On Monday, May 14th, Expo Live, an innovation and partnership program launched by Expo 2020 Dubai just announced the selection of 26 projects from 22 countries, and we’re proud to announce that amongst them are two Bahraini-based startups! Curious to know who they are? Read on to know all about them.
Expo 2020 Dubai is a program launched to help in funding, accelerating and promoting startups and projects with creative solutions that impact the environment and improve lives. More than 1,200 startups from 114 countries applied to the Expo Live’s Innovation Impact Grant competition, where participants presented their projects in front of a jury in Dubai. After a thorough and critical evaluation, 26 projects were chosen.
We know, you’re dying to know who are those Bahraini startups, so let’s cut to the chase and fill you in on who are those amazing entrepreneurs that received a grant from Expo 2020 Dubai.
One of the Bahraini startups is Fish.Me founded by Mohammed Toraif. Fish.Me is a mobile app, available on Google Play Store, that links consumers directly to local fishermen and allows them to choose the type of fish they’d like, order it, and have it delivered to you, on the same day, fresh and clean! We spoke to Mohammed about the grant received by Expo 2020 and he told us that he’s planning on expanding his outreach in Bahrain’s market.
“The grant will help Fish.me to penetrate the Bahraini market by enabling 35 fishermen in the Kingdom with the technology that give the fishermen the ability to start selling fresh fish with few clicks,” he said.
The other Bahraini startup is Public-Planet-Partnership (PPP), founded by 3BL Associates and So Science. The Public-Planet-Partnership is a framework that enables humans to collaborate and interact with the rest of the natural world. Tariq Al-Olaimy, co-founder of Public-Planet-Partnership tells us that unlike other pitching competitions that are run around the region, Expo 2020 Dubai was a different experience.
“Expo 2020 Dubai created a very collaborative environment between all the social entrepreneurs who were pitching, and it served the purpose of finding shared connections and scaling opportunities. The way the grant is structured also takes into consideration that many of the projects are innovating at the edges, and will pivot often in their development,” he told Startup MGZN.
Likewise, Mohammed Toraif, founder, and CEO of Fish.ME, found Expo 2020 Dubai to be of a great and inspiring experience. “Seeing 36 candidates from different countries that work towards making this globe a better place gave me more ideas that we are planning to push in the near future,” he noted, stating that “like-minded people always help.”
With the grant, PPP is planning on hosting a co-creation workshop to refine and create new planet-centered design tools. The best part of it all? It’ll be made an open source for everyone to access! “We will also be conducting a PPP government challenge, and work with the 3 most promising ideas to implement Public-Planet Partnerships projects in Dubai and other regions,” Tariq said.
When asked about their future plans, Tariq Al-Olaimy stated that they’re interested in creating a more equitable natural assets trading market between humans and the rest of nature. According to him, the grant funding will help them conceptualize what the first smart contract between humans non humans would look like.
On the other hand, Mohammed Toraif, is working towards achieving their milestones. One of them is that they’re soon going to release an iOS version of the app, so now if you ever crave some fresh local fish, you know where to go – or rather tap! (No excuses Apple users)
Of course, that’s not all. Expo 220 Dubai will be hosting the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) from October 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021. The festival is all going to be about human ingenuity and what the future carries for us.
For the full list of the 26 startups, you can check them out here. You should also be on the lookout for the fourth cycle of the program, and you can know all about it here.
Last but not least, show some love and support to Fish.Me and PPP by following them on their social media: @fishdotme on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and @public_planet on, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.