Future Now, the innovation programme of Etisalat, has signed agreements with four scaleups to develop Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain solutions following the successful Dubai Future Accelerators programme.

The signing ceremony also marked the opening of the Future Now scale-up collaborative space for Etisalat Digital’s partners, namely Yitu Technology (China), Com IoT Technologies (UAE), 300cubits (Hong Kong), and Tradefin (USA). They were chosen based on their capability to build and launch their core technology and be able to demonstrate traction and substantial use cases.

These selected companies will continue their journey through the ‘Future Now’ scale-up programme, where they will receive access to Etisalat Digital resources and experts, office space, and support needed to deliver joint projects to Etisalat’s client base.

As part of the fifth cohort of Dubai Future Accelerators, Etisalat Digital launched in July this year three challenges to companies across the world. Out of all the companies that applied, seven companies were selected to address these challenges. The companies had the opportunity to network with a number of key stakeholders and have access to resources and expertise.

Etisalat Digital selected two companies, Yitu Technology (China), and Com IoT Technologies (UAE), for the first challenge that sought to leverage artificial intelligence for video surveillance systems and create solutions that would reduce crime rates and road congestion. To support the UAE 2021 vision of making the UAE the safest place in the world, the challenge focused on scaleups that could deliver solutions that would analyse behavior and predict crime-related patterns, in addition to enhancing transportation issues like congestion and accidents, and take automated decisions with the use of artificial intelligence on existing video surveillance systems.

The second challenge addresses the use of Blockchain to reduce the transactional costs and complexity in business processes for banks, governments and private organisations, with the goal of reducing the costs and complexity by 40 percent over five years. 300cubits (Hong Kong) was selected for this challenge.

Tradefin (USA) was selected for the last challenge that was focused on the adoption of Blockchain to enable exchange across various loyalty currencies and to transform a loyalty currency into a crypto currency that can be used to perform online and physical transactions.

In line with the Future Now’s vision of accelerating innovation, the partnerships will fast track the deployment of latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to avail them to Etisalat’s client base. The scale-up program is a key pillar of the Future Now ecosystem that aims to provide a collaborative platform for innovators, partners and customers to expedite the adoption of such cutting-edge technologies.