually even a government agency or two (which have underwritten the advertorial chapter of this issue) has led to us turning our editorial spotlight on the Gulf – and, specifically, a country about which, for better or for worse, most people have firm opinions.

Over the following pages, you’ll meet entrepreneurs who have built castles in the sand, sowed seeds in less-than-fertile ground and transformed this once-quiet part of the world into a centre of innovation for everything from solutions for warming cities and agriculture to fine design. Our journalists uncovered some surprising stories: technology companies trying to help us forge stronger human connections or offer access to better education; inspiring HQs for companies taking recycling seriously and mobility start-ups beginning the journey towards sustainability from within car-centric cities.

There’s an irony here, of course. The UAE’s oil wealth makes it a somewhat unlikely centre for eco-conscious enterprises, yet still they come. What fresh ideas about urbanism and living well can a place that’s regularly warmer than 40c in summer offer? Plenty. It’s happening for many reasons. Whether it’s the tax breaks or the timing, better regulations or the country’s relative safety, there’s something unique stirring in the UAE that we hope we have captured. Wherever you turn, there’s an upwelling of optimism about the future of aviation, AI, architecture and more (and that’s just the As) and a sense that the future in the UAE is here for the taking. The making too: from plane parts and artificial islands to fire-fighting robots, there’s a future-focused manufacturing boom under way. So wherever you find yourself in your entrepreneurial journey and however the sands have shifted in your industry, we hope that you will find inspiring stories, lively lessons and some benchmarks to help you on your way. Remember: right place, right time. Shall we show you around?

The future of farming

“Just try this,” says American entrepreneur Sky Kurtz, who just might be the farmer of the future. Wearing a Barbour gilet despite the summer sun beating outside, Kurtz pours Monocle an ice-cold glass of blended strawberries, picked less than 24 hours earlier. Without any added sugar, the drink is sweet and as thick as clotted cream. “If you’d have told me five years ago that I’d be having a strawberry smoothie in the middle of the desert…” He pauses, lost for words for perhaps the only time in our interview. “Well, I would have loved it.”

Kurtz is co-founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, a start-up based in Al Ain, an oasis city east of Abu Dhabi. After making wearable devices for cattle and managing assets for venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, Kurtz wanted to “make a dent in the universe” and set about revolutionising how people in hot, harsher climates get their greens.The strawberries are grown in one of the firm’s vast greenhouses, which can grow crops even in the extreme heats of a uae summer. According to Pure Harvest, 83 per cent of the water put into the soil leaves with the vegetables, thanks to a highly controlled system of hydroponic irrigation. “It allows us to precisely control the nutrients to the plant,” says Kurtz. “We’re able to take the water that’s not utilised, run it, treat it and put it back into the system so that we don’t lose fertilisers or the water. We are 30 times more productive than a field farm and typically 20 times more water efficient.”

Those might sound like grand claims but fresh strawberries, he says, used to be a status symbol in these parts: “Like the keys to a fancy car, if someone pulled them out at a party, it meant that they were doing well.” Indeed, the uae imports about 41,000 tonnes of food a day and 85 per cent of its total consumption arrives from overseas. That is an extraordinary amount of air freight and an uncomfortable reality of sustaining growing cities in the desert, especially when the country is set to host the Cop28 climate conference later this year.

Yet it represents a moment of opportunity for entrepreneurs like Kurtz. In addition to addressing the environmental cost of relying on imports, the disruption to global supply chains during the pandemic has underlined the need to secure food stocks for the future. A government plan published earlier this year looks to support the uae’s 38,000 farms, mostly smallholdings, by getting more of their food to market. There’s a rush of investment in sustainable ways to farm locally.

Last year Pure Harvest secured $180.5m (€170m) in funding from investors. It is one of a number of start-ups based in the uae that use technology and old-fashioned desert smarts to bring a reliable harvest closer to home. Crop One in Dubai, for instance, is the world’s largest “vertical farm”. It now grows vegetables served on Emirates flights in a lab-like setting where plants are nurtured by led lights and monitored by artificial intelligence (AI). iFarm, a Finnish agritech start-up that also builds vertical farms, relocated its headquarters from Europe to Abu Dhabi earlier this year in a bid to tap into demand across the gcc and be closer to a new generation of growers in Asia-Pacific. In Sharjah, a government-funded wheat farm has just embarked on its first harvest and many of its processes are powered by AI.

There’s a lot of money available for those with fresh ideas too. In 2021, the uae and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to jointly encourage investment in climate-friendly and resilient agriculture. “Our agri-sectors are very different but we’re both focused on increasing investment, and on innovation,” says Jaime Adams, senior advisor for international affairs at the usda. So far, the partnership has helped direct $13bn (€12.4bn) of investment from private and public sources to agritech start-ups around the world.

Donning a plastic poncho, Kurtz leads Monocle excitedly through his own high-tech greenhouse. Gutters of soil are machine-seeded before being whisked off on conveyor belts to join rows of lettuce, kale, spinach and rucola. The greenhouse is the size of a football pitch, kept at the temperature of a Mediterranean summer via a system of air-conditioning and louvred glass. Rows of seeds slide forward almost imperceptibly, germinating on a lower deck before they ascend a conveyor belt to soak up the sunlight. Jans Prins, Pure Harvest’s head grower, surveys the scene contentedly. “We now have a lot of data about plant diameter and growth rates, and are developing AI tools that will eventually reduce the burden and reliance on the grower,” says Kurtz. “Experts like Jans are expensive, hard to find and highly skilled.”

A second Pure Harvest farm is now in operation just down the road and the company is also retooling traditional farmers’ fields in Saudi Arabia. The founder has an eye on revolutionising the sprinkler-fed farms that dominate in his native Arizona. “We started this in the uae to prove that the technology could work anywhere, even in the sometimes hellish environment of the summer here,” says Kurtz.

Pure Harvest-branded vegetables can now be found in supermarkets around the uae. But all the tech comes at a cost: Kurtz calls his admittedly excellent produce “premium local” and it’s more expensive than the hardy tomatoes that are trucked in every day from Jordan and Iran. Similarly, while a lot of new vertical farms are opening around the gcc, those artificial lights require a lot of costly energy. To make sure that everyone can buy local, uae farmers say that there is value in going back to the land.

“In Holland, they have 100 days of sunshine, whereas we have 300, yet we’re the ones going vertical and growing with leds?” says Yazen Al Kodmani, a Syrian-Canadian entrepreneur who runs Emirates Bio Farm, the country’s largest fully-organic farm in Abu Dhabi. “We need a multi-pronged approach to securing food stocks.”

Al Kodmani’s farm supplies restaurants, markets and distributors around the uae, growing carrots, potatoes and other staples of local cooking across 25 hectares. Since starting in 2016, it has become a powerful force in the country’s nascent farm-to-table movement and has its own on-site produce market and restaurant.

Although Al Kodmani is looking to use sensors and drones to monitor some of the farm’s processes, right now it’s run on drip irrigation, fertilisation (from 15,000 chickens) and simple planting methods to create shade along with netting and some basic greenhouses. He has come to accept that, in the summer months, growing is too resource-intensive; July and August are set aside to ready for the next season. It is in those months, Al Kodmani says, when high-tech solutions come into their own.

Al Kodmani is now working on the uae’s Food Innovation Hub, part of a project by the World Economic Forum to gather expertise on how to create the next generation of local growers. It’s a spirit that runs in the family: his father came to the uae from Syria in the 1970s in search of opportunity and heard about “a man who was greening the desert”, the country’s first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who hired the young agricultural engineer to help build a crop-farming industry from scratch. In a way, those looking for smarter ways to secure food stocks today are continuing that early project. “We get about 1,000 visitors a week to the farm in the winter months and a lot of people arrive a bit sceptical,” says Al Kodmani. “But then they see bees, dragonflies and birds all over the field and they know that we’re not spraying crops. There’s definitely a magic up there.”

Rising Stars

1.
Medical tourism
Health by numbers

How are you feeling? If you’re in the medical industry, then business is in rude health. The UAE’s spending on healthcare is expected to rise to 6 per cent of GDP by 2026, according to a report by KPMG, with 700 (mainly private-sector) healthcare projects now in development.

Meanwhile, the UAE’s Ministry of Economy estimates 2021’s medical tourism sales (valued at €2.3bn) grew by 17 per cent, while the private-healthcare sector grew by almost 10 per cent in two years. In 2022, about 674,000 international visitors to Dubai spent €270m on everything from dermatology to dentistry. The doctor will see you now.

2.
Groceries
Home deliveries

The boom in e-commerce sales means that the gcc market alone was worth nearly €30bn last year. Interestingly, before lockdown, just 5 per cent of e-commerce spending in the UAE was on groceries or food delivery. At the height of the pandemic, that rocketed nearly fivefold to 24 per cent and some habits stuck.

As well as shopping online and enjoying new delivery options, many people are also spending more on food at shops such as Maison Dufour, Jones the Grocer, and Organic Foods and Café. Not to mention the success of Kitopi, a popular cloud kitchen delivery service backed by Japan’s Softbank.

3.
Space
Aiming high

As the UAE sets out to boldly go where – well – relatively few people have gone before, investment in space-related technology is taking a giant leap forward. The UAE is one of only a few Arab nations with a space programme, set up in 2014, and its agency has an investment chest of some €5.2bn.

The plan? To develop the region’s position as an aerospace player and help to establish partnerships in the fledgling industry. Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park and the Center for Space Science at NYU Abu Dhabi have already launched innovative new projects and in satellite technology alone there’s Thuraya, DubaiSat, YahSat and KhalifaSat.

4.
Fintech
Rising rates

Financial technology firms have found fertile ground in the Middle East. The UAE’s fintech market alone is estimated to be worth €39.3bn (in terms of transactions) in 2023. What’s more, it’s growing by 15 per cent a year: talk about a rising interest rate. The 134 businesses – including 80 start-ups – in the sector employ 2,000 people but it’s the arrival of institutional investors that will help with everything from remittances to cybersecurity, mobile payment processing to monitoring investment portfolios. Businesses to bank on include credit service Tabby, payment technology company Bridg and insurtech platform Democrance.

5.
Artificial intelligence
A surprise boom

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay. It can help to deliver value in so many different ways – from processing and looking for data patterns to increasing efficiency across the board.

And while efficiency is the first stage, efficacy – which would involve properly improving services – will hopefully be the next. McKinsey says that AI’s payoff in the gcc region alone might deliver as much as $150bn (€143bn) in value to the economy (nearly 10 per cent of the region’s GDP) and many others predict that it will quickly surpass this. Understanding its applications will be crucial to futureproofing the economy.

6.
Robotics
Welcome to the future

People never used to take much pride in labels that said “made in the UAE” but today it’s becoming a mark of quality. While there isn’t much heavy industry, a few forward-thinking players are building everything from aerospace parts to firefighting robots.The Dubai Robotics and Automation Program hopes to increase the sector’s contribution to 9 per cent of Dubai’s GDP by 2032. It also plans to roll out 200,000 robots that manage everything from logistics to services and manufacturing. It’s time to get with the programmers.

7.
Desalination
Waves of change

Water is fundamental to humanity but its scarcity in the UAE makes it even more prized. The region has invested in desalinating seawater, treating and using more than two billion cubic metres of seawater a year. Over 40 per cent of the country’s drinking water comes from 70 desalination plants (14 per cent of the world’s supply of desalinated water). The UAE’s Water Security Strategy 2036 is expected to increase capacity and storage in case of climate-related emergencies; meanwhile, Dutch start-up Desolenator uses solar energy and Abu Dhabi-based start-up Manhat is looking to help capture and collect water from natural sources.

Inside Track: the UAE is racing ahead with mobility options

Getting to and around the UAE has never been easier. At a speed most countries could only dream of, the Emirates – formed in 1971 on a largely arid patch of land beside the Gulf – has become a global hub for aviation, cargo and increasingly talent too. From the high-rises to the street-level souks and shopping malls, this part of the world remains a meeting point for modern-day merchants and entrepreneurs from across the region and beyond.

While there are long-term plans to develop Al Maktoum International into an even larger airport (said to be capable of serving 255 million passengers a year by 2050 and costing a whopping €31bn), there are also other ways to get about. Once you’re here – whether you arrived by Emirates or one of the countless carriers that already make Dubai International among the busiest airports in the world – all seven emirates are accessible by road. The car remains the primary mode of transport, yet journeys by public transport increased by more than a third in Dubai in 2022, thanks to extensions to the Dubai Metro network, which now measures almost 90km and serves 53 stations. Next stop? Etihad Rail’s ambitious national service is on track to connect the emirates when it opens to passengers later this year.

In recent years cycling has become a popular pastime (though perhaps not quite a viable way to commute) and a ferry route recently reopened between Dubai and Sharjah, showing a willingness to look back to traditions of travelling by water for getting around. Mercifully, developers are increasingly focused on making neighbourhoods more walkable too. Shall we take a stroll to get our bearings?

Know your emirates
Divided between the families of the ruling tribes when the UAE was founded, each of the seven emirates has a distinctive character – and a namesake capital city. While Dubai might draw the majority of attention (and raise the most eyebrows), each has much to recommend it.

Abu Dhabi
The government hub and the largest emirate, Abu Dhabi stretches far west into the Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter) and includes a wealth of islands. Home to more than 90 per cent of the nation’s oil wealth, Abu Dhabi’s capital has attracted world-leading institutions, such as outposts of the Louvre, the Guggenheim and NYU, plus plenty of homegrown businesses and neighbourhoods on the up.

Dubai
The most populous city in the UAE with more than three million inhabitants, Dubai is perhaps best known for its vertiginous towers, sandy beaches and glitzy hotels. The real story is more nuanced. Once a small fishing village, it is now a modern international hub that is home to the world’s tallest building, one of the busiest airports and about 10,000 small and medium start-ups.

Sharjah
The third-biggest emirate in terms of both area and population, Sharjah is working hard to preserve its heritage and is Unesco’s Cultural Capital of the Arab World. With dozens of museums and galleries, the emirate’s capital has the most to offer when it comes to the arts. Sharjah is dry, which also makes evenings a little quieter. With land on the UAE’s east and west coasts, visitors have options for city life or coastal tourism.

Ajman
Ajman is the smallest emirate in size but not by population. The culture is steeped in generous Arabian hospitality and it has been a centre for shipbuilding in the region for hundreds of years. Ajman also has an equestrian centre and is home to an illustrious stud farm.

Umm Al Quwain
Accounting for just one per cent of the UAE’s landmass and the least populous emirate, Umm Al Quwain is best known for its natural bounty. Nestled between Sharjah to the south and Ras Al Khaimah in the north, it’s a place to glimpse gazelles, falcons and turtles. Better still, lush green mangroves line its shores. Fishing is big in Umm Al Quwain and it exports the catch throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Ras Al Khaimah
Ras Al Khaimah is the UAE’s most northerly point (its name means “head of the tent”). The emirate is known for a growing roster of luxury hotels, undisturbed beaches and the Hajar mountains. It is also home to the UAE’s highest point, Jebel Jais, near the border with Oman. The emirate has a diverse economy but most notably has become a manufacturing hub, with its output ranging from ceramics to pharmaceuticals and construction materials.

Fujairah
Some of the UAE’s most historical buildings stand in the eastern emirate of Fujairah. Al Bidya Mosque was built in 1446 and Fujairah Fort followed in the 16th century. A free-trade zone also exists, enabling the transport of goods across the Indian Ocean to more than 50 countries.

Mapping it out
Although much of what people think they know about the UAE happens in the cities Abu Dhabi or Dubai the country is much bigger and more diverse than many expect when they disembark their inbound flights. In its north-eastern corner the invisible borders of the emirates criss-cross and overlap: it’s also where you’ll find plenty of less developed beaches and mountains ready to be explored. Abu Dhabi (the emirate, not the city) dominates the landmass in the west, stretching all the way to the border with Saudi Arabia and encompassing stretches of the dune-dotted Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter).

Shifting Gear

Dubai might have built its own Metro system at lightning speed but the city remains road-centric, with many trips still made by taxi. There were about 11,300 taxis on the Emirates’ streets in 2022; collectively, they drove over 2 billion kilometres. That brings a lot of wear and tear to the vehicles but it’s where 24-year-old entrepreneur Zach Faizal saw an opportunity to help reimagine the fleet in a more sustainable way.

“About 10 to 20 per cent of taxis in circulation are scrapped here every year, so I told the Roads and Transport Authority, ‘Don’t scrap them; give them to me and we’ll repurpose them as electric vehicles,’” says Faizal, who grew up in Sharjah but had the inspiration for his business, Peec, while studying in the UK. “We have done it at 70 per cent of the cost of creating new electric cars and at 30 per cent less emissions.”

It’s only the beginning of the journey for Peec, which is unveiling its repurposed vehicle and technology at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop28) in Dubai in late November. That will include a reinvented mid-sized sedan with a smart paint job, Flyknit-style upholstery and new electric motor. Faizal says that the team will have at least 500 of these operating on Dubai’s roads by 2024, pending final certification from the local authorities.

When Monocle visits, the prototype is standing in the company’s workshop in a row of industrial warehouses out in the desert, where Peec’s international team of coders and engineers has taken apart the car’s old petrol system and onboard computer, and has written its own software to help make the refit road-worthy. Under the chassis is a purpose-built device that keeps the battery cells cool enough to withstand the Gulf’s ferocious summer heat. “It’s tailor- made for this region,” says Luis Rodriguez, Peec’s Colombian-born head of operations.

While major car companies compete to put their latest EVs to market, petrol-to-electric conversion remains a burgeoning industry. It has so far been prohibitively expensive and is mainly used to keep beloved classic cars moving with the times. Yet as governments around the world, including the uae’s, set ambitious net-zero targets that will make petrol and diesel models surplus to requirements, getting enough electric vehicles on the road will require manufacturing many new vehicles – and that means more emissions.

Faizal and the Peec Mobility team believe that conversion is a practical route to net zero. If it can prove that the model works in Dubai, it wants to take it elsewhere. “We’re trying to redefine the entire used-car market,” says Faizal. “We have 1.6 billion cars on the road globally. Let’s use those existing assets and give them an extended life.”

There’s plenty of energy coursing through Peec’s HQ and it’s not just in the converted car that’s being readied for its Cop28 debut. Rainer Scharf, the firm’s head of design, came from designing first-class cabins for British Airways and believes they have created a fit-out that maximises comfort for both passenger and driver. “They will be spending a lot of time in here,” he says with a smile.

Peec’s international team is also trying to speed up the sometimes-slow process of conversion so that a petrol taxi can be turned electric in as little as seven hours. It sounds ambitious: perhaps a push? But the team says that it has secured $10m (€9.52m) in investment to move into production by 2024 and already has an eye on a production plant nearby. Faizal says that a knock-on advantage of refitting cars to electric, rather than making them from scratch, is that it cuts out the need to build vast, expensive gigafactories. “Africa, for instance, has no shortage of cars but not the manufacturing base,” he says, looking proudly at the prototype as his imagination shifts gear. “This is also a wider problem for the Global South.”
peecmobility.com

Firm Favourites

Intelligence gathering
What the UAE has planned for AI.

The UAE is not known for doing things by half measures. It usually goes after the next big thing with gusto, whether that’s importing the world’s biggest museums or investing in the metaverse. Today, however, the country is betting on the future being powered by artificial intelligence (AI). One plan for 2031 envisages generative AI as a way for this ambitious young nation to supercharge the provision of services for its citizens and become an economic hub for the technology.

Omar Sultan Al Olama is the world’s first dedicated government minister for AI. He compares the present moment to the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century. He says that the Arab world was fearful of the disruptive new technology at the time and was subsequently left behind because of that.

By contrast, the UAE’s government has today wasted no time in buying up thousands of high-performance chips from US manufacturer Nvidia. These chips are the engine for resource-intensive AI language models. The question now is how all of that processing power can be tangibly put to the service of the people – and power the economy at the same time. At the centre of this is G42, an Abu Dhabi-headquartered holding company that has Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s national security adviser, as its chairman.

With backing from sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, G42 has been on a charm offensive in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, buying stakes in firms on the frontier of AI that have set up outposts or opened headquarters in the UAE. Among them is the Applied AI Company, which received $42m (€39.7m) in backing from sources including g42 as well as European funds. It creates intelligent processes that seek to eliminate much of the tedious back-end administration in insurance, healthcare and financial services (or “work”, as many of us used to call it).

“We often say that our tagline could be: ‘The world’s most boring AI company,’” says the Applied AI Company’s founder and CEO, Arya Bolurfrushan (pictured), a former Goldman Sachs banker. “But boring is where the value is.”

To get around concerns about how sensitive information is handled, Bolurfrushan’s firm keeps all of its data in the countries where it sells its services, while the engineers building the systems are based in Abu Dhabi.

With its global team, the Applied AI Company is progressing rapidly in its work and growing exponentially. “We are exporting AI out of the UAE and into the US and UK,” says Bolurfrushan.

Brewing success
Today’s coffee scene is full of beans.

A love of coffee runs deep in Arab culture and the beans have been perking people up in this part of the world since at least the 15th century. Unesco has bestowed Arabic coffee with Intangible Cultural Heritage status but its importance isn’t just historical.

A new wave of Emirati coffee businesses is fuelling the country’s entrepreneurial scene. Take, for example, Things Speciality Coffee & Concept Store in Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa City. Its founder, Sulaiman Khamis Alalawi, was the first Emirati winner of the UAE Cup Tasters Championship, a barista award. The Espresso Lab is another homegrown success story, with outposts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s Design District and a roastery in Al Quoz, among other places. The best of the rest include Orijins Café in Dubai and the UAE outpost of Grind.

Another native brand, Saddle, has even been exporting the UAE’s take on the black stuff to Cannes, while also mooting the opening of new sites in the UK and Saudi Arabia.

There’s an app for that

Investment in the digital economy in the uae is on the up and everyone has an idea for an app. The following are five favourites offering everything from cheaper meals (while taking a bite out of food waste) to recruitment – and even for refuelling your boats.

Cafu
Tank patrol
This uae-based start-up was founded by Rashid Al Ghurair in 2018 and specialises in on-demand fuel delivery. Its 210 trucks, carrying petrol or diesel, arrive at the click of a button, while the firm also offers car washing and other services, including the refuelling of boats at several marinas. There’s money in it too: Cafu’s daily revenue can exceed AED1m (€260,000).
cafu.com

Eduployment
Working better
Eduployment seeks to provide trade workers with skills to help them gain access to legitimate jobs and connect employers with the best labour in 16 countries across the world. The uae-based app helps economic migrants to learn English, matches them with trusted employers and eliminates potential recruitment fraud. More than 160,000 candidates spanning 190 nationalities have already registered.
eduployment.com

DarDoc
Healthy profits
Entrepreneurs Samer Masri and Keswin Suresh started DarDoc to help patients access healthcare from home. The pre-seed funding round of $600,000 (€568,000) is proof of the appetite for the app, which has already helped more than 4,000 patients. Services range from flu jabs to more serious procedures including dialysis.
dardoc.com

Zofeur
Key personnel
If you have ever needed to leave your car somewhere inconvenient after a drink or just felt too tired to drive, then you will appreciate Bunty Monani and Ishrath Hsamin’s app. Zofeur, which has more than 50,000 users in the uae, arranges for trusted chauffeurs to drive your vehicle wherever you want. Next stop? Expansion is now being planned into Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
zofeur.com

BonApp
Taste, not waste
Every year in the uae, 3.27 million tonnes of food, worth more than AED13bn (€3bn), is binned or wasted. Dubai-based trio Erika Daintry, Malin Raman Delin and Alice Kaboli started BonApp in 2018 to help restaurants list unsold meals and spare produce at a discounted price. The firm has already moved into Abu Dhabi and aims to cut food waste in the uae.
#bonappuae

Hitting refresh
Slash design studio is bringing a clean, modern aesthetic to the UAE.

“In Portugal, I could well be designing logos for local butchers – but not here,” says Nuno Abreu, founder of Abu Dhabi-based design studio Slash. Abreu left Portugal in 2012 and brought his family, studio and staff with him. Slash began at a steady pace, working on branding projects for the likes of bike-maker Kingdom and Japanese furniture-maker Ishinomaki Laboratory.

“In the beginning, there was a lot of low-hanging fruit,” says Abreu. “Design could be a little gimmicky in the uae.” Today, however, he looks out at a city on the up. The studio’s recent move to a new office by the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, reflects its growing reputation for clean, modern design. “We are Helvetica guys,” says Abreu. “It took time for that to catch on here but it chimes with the leadership’s ambitions,” he says of the government work that his studio now routinely advises on.

“Recently we launched the rebranding for local TV channels, radio, newspapers and magazines in Abu Dhabi,” says Abreu, as he peers over the collage of tabs on a designer’s screen. “The team can be a little stretched,” he says with a grin.

Next up, Slash has been charged with helping to find the right firm to design Abu Dhabi’s forthcoming national library and parliament buildings. With such a big commission in the offing, Abreu set out to build a dream team of architects. International stalwarts including Snøhetta, Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick were invited to camp in the desert, climb a mountain and sleep in the Louvre Abu Dhabi to get a sense of the place. Bringing the best creatives to Abu Dhabi and helping firms to pitch their vision here is another task for Slash. “It’s no mean feat pitching to people who built all of this from sand just over 50 years ago,” says Abreu, gesturing towards the skyline.

Silicon oasis
Technology is the focus in Ras Al Khaimah.

“If Dubai is New York, then Ras Al Khaimah is California,” says Sameer Al Ansari, CEO of Digital Asset Oasis (DAO), a new free-zone cluster for digital businesses based in the northern emirate. It’s a bold claim but he does have a point. There has been a surge of people and businesses moving to Dubai over the past few years; rak, meanwhile, has plenty of affordable space where people can put down roots, as it has largely escaped the uae building boom of the past 20 years.

Now the emirate is aiming to position itself as a centre for technology, offering licences to businesses that want to operate in the digital economy, whether they specialise in artificial intelligence, gaming, cybersecurity or anything else besides.

“Our focus right now is on the unregulated space,” says Al Ansari. “It’s often very small start-ups that are trying to create a process, a system or a solution.” dao already has 20 businesses signed up for launch in late October, including Romanian metaverse platform Humans.ai. The next step will be investing in the infrastructure to help make the emirate an attractive place to move to as well as somewhere in which to empty out your digital wallet.
rakdao.com

Nancy Paton
Desert Rose Films

Australian-born Paton is the founder of Desert Rose Films, which bills itself as a pioneer for independent female film-making in the uae. A director, screenwriter and producer, Paton has made Abu Dhabi her home since 2017. Her productions include the Saudi-set Postpartum, about an expat mother with postnatal depression, and soon-to-be-released uae production Mountain Boy, filmed across two different emirates.

Paton features in our look at the uae’s pitch for a slice of the international film business.

How did you end up in the UAE?
I was in Saudi Arabia when film was still illegal there. I had a big project and it was easier to register in the uae, so I set up Desert Rose Films in Abu Dhabi. I fell in love with it and made it my home; I just don’t see myself going anywhere else now. And I want it to prosper. I want it to be a place where people like me in the industry can work continuously, thrive, grow, do well and have opportunities.

Tell us about your latest film.
We have just finished Mountain Boy, which is based on an Emirati children’s book series that I discovered. It’s about a boy with autism who was ostracised in his village and so lived in the mountains for four years on his own. Then he kind of saves a girl and goes on a big adventure around the Emirates, uniting the people but also finding his way home to his family.

How are you getting more women into film?
When I hire, I try to make sure it’s 50-50 men and women and also that women are put into roles that they might not normally get. So it’s about not assuming that a man has to be the director and saying, “No, a woman will do it.” That’s something that I have done with all of my projects. And that’s what I plan to do in all of the films that we have in the pipeline.
desertrosefilms.com

Trading places
Displaced by war, Ukrainians have been a boon to UAE business.

The number of Russians in the uae is believed to have risen considerably since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The war, however, has also brought a steady arrival of Ukrainians seeking stability and opportunities.

Mykyta Doroshenko, vice-president of the Ukrainian Business Council in Dubai, estimates that there are about 1,500 Ukrainian-owned companies in the UAE, with expat arrivals doubling this year. Among the firms – many of which are involved in technology, property and finance – is Digis, an Odesa-founded software start-up with clients around the world. “Dubai seemed an oasis of stability,” says founder Nick Nagatkin, who pitched up in the uae amid the chaos of 2022. “The government here has been actively investing in technology and innovation so it’s fertile ground for a business such as ours.”

Artem Zverev and Artur Sharf, founders of Kyiv architecture studio Yodezeen, arrived before the invasion but agree that the influx has been good for business. They say that the newcomers have increased demand for their services and this helped them to open an office in the uae. “By the summer of 2022, we had a team on the ground working on residential complexes, hotels and restaurants,” says Zverev. “We have plans to expand to yachts and boats.”

Another business built on the new market is that of Kharkiv-born entrepreneur Pavlo Moroz, who saw an opportunity to offer new arrivals a taste of home. Moroz was already living in Dubai, having founded a group of steakhouses seven years ago, but his latest venture, Yoy, is the first restaurant in the uae to dish up Ukrainian fare.

Yoy (“Wow” in Ukrainian) opened in November 2022 on the Palm Jumeirah and is largely staffed by Ukrainians. “It’s a meeting point for people who miss the flavours of home and speaking their language,” says Moroz. In March, Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, chose Yoy as the venue for an official meeting with the uae government.

When we visit the restaurant, Vasilisa Frolova, a familiar face on Ukrainian television, is at one of the tables. She was on holiday here with her husband and two-year-old son weeks before the war began. The family had only a single suitcase with them but decided to stay. “Everybody knew who I was in Ukraine yet suddenly I found myself a stranger in Dubai,” says Frolova. Nevertheless, she and her husband, TV producer Dmytro Kotelenets, found work and began rebuilding their lives and livelihoods.

Despite the heat and the blue waters of the Gulf beyond the restaurant’s windows, Moroz tried to make Yoy feel Ukrainian. He spent months shipping furniture from his war-torn homeland, including a traditional wood-burning stove and ceramics from the city of Kosiv. Pride of place, however, is a long communal table. “People like to sit together here,” says Moroz. “They want to feel the unity.”

Seeding progress
Material innovation.

“We’re a company born and based in the uae so we wanted to look at something that is consumed and produced to an extremely high level,” says Alhaan Ahmed, co-founder and CEO of Dateform. Founded in late 2019, the firm turns date seeds into a solid construction material used for everything from cladding to coasters.

It’s a canny use of an otherwise wasted by-product of the uae’s date-farming industry. It is estimated that the annual date consumption per capita here is more than 10kg. “There’s a big appreciation for these materials,” says Ahmed. “Not only is it sustainable but it really connects with the uae on a social and cultural level.”

The company’s sustainable credentials often result in bespoke requests to replace wood or plastic materials, or to create personalised corporate gifts, such as phone covers. “We do a lot of vip gifts for the government,” says Ahmed. “The material inherently tells a story of the country and where we come from, so it’s interesting for them to show our products.”

For Ahmed, it’s the sort of project that makes sense here. “The uae strongly encourages innovation. It celebrates anyone and anything out there that pushes the boundary. There’s an appetite to show what the region is capable of.”
dateform.ae

Rebooting the environment
Climate-tech tenants are transforming Masdar City.

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s Foster + Partners-designed urban experiment in the desert, certainly looks impressive – a blend of smart-city ideas and Arabian architecture – but it seemed to be searching for a direction in the years after it opened in 2010.

No longer: its well-shaded streets have now become home to a community of climate- technology start-ups seeking a base in the region. Volts, for instance, is developing the next generation of at-home batteries that can be used to store solar and wind-derived energy – while looking nifty on your living room wall – and Catalyst is an accelerator set up in Masdar to incubate climate-technology businesses (even if it does get its funding from BP). Anchor tenants, including Siemens and the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute – a think-tank that opened a regional HQ in Masdar in 2022 – are bringing talent and fresh ideas to the area.

Things move fast
Seven improvements in UAE business.

In the past few years, shifts in uae law and business rules have helped modernise the mechanics of industry and grease the wheels of commerce.

1.
Businesses can now be 100 per cent foreign-owned.
Prior to 2021, any business started in the uae had to have majority ownership by a local partner. Now, free zones dedicated to various industries offer tax incentives.

2.
You can now go bankrupt.
This measure allows for greater risk-taking in business by reassuring entrepreneurs that they won’t end up in debtor’s prison.

3.
The working week now runs from Monday to Friday – Rather than Sunday to Thursday, as it had been for many years.

4.
The ban on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet no longer applies.
Meetings are starting to fill diaries. You still can’t make WhatsApp or FaceTime calls, however.

5.
Tourists no longer need a licence to drink alcohol, while the process for residents has become much easier too.

6.
It has become slightly easier to get UAE citizenship, especially if you’re deemed to have made an exceptional contribution to society. Residency requires a visa and retirement here is subject to permission.

7.
Labour laws have been significantly reformed in recent years.
There is still scope for improvement, however, particularly with regards to construction and domestic work.

Daryl Barker
Group managing director, Sanipex.

The uae has a reputation for importing most of what it needs but bigger players are bringing manufacturing home. Sanipex Group, which makes tiles, bathroom fixtures and fittings, opened its state-of-the-art Jebel Ali facility in 2022 and employs 550 people in Dubai.

Why set up here?
I found the UK frustrating. If I wanted to have an appointment with a decision maker, it would take me three months. Here, I could knock on their door and we would start doing business.

Who are your clients?
Our Bagno Design line is a $70m (€66m) business. It’s a significant player in the bathroom industry; 90 per cent of sales are in the Middle East and Africa.

What do you make in the UAE?
First, we started to manufacture whirlpool baths. We buy the shell and the client can customise what kind of system they want. We moved into spas, making custom-built steam rooms. And then we opened a facility to convert porcelain slabs from Italy and Poland into washbasins, sinks, planters and even pieces of art.

How is the business atmosphere here?
I love the way of working in Dubai. It’s a centre of commerce for the whole region. I’ve been here a long time, so I’ve seen lots of companies that were small shops and are now multinational retail or distribution businesses. It’s vibrant and inspirational.
sanipexgroup.com

Creative enterprise
Arming the artists.

As the uae aims to bolster the creative industries and more than double their contribution to GDP by 2031, intellectual property is more important than ever. One player making the most of the opportunity is Anghami, the first legal music streaming platform in the Middle East and North Africa. It was founded in Beirut in 2012 by Elie Habib and Eddy Maroun, before relocating to the uae in 2021. With access to some 57 million songs and more than 200,000 Arabic and international podcasts, Anghami’s 70 million users are spoiled for choice. The fruits of this success are shared too, with 50 per cent of streaming revenue going back to the artists.

Anghami has played a key role in securing a stable piracy-free model that protects musicians and labels alike. Meanwhile, a new song “performed by” an AI version of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum drew attention to the complex issue of intellectual property earlier this year. Resolving such issues would help investors to feel confident in funding research to provide protection for investment. The same argument for better scrutiny extends to publishers, the arts, museums and libraries. The prize? The Middle East happens to be the fastest growing region in the world in terms of music market revenues.

What’s The Big Idea?

Lightning in a bottle
Meet the beer brand that’s a fine addition to any menu.

Beer might be the world’s most widely consumed alcoholic drink but at a fine-dining restaurant even its most ardent enthusiast is likely to feel pressured to peruse the wine list. The founders of Japanese luxury beer company Maison Rococo decided to test this theory. Surveying Tokyo’s vast fine-dining scene, they found that the pressure was real but not only for the patrons.

“Serving a beer that could be bought at a supermarket or convenience store was not an experience that chefs and sommeliers were comfortable with,” says Yohay Wakabayashi, co-founder and CEO. So was there a market for a new type of beer that befits a special occasion? It turned out that there was – and a significant one too. Within a year after launching in 2018, the Rococo Tokyo white beer gained entry into more than 100 Michelin-starred restaurants in the city. Restaurants in Singapore and Taiwan soon followed.

“It’s a subtly flavoured hefeweizen with a touch of sweetness, which makes it easy to pair with a range of cuisines,” says Tokyo-based food and drink writer Melinda Joe. Hisashi Udatsu, chef-owner of a sushi restaurant in Tokyo, calls it “a partner” that enhances Japanese cuisine’s delicate taste.

Apart from the spring water that they source from the Mount Fuji area, Rococo’s founders would rather not reveal the ingredients. The craft beer movement in recent decades has spawned thousands of beers that rely on geo-specific hops and other grains to create unique flavours. But Rococo, they say, is focused solely on creating an experience that elicits emotions, which they consider the core of luxury.

“It’s true for all facets of our product, from the gift box to the glass,” says co-founder Keith Martinez. “One of our early Japanese partners wanted to keep our bottle because she wanted to put flowers in it.” Rococo’s goblet-shaped glasses, made in Slovakia, are quietly elegant, with the beer’s name etched almost unnoticeably on the stem.

Wakabayashi and Martinez confess that they are not beer nerds but they count this as a blessing. It helped them to spot an underserved market: female beer drinkers. While they set out to create a gender-neutral product, they responded to the feedback from women on beer’s bitterness and chefs’ grievances about the pairing difficulties that they had encountered. The message is in the bottle.

Taking responsibility
One entrepreneur’s journey to running ethical ventures that also turn a profit.

For Nachson Mimran, entrepreneurship equates to problem-solving. In his eyes, businesses have the potential to solve global issues, from overproduction to social inequality. Mimran has applied this mindset to his own ventures, which range from the Alpina hotel in Gstaad and fashion label Grounded Absurdity to numerous investments in businesses such as Switzerland-based material innovation lab and clothing label Pangaia.

Spending much of his childhood in West Africa, where his family runs a large agroindustrial business, Mimran (pictured) witnessed the influence that a company can have on a market’s socio-economic development. He was handed the reins of the family business shortly after he turned 21 and held the role of CEO for five years, before venturing out on his own to explore his many interests: investing in property projects in Europe and Africa, taking on the role of head of international affairs at the Senegalese Olympic Committee and becoming the creative director of the Alpina in Gstaad, where he is now based with his family. In 2015 he also co-founded To.org with his brother Arieh, a foundation and venture fund that supports ethical businesses – and all before his 30th birthday.

Running a viable business that also does good in the world is demanding but, for Mimran, solving tricky issues often leads to incredible creativity, as well as a lot of fun along the way. “It’s about understanding the diversity of interests involved,” he says from his standing desk in Gstaad.

Reframing the narrative around business is part of the process that entrepreneurs need to embark on when setting up a responsible company. “If we don’t make ethical business aspirational, then we won’t be able to achieve the type of momentum needed to make changes,” he says, explaining that customers sometimes shy away from the didactic messaging often associated with ethical brands. “I don’t want to be lectured. That’s why at the Alpina, we are always rethinking hospitality and our roles as hosts,” he says. ” You can communicate important messages through art or culinary events – for example, a 1970s ice-cream van from which you can video-call a creative in a refugee camp. There are ways in which you can nudge people to look at previously unattractive stories in a new light. It doesn’t have to be this sad, load-bearing mission.”

Mimran is also a believer in the power of challenging the status quo, from making unexpected hires – when working on a sustainably made doll for Mattel, his team consisted of a material scientist, an artist, a brand consultant and his young daughter – to embracing new business models. His new fashion label Grounded Absurdity uses the open-source platform Spaarkd, which offers access to a library of existing patterns and eco-friendly materials. “All you have to do is be creative and do some marketing – the rest is taken care of by Spaarkd,” he says. “In the music industry you can self-publish on Spotify so why not apply the same thinking to fashion? Why should this $3trn (€2.9trn) industry be dominated by the same 15 or 20 players? I couldn’t believe in the open-source opportunity more.”

Setting up an ethical business that can also turn a profit is clearly complex but if you are willing to get creative and think outside the box, Mimran suggests that it’s both achievable and worth the challenge.

Offices in paradise
Asia’s islands offer fun in the sun alongside blissful working conditions.

Work and workplaces have changed over the past three years. After the initial shock of the pandemic, employers and employees adapted to remote working and long-distance meetings. While companies around the world have now embraced a return to the office, several Asian countries have designed new visas for remote workers that are flexible enough to accommodate short business trips and long-term stays, and broad enough to encompass freelancers, start-up founders and intrepid investors. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are three such nations. We recommend the best tropical island in each country to enjoy a poolside workday.

Phuket
Best for: Mid- and late-career professionals looking for a slower pace of life

Phuket is famed for its beach life but its cultural and culinary attractions are equal draws, from the colourful Peranakan shophouses of the Old Town to a spate of cutting-edge southern Thai restaurants launched by ambitious young chefs. New luxury developments such as Tri Vananda, offering private-pool residences and an integrated wellness resort, are cropping up as mid-career professionals from across Asia and Europe seek out more peaceful outposts from which to take calls and run businesses.

Phuket’s location – an hour’s flight to Bangkok, less than two hours to Singapore – makes it an ideal spot to work in peace without sacrificing connectivity. In September 2022, the Thai government launched the Long Term Resident visa, a long-awaited initiative that will grant 10-year residencies for eligible foreigners to live and work in Thailand. It’s part of a broader plan to bring one million “wealthy or talented foreign residents” into the country over the next five years. Those who qualify for the visa enjoy fast-track airport journeys, lower taxes on domestically earned income and full tax exemptions for any money earned abroad. Remote workers earning at least $80,000 (€74,555) a year or anyone looking to invest at least $500,000 (€465,930) in Thai assets can apply.

Langkawi
Best for: People in creative industries and early-career technology workers

Situated off Malaysia’s northwestern coast, tranquil Langkawi has the clear waters and white sand of popular Southeast Asian islands but none of the crowds. Restaurants serving freshly caught squid, crab and lobster dot the coastline.

Malaysia’s De Rantau scheme, launched in 2022, offers a multiple-entry visa to live in the country for up to two years, as well as discounts on food, transport and accommodation through participating companies such as Air Asia and Grab. Children and spouses can come along as dependants. At a cost of RM1,000 (€199) and open to applicants who make at least RM109,103.95 (€21,750), it’s one of the most affordable digital nomad visas going. It’s aimed specifically at technology industries but the category is broad enough to include sectors such as digital marketing and creative content.

New arrivals to Langkawi should explore its burgeoning art scene. During the pandemic, beach resort Bon Ton launched an artists’ residency that has now expanded to include music recording studios and workshops for textile designers, painters and other creatives who live on-site in Bon Ton’s guest pavilions, work on their projects and share their art with visitors through exhibitions and performance nights.

Bali
Best for: Executives and entrepreneurs with money to invest (and time for surfing lessons on the side)

Bali has long been Indonesia’s most popular tourist destination but in the past few years it has transformed into an enticing hub for remote workers. Co-working spaces with networking events (and swimming pools), affordable prices and a built-in expat community make it ideal for itinerant employees who also enjoy exploring jungle waterfalls, scuba diving among coral reefs, surfing or volcano trekking. Meanwhile, the island’s food and drink offerings range from roadside warung serving classic Balinese dishes to cliffside cocktail bars.

Indonesia wants to scale its technology industry and attract more international talent – and investment – to its shores. Bali is key to this plan. the country’s new Golden Visa offers five- and 10-year residency permits as well as other perks. It is aimed at high-net-worth individuals who want to launch companies in Indonesia, as well as people working for corporations investing in the country. Remote workers on a smaller budget can opt for the B211a visa, which allows a stay of up to six months – plenty of time to perfect your paddle.

How to fundraise
Raising capital in a less-than-favourable climate.

The past decade in the fashion start-up sector was all about the unicorn: investors made high-risk bets on a new generation of brands – usually digitally savvy and direct-to-consumer – and pushed them to set aggressive growth targets. In turn, founders chased high valuations and triumphant exits, which created a competitive market with venture capitalists embarking on bidding wars for a stake in the latest sportswear label or online retailer. But the bubble burst as the realities of managing complex supply chains hit and inflation rates derailed growth. Today, if you are looking to raise funds for your business, it takes a lot more door-knocking and convincing investors to part with their money.

“It has become more difficult in the current macroeconomic environment, given higher interest rates,” says Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of fashion rental start-up By Rotation, which offers customers the opportunity to rent designer clothing or to become lenders themselves. “Capital and funding is no longer as cheap as it used to be.”

Kabra-Davies, who worked as a trader before venturing into fashion retail, still managed to raise $3m (€2.8m) last spring to fund her company’s US expansion plans. She believes that there’s an appetite for companies such as hers, offering new consumer models and addressing the climate and cost-of-living crises. “Independent investors such as angel investors and family offices are very important,” says Kabra-Davies. “They don’t just invest in trends, markets and numbers but in people and ideas. They are more likely to support what’s best for the business, not just their own investment targets.”

Investors agree that there is still opportunity for those offering smart solutions to modern-day challenges. “If you read the news and follow funding trends, it would be easy to conclude that this isn’t the time to start a business,” says Georgia Stevenson, partner at Index Ventures, a firm based between London and San Francisco. “What we have seen over three decades of investing is that times like these give rise to some of the most successful companies.”

Entrepreneurs could also consider alternative methods, such as crowdfunding, says Déborah Neuberg (pictured), founder of menswear label De Bonne Facture. Having found herself at odds with traditional investors’ demands for aggressive growth, Neuberg – who favours working with specialist manufacturers in Europe – decided to try a community crowdfunding platform last summer. “This is an innovative fundraising method, which allows you to stay independent,” she says. “They’ll tell you that it’s impossible to find partners but there’s always a way; there are people looking to invest in brands doing the right thing.”

How to make co-working spaces work
Create spaces that combine functionality with a sense of fun.

Co-working spaces were once the reserve of start-ups, solo entrepreneurs and freelancers seeking a bit of company. Nowadays, it is remote workers who are pitching up, preferring to work at a hot-desk hub rather than toil away at home. But keeping such spaces vibrant and functional, community-focused but not distractingly noisy, is tricky. Big, anonymous players such as WeWork have lost their appeal for many and the company has been left floundering financially. So how do you create spaces that tick all the boxes?

1.
Create an industrious culture.
This is straightforward and begins with having staff who set a welcoming but professional tone. This should feel like a place where you can focus, not a raucous members’ club. (So kill the music; no one wants to have to talk to clients over the racket of the IT guy’s Spotify playlist.) For inspiration, go to the Loker Reading Room at Harvard’s Widener Library – rather than total silence, there’s a steady hum of industry with everyone aware that this is a space where you go to get things done.

2.
Choose your location with care.
Being inside an ornate 19th-century ballroom or historic film studio might sound evocative but these spaces weren’t built to accommodate people working at desks. Find somewhere with an appealing human scale, abundant natural light, good transport links and set in a pleasant neighbourhood for you to stroll around at lunchtime. Neuehouse’s most recent opening in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, is a fine example.

3.
Sell office essentials.
Many co-working spaces don’t have somewhere to buy a notepad or a pencil. Pair your supply shop with a simple newsstand stocking newspapers and global magazine titles to offer inspiration and moments of escape.

4.
Provide ample space to work.
People who go to co-working spaces are looking for an upgrade on their home office so don’t expect them to sit elbow to elbow on shared tables. Invest in proper desks with a lamp and space to spread their work out. Daniel Korb’s Sense tables for MillerKnoll are a roomy option with a low glass partition. And do get rid of the phone booths for private calls, which get colonised early in the day as someone’s personal office. Instead, create gardens and courtyards where people can go to make sensitive calls and maybe even find a new connection.

5.
Never put inspirational quotes on the walls.
Bin those dodgy prints about success being down to “99 per cent perspiration and 1 per cent inspiration”. Opt for plants to freshen up a space instead.

Training ground
The Food School in Bangkok is prepping the next generation of culinary entrepreneurs.

On the second floor of The Food School in Bangkok, under the watchful eye of Chef Tang, a class of nine students is quietly preparing a menu of Thai dishes, including the popular appetiser kratong tong. Nattitda Kiatphattanachai is standing in front of her cooking station, stirring a yellow curry. The 30-year-old accountancy graduate has enrolled on a three-month intermediate course with the intention of opening her own restaurant next year in her hometown, which borders the Thai capital. “If I’m going to be an owner, I want to understand the whole process and the kitchen is the heart of the business,” says Kiatphattanachai, while pouring a two-litre carton of coconut milk into the curry.

The Food School opened in January 2023 with the aim of training food entrepreneurs, rather than chefs. The full course lasts only nine months and can be sliced into three stages, from essential to advanced. Students learn how to run a restaurant, as well as follow a recipe, and the topics taught by industry experts range from marketing to kitchen design. The practical approach and focused learning are proving popular with food enthusiasts who want to make a career change but can’t quite stomach a four-year course at a traditional culinary school. “It’s a different world these days,” says Prim Jitcharoongphorn, chairperson of Allied Metals, a supplier of high-end kitchens to top hotels and culinary schools. “People want to open restaurants because they love to cook, even though they have no idea about professional kitchens or how much they cost to build.”

Allied Metals is one of The Food School’s three founders. Co-working space Glowfish, founded by Gavin Vongkusolkit (pictured, on right, with Jitcharoongphorn) and hospitality giant Dusit Thani are the other two. Through Dusit Thani, The Food School has brought together three prestigious culinary schools and three creative cuisines under one roof: Thailand’s Dusit Thani College, Tsuji from Japan and Alma from Italy. Instructors from Osaka and Colorno are seconded to the Bangkok outpost and standards inside the building in Block 28 – a new development by Thailand’s top university Chulalongkorn – are on par with a top international restaurant.

Graduates have an option to rent an “incubator kitchen” on the ground floor to test their ideas before investing in their own premises. Teantan Valairuecha was one of the first to complete Alma’s pastry course and within weeks of graduating, he founded his dessert business Palindrome.

“Renting here lowers the financial risks of opening my own place,” says the 27-year-old engineering graduate, who worked as a project manager before realising the growth potential of Thailand’s food industry. His ice creams and sweets will be available at The Food School’s café, a mix of canteen and co-working space, which attracts a lunchtime crowd of university students and local businesses.

The recipe for a successful restaurant might always be shifting but The Food School supplies its students with all the right ingredients.

What happened to the briefcase?
Today’s commuters have a more open attitude to the office bag.

It’s not long ago that office dress codes were so strict that getting ready for work was reminiscent of putting on a school uniform. Many men were expected to wear trim suits every day and some accessorised with structured briefcases. However, professionals have lately found themselves facing sartorial confusion – a trend accelerated by the pandemic, new streetwear trends and working-from-home arrangements. Some started dressing for video calls by pairing smart shirts and blazers with terry shorts, or abandoning tailoring in favour of humble T-shirts as their go-to business look. Over the years, briefcases got completely lost (inside wardrobes, donated to charity shops). Today, they seem like relics of a forgotten world.

Even workers who have returned to the office with a renewed appreciation for a good suit – albeit in looser, comfier cuts than before – seem reluctant to grasp a briefcase on their commute, preferring something a little softer and more versatile. “We’re still selling the same amount of work bags but today’s styles are a lot less uniform,” says Kasper Hostrup, owner of Copenhagen-based retailer Goods. “After the pandemic, people came back to shop for something more interesting and also anonymous. It’s less about logos and a lot more about design and utility.”

At Goods, you’ll now find an array of bags by the likes of Yoshida Porter and Mismo, and sporty styles made from feather-light Japanese nylon – perfect for when you’re riding your bike to work and transporting not only a laptop and papers but also your gym kit and lunch. “People are still attentive to how they dress,” says Hostrup. “They aren’t getting sloppy. But now you can bend the rules a little bit and wear the same bag in and out of the office. A nylon bag paired with a more formal suit creates an interesting contrast.”

Global online retailers such Mr Porter have spotted similar demands and have chosen to “invest heavily” in totes, weekend bags and messenger bags for this autumn, according to the site’s buying director, Daniel Todd. On Mr Porter, utilitarian bags by Bleu de Chauffe and large, luxurious totes by Loewe and Gucci keep rising in popularity. “Men’s bags have now expanded beyond traditional shapes that adhere to strict dress codes to fun, imaginative styles,” says Todd. Case closed: informality is on the up.

Long in the tooth
Suri’s plant-based brushes are designed to last.

According to Mark Rushmore, co-founder of London-based electric-toothbrush brand Suri, the dental market is saturated with gimmicky, unattractive models. “Pharmacy shelves are brimming with cheap, disposable electric toothbrushes that aren’t made to last,” he says. “And there’s no plan to repair or recycle them. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the overpriced models are packed with pointless innovations that no one even uses. Who really needs seven brushing modes and an app to clean their teeth?”

That’s why Rushmore, who has worked with the likes of Procter & Gamble in the past, decided to take matters into his own hands by launching his brand in 2022. “We set out to create an electric toothbrush that champions design, performance and sustainability without compromise,” he says.

Fitted with recyclable plant-based heads made from corn starch, Rushmore’s aluminium-handled brushes are light, durable and made from recyclable materials. “We want them to spend more time in your bathroom and less time in a landfill,” he says. Rushmore hopes that, leading by example, it can show other firms what’s possible. “The future of sustainability lies in high-performance, beautifully designed products that fit seamlessly into people’s daily lives,” he says. “We’re aiming to be a catalyst for the wider industry.”

Inside scoop
The next big thing in food? Slavic and Balkan dips. Here are three to prep.

London-based, Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi has made Levantine food a pervasive presence on dining tables in recent years. But while we never tire of his toothsome concoctions, food entrepreneurs should be on the lookout for what might be next. With Italy just about exhausted of its kitchen secrets, Japan plundered for umami recipes and Peruvian delights such as ceviche available in every city, we have a hunch that Balkan, eastern European and Slavic dips will be the next big dishes to invest in. These three spreads are delicious but little known beyond their regional borders. Time to tuck in.

1.
Ajvar

Peppers and aubergines grilled over a charcoal fire give this spread a smoky sweetness. The recipe is thought to originate in Serbia (some call ajvar “Serbian caviar”) but the spread was, well, spread throughout the region during the Yugoslavian era, which explains its relatively standardised recipe. As far as condiments go, ajvar is a unifier of regional identity, from the beaches of Croatia to the mountains of Montenegro. Not bad for some grilled veg.

2.
Ljutenica

Popular in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia, ljutenica is a relish made from peppers, aubergines, carrots, garlic and tomatoes. In other words, it makes full use of the vegetable plot. Some prefer it smooth or chunky, hot or mild, but this spicy-sweet dip is a staple in most Balkan households and sometimes referred to as “Bulgarian ketchup”. It’s the perfect accompaniment for grilled meats but is equally satisfying simply spread on a piece of bread.

3.
Gzik

Originally from Poland’s Wielkopolska region, where farmers feasted on the simple recipe, this spread consists of fresh cottage cheese, milk, yoghurt and chives. You can even add radish, onions, smoked mackerel or hard-boiled eggs to liven up the creamy dip. Gzik is best served alongside boiled potatoes, on a sandwich or as a dip for crudités.

Profile: The Great Room
The Singapore-based firm runs a suite of seemly workspaces across Asia. We meet its CEO, Jaelle Ang.

Before co-founding her own company in 2016, Jaelle Ang worked in banking for several years and earned degrees from Imperial College’s MBA programme and UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, both in London. Ang’s business training and love of good design was invaluable when it came to launching The Great Room, a small-scale co-working company in her native Singapore that now has a growing number of outposts across Asia.

The Great Room stands apart from other flexible workspaces with its focus on design and premium events and a hospitality-led approach. “We take our inspiration from hotels, which need to be highly functioning, high-performance spaces but, at the same time, there’s always something magical when you walk in,” says Ang, who serves as the company’s CEO. She hires hotel designers to work on The Great Room’s spaces to achieve that same mix of functionality and beauty, and makes sure staff are service-oriented and friendly, taking inspiration from luxury hotels and private members’ clubs.

Ang also looks out for unique properties. The six Singapore locations include one within the historic Raffles Hotel and another in a restored 1910s shophouse. There are also branches in Hong Kong and Bangkok; the first Sydney location is expected to open in early 2024.

“These are all key cities – wonderful places to live, work and play,” says Ang. “Really, we think we can exist in any cosmopolitan financial hub in Asia.” Different markets require different strategies: broadly speaking, every country has its own property environment – Bangkok’s crop of new skyscrapers, for example, and Singapore’s well-preserved heritage buildings. Work cultures vary between cities too, which is a crucial consideration when it comes to programming events for members, from leadership seminars to after-hours networking drinks. “Thais are extremely fun-loving, and need no big encouragement,” says Ang. “In Hong Kong, it’s changing but traditionally they wouldn’t want to be seen having a tipple in front of their colleagues or bosses. In Sydney, which has a casual, fun, very ‘matey’ culture, we realised that they start work a lot earlier. They tend to cycle, walk, do a lot of stuff – and they like to get out by 16.30.”

In 2022, New York-based co-working business Industrious acquired The Great Room and another co-working firm for a combined $100m (€93m). Members now have access to more than 160 offices around the world. “As an entrepreneur, it’s a great milestone: six years after you’ve built something, somebody recognises that there’s so much value in what you’ve created.” Ang will have more support and opportunities for growth but will keep operating the business with her Asia team and retain the Great Room brand. “It allows us to act rather nimbly and in a very localised way. So we have the best of both worlds now. It has really expanded our horizons.”

Ang is confident that Asia’s co-working market is here to stay. She adds that businesses need to recognise that their customers are more discerning than a few years ago. “Developed markets start segmenting and people demand more from their workspace. They don’t just want flexibility, they want beautiful design, great events and amazing, like-minded people. So we’re seldom the first-mover player. When the market starts maturing, that’s the perfect time for us to come in.”

Knowing Where To Look For Opportunity

What makes a successful entrepreneur? Is it their belief that there is always going to be a solution to even the knottiest of problems? Or their willingness to fail, learn and move on when necessary? Perhaps it’s just that they are the sort of person who wouldn’t be able to cope working in a corporate structure or spending their days making somebody else wealthy. While it might be hard to easily summarise the attributes that unite entrepreneurs, one thing does seem to connect them all: they sense when – and where – there’s an opportunity to be seized.

For this outing of The Entrepreneurs, our annual about the world of business that’s aimed at everyone from the founder of a fledgling start-up to the owner of a fast-moving empire of scale (and anyone who just wants the company they work for to be more dynamic), we headed to the UAE. The pace of change there is remarkable and the country has shifted from being somewhere that people dipped into for a few years for tax-free work and a quality of life top-up, to a place where people are founding businesses that they intend to run there for the long term. The scale of investment in new technology, design and infrastructure is also remarkable. We hope that our survey of all that the region has to offer entrepreneurs will provide some surprises and make some of you wonder whether this is where you should be anchoring your next enterprise. It feels like a whole land of opportunities.

You’ll also find a cast of opportunity hunters in the Toolkit pages that kick off this issue (page 21). We’ll take you to Japan to meet the founders of Maison Rococo, the beer company edging its way into fine-dining establishments, drop in on the woman who founded a Singaporean co-working powerhouse that’s now moving into Thailand and Australia, and catch up with a dapper fashion investor whose love of sports is giving him a winning streak. And we’ll also offer some moments of levity as we get a dispatch from an office dog and investigate the disappearance of the briefcase.

The Entrepreneurs, of course, is not just an annual handbook but also a weekly programme on Monocle Radio – and we round out this issue with an Expo inspired by the programme’s companion show Eureka!. Just in case you need bringing up to speed, this is where we ask business owners to reveal the moment when they spotted the valuable gap in the market, the opportunity waiting to be seized. And it has all been finely produced on page by that show’s astute and wise presenter, Tom Edwards. How’s that for multi-platform? (Although, personally, I prefer multi-platform to mean an escape-in-all-directions railway station). So as you head into the issue, keep an eye out for where your next business venture – and adventure – could be set and discover where opportunities await.
If you have ideas, thoughts or feedback, please feel free to contact me at at@Monocle.com