AHOY, the new-age technology start-up raising the bar in user experience and operational excellence through its versatile technology stack and products for movement automation and efficiency has announced plans to take part in North Star Dubai 2022, the largest start-up-dedicated event in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia set to take place at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) between 10 and 13 October, as part of the annual enterprise technology and digital transformation event, GITEX’s proceedings.
We sat down with Jamil Shinawi, the co-founder, CEO and chief of change-making at AHOY, to discuss the company’s participation at GITEX 2022 and the innovative solutions it plans to exhibit at this year’s event, as well as its unique solution offering and strategy to empower and support start-ups in the technology segment.
Empowering start-ups
According to Shinawi, AHOY is the “first-of-its-kind IaaS and deep tech company to come out of MENAT, a technology infrastructure company with a global offering that is reshaping the future of movement and mobility through ground-breaking innovations that solve complex spatial, routing and operational issues along with automated task delegation, to orchestrate the movement of people, goods, money, and information efficiently and sustainably reaching new milestones in many industries.”
Elaborating on the company’s vision to drive change in the global technology landscape, by nurturing innovation and supporting pioneering ideas, Shinawi notes that the new possibilities that AHOY enables come in multiple forms, including the 24SIX9 Studio, an innovation studio challenging norms and aiming at real innovation and social uplifting which nurtures unconventional pioneers whose disruptive visions can redraw technology landscapes.
“The start-up lab has been geared to establish an ecosystem that fosters novel tech-powered ventures to drive change, not only regionally but across the globe,” he reveals.
The innovative start-up, H2OTO was one of the studio’s early spin-offs as a joint venture by AHOY and nybl technologies.
H2OTO provides an advanced and efficient technology stack to help conserve water, by metering consumption in real-time and predicting leakage and malfunctions before they occur, in addition to other innovative ways to improve individual habits to reduce water waste.
“It also provides and monitors many water resources, which enable the sustainability of the water revolution and elevate the quality of life,” Shinawi says, stressing that AHOY aims to become “a catalyst for change, nurturing daring and innovative ideas by providing access not only to tools and technologies but also the necessary investment, in addition to legal and business support on a pro bono basis,” as well as empower start-ups with the required investor networking support to “ensure they get the traction and prospects that…to propel forward with their ideas.”
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Move the World
This year, AHOY will be sponsoring the innovation cup “Move the World” in line with its vision and the objectives of the 24SIX9 lab of innovation to empower innovators with “non-copied ideas, not only because they will become unicorns, but also because they will change the world as we know it for the better,” Shinawi explains, adding that the challenge finalists will have the opportunity to compete live in front of a jury panel of regional and international expert, investors, innovators and entrepreneurs.
He notes that winning start-ups will receive three types of awards including a bundle of benefits from investments, access to cutting-edge tech, legal support, mentorship and coaching from the jury panel, media exposure, and networking opportunities provided by investors and various experts in the field to transform their idea into world-changing companies.
Jury panel
Shinawi further reveals that the challenge’s jury panel will feature a line-up of accomplished business leaders from across the region’s start-up ecosystem, including himself, Miriam Kiwan, the expert in technology entrepreneurship, Web3 economy, and digital assets; Philipp Caspers-Pabst, the senior associate at the Dubai Future District Fund; Digital Founders’ CEO, Chasan Mochament; ProTenders Inc. CEO and co-founder, Karim Helal; the senior director of strategic partnerships at KiwiTech, Suresh Singh Dasila, and Sayantan Dev, the president of Redington Value to promote innovation and provide entrants with the required coaching.
As stated by Shinawi, AHOY’s key targets for this year’s event are to meet global industry peers and colleagues, connect with great minds, innovators, entrepreneurs, promising talents, and experts, as well as expand its base of technology partners to jointly create a promising future and network with the right investors. Most importantly, AHOY looks forward to “having a great time and rock your world!” according to Shinawi.
Innovative solutions
Casting light on the new solutions that AHOY plans to present at GITEX this year, Shinawi reveals that the company is offering a “full experience of its advanced technology and solutions with a wide selection of products carted to automating and optimising the movement of unlimited industries,” noting that the solutions will include the following:
AHOY MOVEMENT STUDIO (AMS)
AHOY’s proprietary technology stack which allows for a cost-efficient and quick development of futuristic solutions, systems and applications.
The solution does not require GIS talent, data acquisition, expensive talent or special licenses, explains Shinawi, adding that the solution enables businesses to develop without long codes or the challenges of talent acquisition.
“It comes with a set of APIs that allows it to be used as infrastructure and integrate seamlessly with any system with hybrid cloud and on primes options,” he adds.
COMET
The global new-age platform offered as a SaaS, COMET will help and empower e-commerce, logistics 3PLs and delivery companies to automate their entire operation, improving performance, and maximising output through resources, process optimisation, and automation, which saves businesses up to 40% on operating costs, especially in the MENA region.
FLY+
A solution for airlines, ground handlers and airport operators, to facilitate the passenger’s journey from check-in, to door-to-door luggage handling and management, enabling a smarter overall travel experience.
FLY+ was developed using the same AMS tech stack, outgrowing standards, and potentially helping the aviation industry make billions in profits while offering a new-age modern UX.
Global traffic Safety
A global coverage traffic analytics platform and infrastructure for traffic enforcement agencies, police, first responders, municipal bodies, smart cities, outdoor advertising and much more.
The platform aims to both increase traffic safety and accurately track the traffic density and service level as well as speed.
Additionally, the platform can dynamically predict violations, the when, where, and how to automate and proactively dispatch and mobilise law enforcement units when needed.
Moreover, the system enables everybody in the field to know what to do through automated dispatching, as well as where to put more mobile and static cameras or deterring and informative signs for warnings and speed limits, Shinawi explains, adding that by influencing when and how these operations work users can maintain safer roads and increase revenues.
“We innovate frameworks for movement regardless of what you do or what sector you are in. If you got movement we are here to give you the tools to do it, think it, manage it, plan it… Just better”
Jamil Shinawi
A unique offering
Elaborating on what makes AHOY’s solution offering different from other technology providers, Shinawi points out that, at its core, AHOY is a movement-focused company, and movement is the genesis of every value creation in our life.
“AHOY makes movement more purposeful through AI/ML orchestration where the limitations of efficiency have yet to be discovered, and where the optimisation of mobility of people, goods, money and information is the ultimate objective,” he says, adding that the new possibilities the company enables come in multiple forms, “from businesses seeking to take a novel and disruptive approach to movement in their fields and change the way they operate, to bettering not only their customers UX but also their growth, profitability, OPEX, CAPEX and reach.”
Shinawi further emphasises that AHOY’s solutions helped numerous companies in many countries from across the FMCG, CPG, Logistics, Cold-chain, 3PL, Food aggregators, quick commerce, delivery, public transportation, aviation, security, municipal, e-commerce, environmental sectors, and more.
“We offer out-of-the-box developer solutions (AMS) for developers building solutions requiring efficient lean development, automation, management and other related activities in movement operations without the cost, risk or time associated with the development of this difficult part of the process,” he says, adding that the company’s technology stack includes APIs, SDKs, javascript libraries and resources, which can be accessed through a PAYG model, to help improve resources utilisation and drive environmental gains, monetary cost and OPEX savings.
Moreover, he explains that the company’s technology stack bridges a huge gap, by making data, talent and technology available to governments, NGOs, SMEs and enterprises businesses of all sizes in a “sector-agnostic fashion.”
MENAT: A key market
Stressing the importance of the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT) region as a key growth market, especially for start-ups in the technology sector, Shinawi notes that the region’s strategic location at the crossroads of the global trade movement since the trade journeys along the silk road to the era of energy and oil trade has enabled modern trade movement and driven progress across different industries.
“MENAT is a competitive place, as in the competitive place theory, with a rich diversity that gives the market the power to have the best talents, and access to an overflow of skills enabling us to achieve exceptional results on a global scale,” he adds, further highlighting that Dubai, in particular, is a hub where people from all the world could meet with ease and explore business opportunities.
“Today it stands as one of the world’s most dynamic cities and competitive places, constantly reinventing the future of tech, business and urban living while being a true melting pot and a real place for equal access to social mobility,” he points out.
While AHOY has purpose-driven locations in Dubai and Riyadh, the company has established a global foothold, leveraging its region-agnostic offering.
Driving innovation
As we bring our conversation to an end, Shinawi stresses the critical role of start-ups in driving economic growth and technological progress.
“Start-ups are the engines of growth in the global tech industry and the future economy. They drive innovation, starting projects from scratch and pushing humanity forward,” he says, adding that “they solve problems no other sector or organisation can address, challenging the status quo, generating not just value but also abundance, unleashing numerous job opportunities and stimulating global and national economies alike and enabling more free movement of people, capital and information in a world that becomes a single place.”
To conclude, Shinawi reveals that today, impact-driven innovative start-ups have access to effective methodologies with an impact-oriented mission, which enables them to be sustainable, responsible and real value-generators.
