• 3 Bahraini startups were semi-finalists in the Supernova Challenge
• Unipal wins second place

Bahraini enterprises that participated in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s pavilion at GITEX 2023 have concluded their successful involvement, following an outstanding reception and participation during the event. This led to the signing of 20 partnership agreements and memorandums of understanding between Bahraini companies and various regional and international organizations.

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s pavilion, sponsored by the Labour Fund (Tamkeen), in collaboration with the Economic Development Board (EDB), Export Bahrain, and ila Bank, experienced an unprecedented turnout from visitors at the global exhibition. An annual event held in Dubai, GITEX attracts the foremost technology companies, experts, and decision-makers, drawing technology enthusiasts from across the globe.

Tamkeen Chief Growth Officer Khalid AlBayat commended the quality of Bahraini businesses, highlighting the Kingdom’s leading position in the region in information and communication technology (ICT) and the digital economy.

He said: “Tamkeen’s consistent sponsorship of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s pavilion, which is now in its ninth consecutive year, remains a top priority. We aim to fuel the growth of Bahrain’s entrepreneurship and innovation system, boosting key economic sectors, including ICT. Our focus is on nurturing national competencies, and equipping Bahrainis with specialized technical skills in various pioneering digital fields, thus creating more high-quality job opportunities, fostering career development, and promoting entrepreneurial thinking to encourage the launch and expansion of pioneering technical projects, both locally and internationally. This will enhance their contribution to the national economic landscape.”

Musab Abdullah, Executive Director of ICT Business Development at Bahrain EDB said: “Together with its progressive regulatory government, competitive operating costs, and ease of doing business, Bahrain has earned its standing as the destination of choice for companies seeking highly skilled, future ready talent in operational data management, customer service excellence, software development and service delivery. This flagship exhibition offers a great opportunity to explore advanced ICT projects from around the world and meet with key players from the sector to showcase Bahrain’s unique value proposition.”

Export Bahrain Executive Director – Operations, Ms. Fatima Aziz Rostam said: “Our third participation in GITEX has underscored our commitment to showcasing the Kingdom of Bahrain’s significant investments in local enterprises, highlighting their technological and entrepreneurial prowess. This platform has not only served as a means to promote our products and services but has also facilitated valuable connections with new markets, fostering a culture of export and encouraging robust economic growth, particularly in the innovative technology sectors.”

Mr. Abdullah Abuidrees, Head of Marketing & Acquisition at ila Bank added: “We were honored to represent the Kingdom of Bahrain at GITEX Global, which brought together the world’s most innovative enterprises to explore the latest technological and artificial intelligence trends. This platform enabled us to share our revolutionary, exclusively Cloud-based digital mobile-only ila Bank’s success story internationally and establish connections with best-of-breed technology providers to further push the envelope of digital innovation. I would like to thank Tamkeen, Bahrain’s Labour Fund, for this remarkable opportunity and the organisers of GITX Global for delivering another outstanding world-class event.”

The pavilion featured 12 Bahraini small and medium enterprises at the GITEX Global exhibition, along with 20 startups participating in the Expand North Star exhibition, an integral part of the GITEX Global Week activities. Notably, the Expand North Star exhibition, held separately from GITEX for the first time, saw the participation of over 800 companies from more than 100 countries worldwide.

Three Bahraini startups reached the semi-finals of the Supernova Challenge, with the emerging Bahraini application Unipal securing second place. Unipal founder Ali Al-Alawi expressed pride in representing Bahrain in this global competition, highlighting the valuable experience gained and the networking opportunities with experienced professionals in the technical field, which will enhance the user experience and propel the application to greater heights.

The exhibition encompassed numerous discussion sessions and presentations featuring representatives from the Bahrain Pavilion, including partners and participants, which covered highly engaging topics including Artificial Intelligence and the latest technologies, alongside a number of international industry experts and specialists.

Bahraini companies made significant strides in establishing partnerships and agreements with various regional and international entities. Notably, the following collaborations were confirmed:

• ADRI entered a partnership agreement with China Mobile, aiming to promote fifth-generation technologies, data centers, and IoT applications in the Gulf region. The memorandum of understanding focuses on fostering cooperation in developing infrastructure for Arabic language-based artificial intelligence in the region.
• NGN International successfully sealed four partnership agreements with prominent entities namely:

1. Emirates Alliance for Technical Solutions, a leading company in the field of cybersecurity and information technology in Abu Dhabi.
2. Positive Technologies, a global company specialized in providing security solutions for organisations to manage security vulnerabilities, analyse risks, and protect applications.
3. Dynatrace, a leading global company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, providing an advanced monitoring platform based on artificial intelligence and automation.
4. Axidian, a global information security provider, which works to provide specialized solutions in systems access management, identity verification, and others.

• FACEKI inked five agreements in collaboration with Bahrain Exports, aiming to leverage export solutions and expand into various countries. These agreements include partnerships with:
  1. Explorer Bees, a leading Pakistan-based social platform based on artificial intelligence and specialized in the hospitality and tourism services sector around the world.
  2. Trade Dog, an Indian company specialized in providing crypto financial services to help manage portfolios and investments.

These two agreements aim to enhance user experience by enabling face recognition features to increase information security and data protection.

• Redleaf Technologies, a startup specialized in providing environmental enterprise solutions, with the aim of reducing carbon use and reducing its impact on the environment. Their partnership with Faceki aims to enhance video identification services based on artificial intelligence.
• SANATECH Global Solutions, from the US, which specializes in providing various solutions for programming applications. Through this agreement, advanced solutions that employ artificial intelligence will be used in verifying eKYC, KYB, and AML/PEP.
• SDK Finance from Lithuania, a platform specialized in developing financial technology. The agreement with this platform aims to reduce fraud attempts and provide more comprehensive verification solutions.

Think Smart has signed:

1. 1. A strategic partnership agreement with EON Reality, a global leader in augmented and virtual reality educational solutions.
   2. A memorandum of understanding with Excellence Delivered (ExD), a leading vendor-agnostic systems integration company in the gulf region.

• Arab Financial Services (afs) signed seven memorandums of understanding with various Bahraini and international institutions, including Unipal, Softech Systems, Equity Bank, Supersonic USA, Fortis, Peach Payments, and Dynamic Business Solutions, aiming to provide comprehensive digital payment services.
• Silah Gulf solidified a strategic partnership with Genesys, a leading provider of cloud solutions for customer contact centers, affirming their commitment to enhancing customer service solutions.

These collaborations and discussions at the exhibition underscored the Kingdom of Bahrain’s commitment to fostering innovation and growth in the digital and technology sectors.