Aramex and Mastercard have collaborated to launch the inaugural edition of ScaleUp, a new platform aimed to promote the UAE's startup and SME communities. ScaleUp, which was launched in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Economy's The Entrepreneurial Nation, provides an exciting opportunity for startups and SMEs in the UAE to pitch innovative ideas for a chance to win AED250,000 ($68,000), the opportunity to meet with angel investors, and several other benefits such as marketing exposure.
Furthermore, the finalists, as well as a select number of participants, will be invited to attend an exclusive ScaleUp networking event in November 2023. The initiative builds on the companies’ efforts to empower SMEs and entrepreneurs. Mastercard has committed to bringing 50 million SMEs into the digital economy by 2025. Most recently, the technology company partnered with Women Choice to support for women entrepreneurs and help create 1 million jobs for women in the Arab world, as per tradearabia.
Since SMEs now make up 94% of the businesses and organizations operating in the UAE and account for more than 50% of its GDP, ScaleUp supports the country's goal of producing 20 unicorns by the year 2031.
The first edition of ScaleUp is a special initiative and competition that strives to impact the future of businesses and economies in the region via startup-led innovation, according to Tarek Abu Yaghi, General Manager of Aramex in the UAE. We are a company that sprang from the region's early entrepreneurial aspirations, therefore we are fully aware of the particular difficulties that SMEs will inevitably face in order to succeed.