Bosta announced its participation in the RiseUp Summit 2026, held at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo from February 5 to 7, 2026, under the theme “The Turning Point.” During the event, RiseUp announced a strategic partnership with Bosta to support startups by providing innovative logistics solutions that will help them scale and grow.

In this context, Mohamed Ezzat, CEO of Bosta, stated: “Although Egypt is the largest market in the region in terms of size and opportunity, startups need from day one to design their products and business models with scalability across regional and global markets in mind, to ensure real and sustainable growth.”

He added that focusing on building scalable solutions that can adapt to the requirements of different markets has become a critical factor in attracting investment and unlocking new growth opportunities, whether through partnerships or future exit options.

Bosta is one of the leading companies in logistics and delivery solutions in Egypt, offering technology-driven, end-to-end services that support e-commerce businesses by improving the efficiency of shipping and delivery operations, thereby accelerating growth and enabling them to scale within the Egyptian market and across the region.

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Red Sea Global (RSG), the developer behind regenerative tourism destinations The Red Sea and AMAALA, has announced a strategic partnership with Bunat Ventures Limited (Bunat VC) to launch a first-of-its-kind venture fund focused on artificial intelligence (AI)-driven startups in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The AI Venture Fund will invest in early- and growth-stage startups that are either AI-native or leverage AI as a core enabler of their business models. Over the next three years, the Fund aims to support approximately 25 startups through both pre-seed and growth-stage investments. Beyond capital, the Fund will provide investee companies—particularly those based in Saudi Arabia—with access to world-class infrastructure and a state-of-the-art environment to pilot and validate their technologies within RSG’s real-world operations. This partnership is designed to accelerate the development of these startups into national and regional champions in the AI ecosystem.

With a focus on Saudi-based entrepreneurs and Saudi-founded global ventures expanding into the Kingdom, the Fund aims to unlock new pathways for innovation, job creation, and digital excellence. It is expected to act as a catalyst for the local innovation ecosystem, fostering collaboration between investors, academia, and technology partners. It will also attract global talent and promote knowledge exchange to ensure long-term value creation and sustainable growth.

Khaled Zainalabedin, CEO and Managing Partner at Bunat VC, added: “Our collaboration with Red Sea Global brings together visionary development and agile venture capital. Together, we are building a platform to empower the next generation of Saudi AI pioneers who will redefine industries, shape communities, and strengthen Saudi Arabia’s leadership in the global innovation arena.”

RSG welcomed its first guests to The Red Sea in 2023 and now operates 10 resorts, as well as Red Sea International Airport (RSI), which receives regular flights from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, and Doha. This year, Shura Island, the heart of The Red Sea, is opening its first resorts, as well as Shura Links, an 18-hole championship golf course.

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Gruve, a leader in AI services and infrastructure, announced a $50 million follow-on Series A funding to accelerate deployments, expand strategic partnerships, and scale its full-stack agentic services.

The latest round brings Gruve’s total funding to $87.5 million and was led by Xora Innovation (backed by Temasek), with participation from Mayfield, Cisco Investments, Acclimate Ventures, AI Space and other strategic investors.

The capital accelerates Gruve’s ability to make low-latency AI inference capacity immediately available across Tier 1 and Tier 2 U.S. cities and scale efficiently as demand grows, without multi-year data center buildouts.

The Execution Gap in AI
As inference becomes the dominant AI workload, infrastructure has emerged as the industry’s primary constraint. While models, agents, and hardware continue to see breakthroughs, the systems running them have not kept pace.

Most production inference today relies on infrastructure that was never designed for low-latency, high-throughput, cost-sensitive AI, resulting in unsustainable costs, mounting technical debt, and weak unit economics.

Gruve’s Inference Infrastructure Fabric was built to close this gap.

Inference Infrastructure Services Purpose-built for Production AI Workloads
Gruve’s Inference Infrastructure Fabric is a distributed platform engineered specifically for production-grade AI inference, delivering predictable latency, scalable throughput and industry leading economics.

Key capabilities include:

• 500MW+ of expandable U.S. capacity, leveraging excess power and existing infrastructure near Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, enabled by long-term partnerships with Lineage, Inc. and other major colocation providers
• Modular, high-density, rack-scale inference capacity, engineered for cost efficiency in inference-heavy workloads and rapid deployment
• A distributed, low-latency edge fabric for seamless connectivity and workload orchestration across sites
• Full-stack operations, including a 24×7 AI-powered SOC, network services, and cluster management to meet enterprise-grade reliability and performance standards

Gruve is bringing 30MW live today across four U.S. sites, with additional capacity under development and further near-term expansions in Japan and Western Europe. This unique approach bypasses multi-year data center build cycles and delivers AI-ready capacity in months instead of years.

Built for Neoclouds, Enterprises, and AI-Native Startups
Gruve’s distributed inference infrastructure is designed for organizations moving from experimentation to production without compromising performance or economics, including:

• Neoclouds scaling inference economically at the edge
• Enterprises deploying real-time agents and mission-critical AI workloads
• AI-native startups moving from prototype to production

By placing inference close to users and data sources, Gruve reduces latency and operating costs, while improving reliability, unlocking true speed to scale for the next generation of AI applications.

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Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) this week commenced celebrations marking its fifth anniversary under the theme “Pioneering Tomorrow: AI, Science and Humanity.” The milestone marks the five-year period from 2020 to 2025, since the world’s first AI university welcomed its first cohort of students in 2020.  

His Excellency Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of MBZUAI’s Board of Trustees, said: “Over the past five years, MBZUAI has evolved from an ambitious vision into a cornerstone of the UAE’s identity as a global AI leader. Our journey has been about more than academic excellence; it is about building the intellectual infrastructure required to power a knowledge-driven economy. By attracting and cultivating world-class talent and pioneering research that addresses real-world challenges, MBZUAI is ensuring that Abu Dhabi and the UAE are primary architects of an AI-enabled future. As we look ahead, our commitment remains clear: to harness the transformative power of AI to serve humanity, drive sustainable growth, and solidify Abu Dhabi’s position at the heart of the world’s AI map.”

Professor Eric Xing, MBZUAI President and University Professor, said:  “MBZUAI was established as part of the UAE’s long-term vision to position artificial intelligence as foundational infrastructure for a knowledge-driven economy. In five years, we have achieved leading global research rankings and helped extend the frontier of AI through initiatives such as the Institute of Foundation Models. As we enter our next phase, we are scaling MBZUAI into a comprehensive research university across disciplines including life sciences, natural sciences, advanced computing, fundamental sciences, etc. In doing so, we aim to shape how AI advances science, strengthens economies, and generates positive impact on climate, energy, public health, education, industry, and society at large.”

The University is currently ranked 10th globally in CSRankings across its core specializations, including artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, robotics, and computational biology. Further reinforcing its international standing, MBZUAI was recently recognized among the top 50 organizations advancing the global artificial intelligence frontier at NeurIPS 2025. This reputation for excellence is underpinned by a world-class academic community of 116 faculty members, nearly half of whom joined from the world’s top 100 AI institutions, and a student body of 653 researchers representing 59 nationalities.

A defining milestone in MBZUAI’s five-year journey has been its transition from a graduate-level institution into a comprehensive university, marked by the 2025 launch of its first undergraduate program. To support this evolution, MBZUAI has expanded to eight academic departments, creating a robust multidisciplinary ecosystem. Alongside its founding pillars of Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing, the University has established departments in Robotics and Computer Science, as well as newly launched disciplines including Human-Computer Interaction, Statistics and Data Science, and Computational Biology. This expansion enables a holistic approach to AI education, bridging foundational theory with real-world applications across healthcare, engineering, and the social sciences.

The impact of this academic rigor is reflected in MBZUAI’s 318 alumni, who are now driving AI adoption across the global economy. While 44% of graduates have entered research careers, 29% have joined data and technology sectors, with others leading innovation across healthcare, defense, security, logistics, government, and energy.

Expanding its research footprint, the University established the Institute of Foundation Models (IFM), with laboratories spanning Abu Dhabi, Silicon Valley, and Paris. IFM has pioneered world-leading systems including K2-Think, among the world’s fastest reasoning systems, and Jais 2, a leading open-weight Arabic large language model.

Complementing these research achievements, the MBZUAI Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) serves as a critical bridge between academic excellence and commercial impact. As Abu Dhabi continues to emerge as a global innovation hub, underscored by the UAE’s fifth place ranking in the Stanford Global AI Power Rankings 2025, IEC supports founders through targeted workshops, mentorship, and access to funding. In 2025, the center supported 88 undergraduate and 17 postgraduate students, with 30 startup ideas pitched following more than 150 hours of mentorship and coaching.

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GAIA is expanding into Abu Dhabi. Founded in Dubai—where the idea sparked, where the founder is based, and where the first women’s peer group took shape—GAIA was never meant to remain in one city. Its expansion into the capital is both intentional and timely. GAIA is a pioneering women’s leadership community based in Dubai with a global reach. It operates across two tiers: GAIA Elevate, a self-paced online learning platform for global members, and GAIA Leader, an intimate, in-person leadership network. Both are anchored in a single mission—to empower women to lead with authenticity, vulnerability, and growth.

Abu Dhabi holds a distinct brilliance. It is a city shaped by women who build at scale—directors, innovators, policy shapers, and institutional leaders; women accustomed to responsibility, complexity, and influence, and increasingly seeking spaces that allow for depth, reflection, and collective growth beyond titles.

GAIA Abu Dhabi launches as a closed, Director+ Peer group. The format is deliberate. Closed rooms create safety. Safety allows honesty. And honesty is where meaningful leadership work begins. By limiting the cohort to senior leaders, GAIA protects the quality of dialogue and ensures a shared level of experience—removing hierarchy while preserving depth.

The first peer session was held at Erth in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi cohort will be led by Kerry Gird, GAIA Coach and Founding Abu Dhabi Lead, bringing GAIA’s established facilitation model into the capital with local sensitivity and intent.

Marisa Kamall, Founder of GAIA, reflects on the expansion: “We started in Dubai, but GAIA was never designed to stay in one place. Abu Dhabi is home to extraordinary female leaders—thoughtful, driven, and global in outlook. GAIA is here to amplify their voices, connect them deeply, and help them rise together. This is not Dubai replicated. It is Abu Dhabi shaped—its own rhythm, richness, and strength.”

While each city will evolve on its own terms, GAIA will also bring Dubai and Abu Dhabi together through shared gatherings. Cross-emirate connection is where the network becomes a movement—where diverse rooms generate bolder thinking, faster solutions, and wider opportunity.

As part of its broader leadership ecosystem, GAIA also recently launched ChatGPShe, a bold initiative reimagining how women engage with artificial intelligence. Built on collective learning rather than top-down instruction, ChatGPShe brings women across industries together to demystify AI, share real-world experiences, and shape ethical, inclusive approaches to technology.

“With ChatGPShe, women don’t just adopt AI—they actively shape how it’s used,” says Kamall. “This isn’t about adding more tools. It’s about rewriting the answers AI gives the world.”

Together, GAIA Abu Dhabi and its wider initiatives signal a continued commitment to building spaces where women lead — not louder, but deeper, together.

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UAE’s e& and the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA) today announced a three-year strategic partnership to strengthen the venture capital and innovation ecosystem across the Middle East, the first partnership of its kind for the association.

The partnership brings together e&’s regional scale, digital capabilities, and corporate innovation agenda with MEVCA’s role as the leading industry body representing venture capital and private markets across the region. Together, both entities will collaborate to support knowledge sharing, ecosystem development, and engagement between corporates, investors, founders, and policymakers.

As part of the partnership, e& will serve as MEVCA’s first corporate anchor partner and join the association’s board, collaborating on industry research, curated events, thought leadership and ecosystem-driven programming to support entrepreneurs across the region. The collaboration will also support constructive dialogue between the private sector and policymakers to help enable a more connected, investable innovation environment.

Harrison Lung, Group Chief Strategy Officer, e&, said: “As the first technology group to join MEVCA’s Board, e& is committed to strengthening collaboration across founders, investors and corporates—helping create clearer pathways from innovation to scale and supporting the region’s digital and innovation ambitions.”

Noor Sweid, Chair, MEVCA, said: “We are pleased to partner with e&, a regional and global technology leader, as we continue to build a strong, connected, and forward-looking investment ecosystem. This collaboration reinforces MEVCA’s mission to serve as a platform for dialogue, insight, and value creation across venture capital, private equity, and the broader innovation economy.”

The partnership will be launched at the MEVCA Investors Summit 2026 at ADGM in Abu Dhabi. The summit brings together senior leaders from venture capital, private equity, corporates, and public sector stakeholders from across the region.

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Hydrovest Technology, a Doha-based company that develops climate-smart agricultural solutions, crops, and value-added products, today announced the successful close of an investment round totaling QAR 1,000,000.

The funding will be deployed to accelerate commercial production, complete a factory fit-out in Birkat Al Awamar, Logistic Park A, Al Wakrah, scale R&D collaborations, and support market expansion into the UAE in Q4 2026.

“Today’s investment is a critical inflection point for Hydrovest,” said Jeacim Francis Adaya, Chief Executive Officer of Hydrovest Technology. “With this capital, we will transition into commercial-scale operations. We are excited about delivering premium, nutritious options produced with data-driven farming.”

Hydrovest Technology, known as the maker of Lettuce Chips in Qatar, is poised to expand its product line. Freeze-Dried Fruits are already in the works, leveraging state-of-the-art freeze-dry technology to lock in the flavor and nutrients of fresh fruits without the need for preservatives or artificial ingredients. It is also set to launch Lettuce Tea, infused with moringa, lemon, and other healthy elements.

Bringing these products to market fosters Hydrovest’s mission to revolutionize food security and environmental sustainability. It also helps build the foundation to serve GCC retail partners from the company’s new facility, as well as contribute to the Qatar National Vision 2030.

Where Hydrovest stands now

• Products & market traction: Lettuce Chips, positioned as a premium, healthy snack alternative, is manufactured with lettuce leaves grown and harvested from a hydroponic farm in Doha, then supplied to an expanding network of retail partners across the country. Retail partner growth and sales momentum over the past 12 months have validated demand for locally produced, nutrient-forward snacks.
• Strategic partnerships and projects: Hydrovest has established a strategic relationship with the global Fortune 500 company DENSO for technology collaboration and data-driven agriculture solutions. This partnership allows Hydrovest to bring and cultivate high-value Japanese melons in Qatar.
• Status: Hydrovest Technology has received official approval to be published in the Qatar Development Bank (QDB) Exporter Directory, recognizing the company as an export-ready business.

Planned investments and immediate priorities

• New factory: Commission and fit-out of a new production facility in Birkat Al Awamar, Logistic Park A, Al Wakrah, to support scaled manufacturing of value-added product lines.
• Expanded product pipeline: Launch of improved Lettuce Chips with added selling points: cholesterol-free, zero MSG, and no preservatives, among others. Launch of Lettuce Tea with Moringa and additional flavor variants, plus a freeze-dried fruit product range designed for retail and e-commerce channels.
• Artificial intelligence-powered farming: Offer AI-driven hydroponics cultivation through do-it-yourself and do-it-for-you kits, enabling customers to start and sustain smart hydroponic gardens.
• Regional expansion: Operational entry into Dubai planned for Q4 2026 to establish distribution partnerships, target premium retail channels, and test export logistics across the UAE market.

Investor and partner impact
The QAR 1M infusion strengthens working capital, accelerates factory readiness, and de-risks product launches for Hydrovest Technology to meet increasing demand from retail partners. The company expects this investment to enable follow-on partnerships and prepare the business for a broader consumer base, as its R&D team continually explores ways to transform hydroponic produce into various food product lines.

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Qureos, an AI driven hiring platform founded in the Middle East, has closed a US$5 million Seed round led by Prosus Ventures and Salica Oryx Fund, with participation from Oraseya Capital, Plus VC, F6 Ventures, BDev Ventures, Sunny Side Venture Partners and Daniel Tyre, an early HubSpot executive who helped scale the company from inception to its IPO, and follow-on investment from COTU Ventures and Globivest.

Founded by Alexander Epure and Usama Nini, Qureos was built around a simple insight. Hiring is not slow because of volume alone. It is slow because it is fragmented. Recruiters juggle disconnected tools across sourcing, screening, and interviewing, while candidates move through the process with little clarity or feedback. Qureos treats hiring as a single system rather than a sequence of manual steps, designed to continuously improve outcomes for both sides.

Hiring has become one of the biggest bottlenecks for growing organizations, particularly in high volume environments where speed often determines who secures the best talent. Demand for Qureos has surged as enterprises increasingly use the platform to run high volume and time sensitive hiring, compressing hiring timelines from months to as little as six days and redefining recruitment as a competitive lever rather than a constraint for businesses.

“Hiring at scale is one of the most operationally complex challenges facing modern organizations,” said Robin Voogd, Head of Middle East Investments at Prosus Ventures. “Qureos has built a practical, end-to-end system that replaces fragmented recruitment workflows with a single, intelligent platform. By unifying sourcing, screening, and interviewing, the company enables employers to hire faster without sacrificing quality, a critical advantage in high-growth, time-sensitive markets.”

At the center of that system is Iris, Qureos’ AI assistant that acts as the interface between companies and candidates throughout the hiring process. For employers and recruitment agencies, Iris functions as an AI recruiter assistant, automating sourcing, screening, and interviewing while continuously optimizing for speed and quality.

On the candidate side, Iris matches individuals to relevant roles across the broader job market, clearly signaling where they are the right fit and why. Candidates gain early visibility into aligned opportunities and receive role-specific feedback that helps them engage with the right opportunities from the outset.

On the employer side, Qureos automates the full recruitment workflow. Roles are distributed across more than 2,000 job boards globally, as well as social and direct channels, using a multi-channel approach that increases visibility while lowering acquisition costs. Candidate profiles are enriched using publicly available information and AI-based prediction models, then screened against role requirements in under 15 seconds. Shortlisted candidates are assessed through AI-led interviews, delivered via audio or video, and tailored to each role.

Commenting on the fundraising announcement, Hasan Haider, Founder and Managing Partner at Plus VC, said: “Qureos is solving a deeply operational problem with real, measurable impact. By dramatically reducing time-to-hire while improving recruiter productivity and candidate experience, the company is redefining how modern organizations approach talent acquisition. We are excited to support Alexander Epure, Usama Nini and the team as they continue to establish Qureos as a category leader in this space. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure-level innovation we look to back.”

For organizations hiring at scale, the manual effort required for application review and initial interviews often reaches 15 hours per role, translating into roughly 2,160 hours of work per year. By automating these steps, Qureos eliminates a full year of recruiter workload that would otherwise slow hiring and limit capacity.

Today, Qureos has been adopted by teams within more than 1,000 enterprise and public sector organizations, including Qatar Airways, Dubai Economy and Tourism and BAAN Holdings, Union Properties. The platform is built with regional requirements in mind, including localization and nationalization policies across GCC markets, while remaining flexible enough to integrate with existing ATS and HRIS systems or operate as a standalone solution.

Hiring speed is becoming one of the most decisive competitive advantages for modern companies, said Alexander Epure, Co-founder and CEO of Qureos. The organizations that win are the ones that can identify the right candidates and move decisively. We built Qureos to help employers and candidates meet in the middle, with a system that improves with every hire.

The new funding will be used to further develop Qureos’ AI capabilities, expand its go to market team, and accelerate geographic expansion through enterprise and agency partnerships.

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The ninth edition of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF) concluded on a high note after witnessing a record 15,000 attendees, including 5,000 founders, who gained first-hand insights and inspiration from over 300 global speakers sharing success stories from entrepreneurial and innovative sectors across industries.

SEF 2026 broke a personal record with its hosting of 17 MoU signings at the festival’s exclusive VIP lounge ‘SEF Vault’, which was powered by the Emirates Petroleum Company – Emarat. The sectors spanned Manufacturing, Edtech, Creative Industries, and Sustainability, unlocking financing deals worth AED 100 million, among others, and offered many key opportunities to support startup growth, innovation, and scalability.

Together, more than 250 fireside conversations, thought-provoking panel discussions, in-depth presentations, hands-on workshops, masterclasses and other immersive activities were featured across 10 curated zones. Additionally, at the SEF Investor Lounge, 400 exclusive investor-founder meetings were held to explore funding and mentorship opportunities between ventures, investors and enablers. SEF 2026 also featured a prominent showcasing platform for 150+ startup pods across the festival venue.

Across the two days, 294 founders applied to redeem an exclusive offer and launch their business journey under the Business Kickstarter Package, a business licensing initiative starting from AED 1,000, launched through a collaboration between Sheraa, Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SPARK), Emirates NBD, and du.

Through SPARK, eligible founders attending SEF were able to obtain a standard business  licence for AED 1,000, valid for the first year, for single-owner businesses covering up to three activities. A multi-owner licence was also available for AED 3,000, covering up to five activities for the first year. Standard immigration and visa fees apply in accordance with existing regulations.

Beyond licensing, the Business Kickstarter Package was designed to support founders as they begin day-to-day operations. du, through its operating sub-brand ‘du Business’, provided a special connectivity offer. Emirates NBD provided founder-friendly banking support, including a waiver of monthly account maintenance fees for one year, and salary transfer fees waived for six months, with unlimited transfers.

Sheraa further supported founders through complimentary access to its coworking spaces for one year, connecting newly-licensed businesses to Sharjah’s wider entrepreneurial ecosystem.

SEF as a powerful catalyst for entrepreneurship
Sheraa CEO H.E. Sara Abdelaziz Al Nuaimi said following the success of SEF 2026, the 10th edition next year will continue the story “as a deeper chapter, guided by what has come before and open to what is still unfolding.”

“The milestones reached at SEF 2026 reflect the visionary leadership of our Chairperson, Her Highness Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, whose unwavering commitment to entrepreneurship continues to shape Sharjah as a global hub for innovation and creative enterprise,” she further noted.

“Through Sheraa, we are proud to advance Sharjah’s mission of empowering founders with the platforms, capital, and networks they need to build scalable, impact-driven businesses. SEF has once again proven to be a powerful catalyst, bringing together ideas, talent, and opportunity to accelerate startup growth and reinforce Sharjah’s role at the forefront of the region’s entrepreneurial future,” the Sheraa CEO concluded.

The closing evening on February 1 featured standout performances by some of the region’s leading music and comedy artists, with the highlight of the night being a show-stopping performance by Saudi singer Tamtam.

Recognizing impact, and awarding excellence of startups and founders 
Across its two days, SEF 2026 celebrated standout innovation and ecosystem leadership through the SEF × 1Tank Startup Pitch Competition and the SEFFY Awards, presented during the SEF Reception Night at the Impact Zone, powered by Arada. Grants of AED 50,000 were awarded across four competition tracks — EdTech (powered by du business), Tech and Industry 4.0 (powered by Emarat) Sustainability (powered by Emirates NBD), and Creative Industries (powered by Emaar), alongside a Best Female Pitch Award (powered by Sharjah Business Women Council),  valued at AED 50,000 and a Crowd Favorite Award (powered by Crescent Enterprises), of AED 25,000, with winning startups also gaining access to potential investor funding of up to AED 500,000 to support market expansion and new service launches. EvolveCareers claimed the EdTech category, The AM Lab won Tech and Industry 4.0, Tathmeer was named Sustainability winner, and Arusto secured the Creative Industries award as well as the Crowd Favorite Award, while Thinkerbell Labs received the Best Female Pitch Award.

Through the SEFFY Awards, SEF 2026 also honored individuals and organisations shaping the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rising Star Award (powered by Emaar) went to Abdullah AlSalmani, Co-Founder and CEO of SpacePoint, while the Outstanding Mentor Award (powered by Emirates NBD), was received by Yahya Iqelan of the Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. The Technology Award (powered by du business), was presented to Noor Alasadi, CEO and Founder of Lisan AI; the Ecosystem Enabler Award (powered by  the Emirates Petroleum Company – Emarat), was given to the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation; and the Social Impact Award (powered by Arada), was won by Dr. Karthika Gopi, Founder and CEO of Carbelim.

The SEF Reception Night also honoured SEF 2026 partners on stage. The  Ecosystem partners included Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority; Sharjah Foundation to Support Pioneering Entrepreneurs (RUWAD), Crescent Enterprises Ventures, Al Marwan Group, Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Real Estate LLC, Emirates Development Bank, and Majid Al Futtaim.

Those honored as Government partners were Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sharjah Airport. Meanwhile, the Hydration partner was Wisewell.

The Media partners for SEF 2026 were Publicis, National Network Communication (NNC), Inc. Arabia, Smashi Business, and Entrepreneur Middle East. Additionally, the honorees included Travel partners Emirates Airline and Air Arabia and SEF Pitch Competition partner 1Tank.

As Community partners, Electra, Forsan of Emirates Volunteering Society, Sharjah Retail, Floward and Teel Floral Studio were also honoured during the awards ceremony.

Over two days, SEF 2026 brought together a rare mix of global icons, regional leaders, and high-impact founders, positioning Sharjah as a convening ground for ideas shaping business, culture, and technology. Headline conversations featured four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel, UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, technology thinker and author Mo Gawdat, alongside trailblazing Arab women, serial entrepreneurs, and senior executives from companies such as IBM, Kitopi, and Yango Play. The festival also welcomed high-level VIP guests, ecosystem leaders, investors, and policymakers, reinforcing SEF’s role not only as a startup festival, but as a platform where global perspectives meet regional ambition under the theme “Where We Belong.”

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