Abu Dhabi start-ups exhibit tech-driven products at Tokyo global conference

Twelve start-ups from the UAE capital appear at Sushi Tech Tokyo, which is expected to host more than 600 companies over three days

Part of the Abu Dhabi presence at Sushi Tech, a start-up exhibition in Tokyo. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Staff from Abu Dhabi-based start-ups have showcased their companies at the second Sushi Tech Tokyo conference held on Thursday.

About 12 start-ups debuted at the premier of the three-day event, which is expected to host more than 600 companies in the Japanese capital.

With more than 50,000 registered from around the world, businesses that work with a variety of industries, including architecture, food, health, finance, energy, sports, entertainment, space, web3 and generative AI, arrived at the event.

Emirati businesses among them, they had the chance to network with influential figures in the sector and exhibit their proposals on a global platform.

From Abu Dhabi, the Garcia group exhibited its solutions for smart and sustainable agriculture in the UAE, and the Rafiq App to facilitate maintenance and decoration services. Many of them came with the backing of the Khalifa Fund, a non-profit dedicated to supporting SMEs, and all with the goal of attracting more funding from global investors.

Wafa Al Ghallabi, co-founder and chief executive of Nutrigenics Care & Lawa, at Sushi Tech, a start-up exhibition in Tokyo. Chris Whiteoak / The National

HyveGeo, a bio and climate technology company that turns waste such as date tree remains into a biochar that can transform dry desert sand into arable soil in one month, instead of five years naturally, needs funding to scale.

"The only way we can reach gigaton-scale removal and to green tens of thousands of hectares of desert for food security is to work with partners," said HyveGeo chief executive Abdulaziz Bin Redha.

With his start-up still at seed stage, Mr Bein Redha is looking to the event to carry his green-tech to the next level.

"We're developing patents and IP, and looking to license this globally," he said, seeking investment in the anti-desertification technology.

Wafa AL Ghallabi, a PhD student at the Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence and co-founder of Nutri-tech company Nutrigenics Care & Lawa.ai, has raised more than Dh200,000 ($54,450) for her platform that uses large language models to process more curated food health.

The chief executive of Abu Dhabi tech ecosystem Hub71 said it is not only UAE start-ups that benefit from the event.

"So you have more than 10 start-ups represented here at the pavilion, demonstrating their technologies, exploring opportunities for them to access Japan," said Ahmad Alwan. "But on the flip side, you see a number of Abu Dhabi entities here also presenting their offerings to the Japanese ecosystem, identifying great opportunities that we can import back into Abu Dhabi.

"It could be in the form of setting up, but it's really forming relationships, identifying, perhaps investment opportunities, corporate deal making opportunities and so forth," he added. "It's a two-way street."

Growing partnership

A wave of economic deals emerging from Abu Dhabi with global counterparts are helping the emirate and UAE nation to set up greater business exchange and investment.

This is deliberate, according to the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, as its part of its strategy.

"We're expanding our economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with a lot of countries around the world. We've already finalised, signed 27 and we're going ahead with signing further EPAs," said Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of the department and The Abu Dhabi Global Market, at an event panel called Towards the Development of a Global Ecosystem: The Challenges of Abu Dhabi and Tokyo.

"We are in discussion today with the UAE and Japan on an EPA, and hopefully before the end of the year that will be concluded. This will be a huge step towards our partnership," he said.

"We've been a very close part of Japan and we will continue to do so we've and that that helps connectivity for entrepreneurs.

"Our investments in Japan have more than doubled over the past five years, and our country attracted over 80 per cent of Japanese investments in the Middle East," he said

Yuriko Koike, governor of Tokyo, with Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, in Tokyo. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Yuriko Koike, governor of Tokyo, was also on the panel and reminisced about her first visit to the UAE.

"I visited Abu Dhabi at UAE in early 70s, can you imagine even before His Excellency was born," she said, garnering a reaction from the audience.

"It was very tiny village, living in fishery and producing pearls. Yeah, I remember the old days. But what a big development done in the last, say, 20 years. It's another country. It's really a miracle to develop such a wonderful village and such an international, competitive country," she said.

In a separate Tokyo event on the same day, called Business Connect, Mr Al Zaabi participated in the signing of a series of trade deals with Japanese companies.

"Our investments in Japan have more than doubled over the past five years, and our country attracted over 80 per cent of Japanese investments in the Middle East," he said in his opening address.

Mr Al Zaabi described UAE-Japan relations at the cusp of a new chapter, bolstered by the anticipated free-trade agreement expected to be finalised this year to increase trade and investment flow.