UAE Tech Podcast

Vineet Budki is CEO of CypherCapital, a ‘Web3 native’ VC firm based in the UAE that has led investments in the likes of Mysten Labs, Sei Network, Casper Labs, Web3Auth, ZKLink and many others. CypherCapital has evolved into a global presence, investments and insights. How did CyperCapital fare during COVID-19 and the ‘crypto-winter’? Are there signs Web3 is maturing from cowboy pump-and-dump to mainstream solutions? Will Gaming and Web3 really be the next big thing? Stay tuned for a conversation that probably should have happened earlier in the series.

One of the reasons for the continued growth of the UAE’s tech ecosystem, has been its ability to attract the world to Dubai. More recently, however, Abu Dhabi has made very significant strides in hosting mega-scale events - fashioning entire islands, such as Yas Island and Sadiyat island, for art lovers and racing car lovers to enjoy immaculately curated experiences. Ethara is a company that owns, manages and promotes some of the largest events and IP's in the UAE. This includes Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, alongside similar destination events including NBA and UFC in Abu Dhabi. We spoke with Baraa Khamis, Ethara's Chief of Digital and Technology Officer, to find out how it all works and how immersive digital experiences might merge with physical events infrastructure, in the future.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re drifting around a corner in Need for Speed, screaming ‘Get Over Here’ in Mortal Kombat, or dropping a banana in Mario Kart, video games are about one thing: Skill. Or are they? Aren’t video games also about having fun. Enter the debate over Skill2Earn, versis Free2Earn, and what the future of video games looks like. Shouldn’t users who spend upwards of 20 hours a week (and sometimes way more), be able to earn tokens, and exchange those tokens across other publishing platforms? Hasn’t this very tendency turned some supposed video games into glorified token farms? What about skill and competition? Skill2Earn gaming believes that when you execute that perfect uppercut, you get paid for it. So it is the best of both worlds?

In the UAE, Step Conference requires little introduction. But how did the darling of the Dubai tech scene calendar actually get started? What happened to the English and Arabic content websites? And what was it like running such a popular and successful conference … only to have COVID-19 shut down, well, pretty much everything. Ray Dargham, CEO and founder of Step Conference provides the inside story on how a student project at AUB has transformed, over time and with a little grit, into something far grander. This is the story of Step Conference from its foundings, to today.

Yuri Dvoinos sold his company Figleaf to Aura in 2020. He currently serves as Chief Innovation Officer at the Boston based cybersecurity firm, which is backed by none other than Robert Downey Jr. We wanted to begin our interview with “so what’s it like working with Iron Man,” but apparently everyone leads with this line, and they have not met. Also, Iron Man is a fictional character, so that would be weird. We digress. Yuri is a habitual entrepreneur. He’s workled on Kickstarter projects, digital education and has spent a decade right here in Dubai, where he bootstrapped 50M+ paying customers for Clario cybersecurity, a company he co-founded. We caught up with Yuri to share insights into how the city can attract talent, serve a global addressable market, and also grow into a new sense of itself as a mature tech industry, rather than a plucky upstart with a loveable swagger. Whatever the future holds, we hope Dubai keeps the swagger.

Hassan Al Noon is a graduate of the National Experts Program in Abu Dhabi, a mentorship program which pairs promising Emirati leaders with established experts in industry. Hassan’s capstone project focused on the development of deep-tech, and the need to create a collaborative ecosystem to support R&D in the UAE.

If you’ve been living in Dubai it’s been difficult to avoid Yango, an app that is being noticed for impressively accurate GPS and ride-hailing services. A Netherlands registered company backed by the Russian conglomerate Yandex, the app has ambitions which go beyond getting you around the city. Yango wants to become that most fabled of creatures; not a Unicorn, but a super-app. The recently launched Yango play features an AI assistant that doesn’t simply speak Arabic, but can talk in the local Khaleeji dialect. The service brings licensed music and movies to the app, including the Arabic blockbuster of 2023 ‘Mr. Ex’, and the sequel to ‘Awlad Harim Kareem.’ There are plans to support independent artists, and create original content. It’s a big dream. But can a super-app work in the UAE? What are macro-trends? And who, given the range of services on offer, is the competition? We spoke with Roman Shimansky, MENA Region Business Director at Yango Play, to learn more.

Arto is an OG interested in e-gold, in Ayn Rand and early Sci-Fi. He has a compelling perspective on what technology used to be, and where it might be going. We sat down with him to discuss his latest company, Haltia.AI, and why being a blockchain refugee in Dubai is a portal into the future.

Martin Glen began tinkering with print servers back in the 1984, eventually co-founding a company that would become a world leader in network video. In 1996 he invented the AXIS 2000 and NetEye with a Carl-Axel Aim; the first network camera.

Enter Theion, a Berlin based startup creating batteries based on lithium-sulfur, rather than lithium-ion. Compellingly, sulfur is an abundant waste product, particularly in the GCC, where it is one of the outputs from processing oil. Unlike cobalt, manganese or nickel, it doesn’t need to be mined.

David Chaum is a mercurial gentleman. He’s gone from pretty much inventing digital cash, the main thing he missed being Satoshi’s proof of work, to consulting on CBDCs, working with European bankers, and plotting to stop solar warming...

Finding out information on the Dubai blockchain ecosystem isn’t always easy. For the most part, you need to be in it. There’s many familiar foundational faces, and people flying in and out from all over the world: Austin, Shanghai, Moscow, Paris. You name it. While this makes for an exciting and often exclusive scene, it doesn’t always help with investment and building great products. The discovery of great projects is often subjective - it depends on who you ask. Walid Abu Zaki started ‘Unlock Blockchain’ on the back of a conference, to deliver real information. Obviously, that’s not always easy. We caught up with Walid to learn more about the website.

Mehdi Fichtali is CEO and founder of FinaMaze, an ADGM licensed Digital Wealth management company. He’s spent fifteen years at large banks such as Credit Agricole, Barlcays and as the Vice-President of Morgan Stanley in Dubai. Today, he’s exploring how AI can lower barriers to entry, reduce bureaucratic cost, and ensure that the likes of you and I can one day have our own asset portfolio, even if we’re not making squllions of pounds.

For much of the technology industry, there is a certain suspicion of COP28. They believe “sustainability” evangelists get paid large government salaries to regulate solutions, without building or solving very much at all. The Bitcoin industry is furious that their movement has been maligned for using too much energy, while others cut down trees. A reductive ‘abundance vs. scarcity’ debate has been visible online in the US and UK, in particular. But is it really this simple? The UAE is hosting COP28, and both sustainability and technology are clear and mutually reinforcing themes. This is visible in many areas of the UAE, one of which is the local campus of Heriot Watt University. We talked with Prof Tadhg O’Donovan, Deputy Provost and Head of the Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering (IMPEE) Research Institute, for insight into energy storage and reliability, solar power, thermal energy and some of the solutions that are already on the horizon.

While email phishing continues to be the favorite exploit du jour of cyberhackers, other forms of attack are emerging. What can we do to become more aware, and how can AI help solve the old cybersecurity problems of the past, at the same time as playing offence against the threats of the future? We caught up with Matt Cooke, Director of CyberSecurity and Strategy at the UAE based Proofpoint, to find out more.

Two years ago it’s not unfair to suggest that if most techies were asked to name the Big Tech company most likely to break through globally in AI, Microsoft might not come to mind. Microsoft partnered with OpenAI earlier this year, has just inked a deal with Activision, making it one of the largest gaming giants in the world, and has plans for the Metaverse. But you already knew that. One remains to be understood is how generative AI is changing the technology landscape right here in the UAE. From private to public sector, from education to logistics, oil and gas, and citizen services, what are the use-cases we should be focusing on? Where are the quick wins? We’re delighted to be talking to Tariq Halawani, Executive Director for Commercial Solutions, on why this is a big year for GITEX, the UAE… and for Microsoft.

Ahead of a Summit in Dubai this November, we spoke with CEO Frederik Gregaard on Cardano, global regulation, the role of central banks and why emerging technologies such as AI mean that trust, transparency and verification is more important than ever. Is Cardano really blockchain’s White Knight, and will we be seeing more of them in the region soon? Special thanks to Oscar Wendel, Director of Content and Conferences at MCH Group for stepping up to command this interview after a last minute schedule change.

GIGA is focused on providing services to underserved foreign nationals, who have trouble opening a bank account, and gig economy workers, who may be making relatively small and short-term deposits. Inspired by European Open banking, Raul looks to a time where our bank accounts travel with us no matter where we are in the world, with local or nation-state banking as a bureaucratic nuisance from the past. So what are the parallels between Japan and the UAE, and can we get cartoon characters on check-books here in Dubai?

Anthony Thomson is an understated Brit with a notable record: he founded two of the UK’s best known “challenger banks”, namely Atom and Metro. He holds advisory roles with ASX listed Humm Group, ila Bank and Wio Bank, right here in the UAE.

As the UAE Tech Podcast has progressed we’ve become more and more interested in gaming. There’s been a load of reasons for this. The advent of the Metaverse, and the idea 3D technologies will drive the next iteration of the Internet. Hardware, from haptic suits to ridiculously expensive VR kits. Blockchain based gaming and NFT markets. It just seems like a lot of the high-level themes we’re discussing are converging in this space.