Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Alibaba Cloud Host Start-up Contest to Accelerate Innovation in Middle East

• Marhabababy.com Selected as Winner of Create@Alibaba Cloud Start-up Contest in Dubai

Dubai, UAE, September 21, 2016:  Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), and Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, today jointly hosted the Middle East finals of Create@Alibaba Cloud Start-up Contest (CACSC) at the Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre (DTEC) - DSOA’s wholly owned largest-of-its-kind technology incubation centre in the region.

The Dubai session drew the participation of 10 regional technology start-ups spanning multimedia, gaming, e-commerce, online-to-offline (O2O), social media, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Marhabababy.com, founded by Pieter Sleeboom and Evelyn Sleeboom, was selected as the winner of the regional finals and invited to compete in the world final in China later this year.

Dubai was chosen to host the regional session of CACSC due to its leading status and the significant advancements achieved by enterprises in the city in the cloud computing domain. The start-up culture in the Middle East has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years with a surge in the number of developers and businesses inspired by technological innovations.

Shahla Ahmed Abdul Razak, Deputy CEO of DSOA, said, “DSOA remains committed to supporting the local technology entrepreneurship landscape and our collaboration in this innovative contest for start-ups accurately reflects our efforts in this domain. Since establishment, DTEC has enhanced the status of entrepreneurship in the UAE and the wider region through providing an ideal environment for start-ups and tech-enterprises. We were delighted to work closely with Alibaba Cloud on this initiative and provide entrepreneurs with a great opportunity to network and access global resources.”

For his part, Sicheng Yu, Vice President of Alibaba Group and General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Global, said: “We see great potential for the technology sector in the Middle East region.  Local start-ups and entrepreneurs are a critical component in driving market growth. Alibaba Cloud supports business of all sizes through empowering global customers with cloud infrastructure and intelligence. As the largest facility of its kind in the region, and the top supporter of technology entrepreneurship, DTEC was the perfect partner to host the Dubai session of this contest.”

CACSC is part of the Alibaba Cloud’s global start-up program - Create@Alibaba Cloud. The program champions start-ups and encourages them to maximize their potential through Alibaba’s comprehensive support network and innovative suite of cloud infrastructure services.

CACSC demonstrates Alibaba Cloud’s commitment in providing sophisticated cloud computing technologies and services for the Middle East region, and follows the establishment of a joint venture entity between Alibaba Cloud and Meraas, the Dubai-based holding company in 2015. Alibaba Cloud also collaborated with other region-based start-ups such as Souq, Careem, Payfort, Entrepreneur Middle East, Pegasus FZ LLC, Dubai Internet City, In5, Flat6labs, CH9 and CBH at the Dubai session.

Through leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s technologies and with the further engagement of home-grown start-ups, local businesses can overcome operational and technical challenges by optimizing cloud infrastructure and adapting big data solutions that ensure accessibility, security, and in-built flexibility.