Fifteen individuals and businesses walked away with winners’ trophies the Arabian Business StartUp Awards, 2017, which took place last night in Dubai, at the Rixos Premium in JBR.
The main driver behind the Arabian Business StartUp Awards is for the region’s business ecosystem to recognise and honour the outstanding individuals and organisations that have demonstrated their commitment and desire to achieve excellence.
“The atmosphere in the room was super-charged with entrepreneurial energy, but for me the most rewarding aspect of the evening was seeing the strength of community spirit amongst the individuals that make up the entrepreneurial ecosystem here,” said Kay Marham, editor of Arabian Business Start-Up.
“These are the people who create the commercial lifeblood of new ideas and a better way of doing things. This allows our economies to diversify, make our lives better and make a meaningful contribution to the success of not just the UAE, but also the wider GCC,” she added.
Over 400 guests, comprising many of the region’s most successful start-up and SME entrepreneurs, VCs and angel investors, to honour and congratulate the following winners:
Mentor of the YearPaul Kenny Managing Director of AYM Commerce
Incubator / Accelerator of the YearDubai Smart City – Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority
Start-up Programme of the YearDubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre (Dtec)
New Media Start-Up of the Year360VUZ
Social Enterprise of the YearNOW Money
Start-up of the YearProximie
Young Entrepreneur of the YearJassim Arif, Co-founder of Hammerheads UAE
Editor’s Choice Award: Champion of InnovationZiad Gosn CEO of Nomadic Capital
Entrepreneur of the YearRoss Milton, Bounce
Intrapreneur of the YearZaid Zureikat, Aramex
Investor of the YearElissa Freiha, WOMENA
Funding Initiative of the YearFetchr
SME of the YearYallaCompare
SME Leader of the YearMaaz Sheikh, STARZ PLAY
People’s Choice Award for Entrepreneur of the YearNadya Jaghbir, GymNadz
Presenting the awards were Rizwan Sajan, founder of sponsoring company, Danube Group; Saikat Kumar, Partner & Senior Executive Officer Al Masah Capital, also one of the sponsoring partners for the awards; Andreea Munteanu, Chivas Regal brand manager at Pernod Ricard Gulf; Neil Petch, Chairman of Platinum Sponsor, Virtuzone; and Kay Marham, Editor of Arabian Business StartUp.