Please tell us more about Hayatech and what inspired you to create the business?

It is undeniable that the modem lifestyle discourages physical activity. Practically every facet of our life experience—from work to home, errands to entertainment, retail to travel—has been transformed through urbanization and technology, leading us towards increasingly sedentary habits.

Our natural movement is further inhibited by modern infrastructure, motorized transport, and declining recreation and green spaces enabling the sedentary lifestyle to creep further into our workspaces, our homes, and ultimately, our habits.

A 2018 study by the World Health Organization regarding worldwide health epidemics revealed that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states currently hosts the highest rates of inactivity in the world—Kuwait: 67%, Bahrain 57%, Saudi 53%. Consequently, 73% of deaths in the GCC are due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as lifestyle-related illnesses—diseases purely born out of behavioral choices.

According to the Global Wellness Institute, an unwell and critically disengaged workforce is costing corporations 10 – 15% of economic output globally in increased health costs, sick leave, and loss of productivity.

With traditional wellness solutions only engaging 10% of the workforce on average, Hayatech invites participating corporations and their respective employees to reimagine the approach to wellness, providing a customized, localized, and gamified solution that motivates movement, community, and employee engagement.

How does Hayatech incentivize active lifestyles?

It is clear that businesses are in dire need of wellness programs that are effective and sustainable. By incorporating the proper triggers, motivators, and engagement strategies, employers can invigorate their workforce and improve their employee health while respectively improving their bottom line.

Ultimately, change is required not only to combat illnesses due to sedentary lifestyles, but for each of us to self-actualize through increased productivity, engagement, and motivation.

With employee wellbeing at the center of our ethos, Hayatech endeavors to transform workplaces into healthy communities by monetizing movement.

Through engaging with the Hayatech SaaS and connected hardware technology, Hayatech users are continually motivated to meet meaningful movement goals through gamified challenges and are systematically incentivized to keep moving via earning wellness rewards hosted on the Hayatech marketplace.

What are the challenges of building a platform such as Hayatech?

Central to the objective of any business is the need to drive value and solve a relevant problem for its user base. Hayatech addresses three distinct problems for three unique stakeholders within a single platform.

In addition to activating wellness lifestyles, Hayatech enables corporates and wellness brands to build engagement and loyalty by empowering both to take part in incentivizing lasting behavioral change across their employee and customer base, ultimately fostering an entire ecosystem around wellness.

Each stakeholder goal within the ecosystem needs to be directly and consistently met so that key performance indicators are measurable and correlate to long-term value, but above all, ensure that the model consistently promotes user wellbeing at its core.

Vision: Where do you see yourselves in 3-5 years?

Through continuous investment in research and development, Hayatech seeks to ensure that its services remain at the forefront of digital transformation and the integration of health technology, whilst evolving the way that positive behavioral change can be influenced, sustained, and quantified. Acknowledging that wellness will continue to impact every pillar of our lives, from the way we work to the way we live, Hayatech endeavors to remain at the core of the wellness lifestyle by influencing the journey beyond the workplace and continually galvanizing every stakeholder operating on the peripheral of health and wellness.

Ecosystem: How did the Bahrain ecosystem help your platform to grow?

Our journey as founders and as a startup has undoubtedly been empowered by the Bahrain ecosystem. Following the development of our minimum viable prototype, which was facilitated through a strategic minimum viability grant offered by Tamkeen, we were proudly selected into the 2019 Brinc MENA accelerator program, throughout which we rapidly refined our platform and business offering.

In parallel with our business and product development, Hayatech placed 1st at the Seedstars Manama Startup Pitch Competition in September, earning the opportunity to represent the Bahrain ecosystem in the upcoming MENA Regional Seedstars convention in December. Subsequently, Hayatech was selected by the MIT Pan Arab Federation— with whom Tamkeen remains a valued and long-standing partner—to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt in Silicon Valley in October.

Most recently, Hayatech was humbly selected to be part of a delegation, comprising of Tamkeen and StartUp Bahrain in addition to other ecosystem catalysts, and participate in the world-renowned, Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

We acknowledge that our path towards growth and success will continue to be influenced by the valued partnerships we build through industry stakeholders. To that end, Hayatech seeks to scale its business into new markets whilst maintaining its headquarters in Bahrain.