Venture Catalysts commences operations in Dubai

In a bid to strengthen their global footprint, Venture Catalysts, a domestic integrated incubator, announced the launch of its operations in Dubai.

The latest international expansion from VCats builds on its foray into Qatar, and further underlines its commitment to building a global ecosystem of quality investors, mentors, HNIs, and start-ups. The incubator aims to create an integrated international entrepreneurship-focused network which facilitates business knowledge and technical acumen between Indian and international start-ups, investors, and organisations.

Dubai has been breaking new grounds as an emerging global start-up and innovation hub and was recently ranked 29th in Nestpick's 2017 Startup Cities Index ahead of the more established ecosystems of London, New York, and Tokyo. Strong support from the government has also been critical to driving the continued success of Dubai's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Therefore, the operational launch of the integrated incubator is expected to further catalyse this growth and unlock the next level of evolution from the region's start-ups.

"Dubai, at present, is at a stage where India was around 10 years back. Several high-potential start-ups are making their presence felt in the regional market with their disruptive approach and their focus on leveraging technology. To unlock the next phase of their evolution, these ventures require institutional support from domain leaders, be it in terms of investment, mentoring, or business networking opportunities. This expansion will also help us to tap into the existing and future synergies between the markets in India and Dubai. We aim to enable an exchange of investments, business knowledge, and technological expertise between stakeholders in both regions for driving mutual growth," said Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founder, and President of Venture Catalysts.

In addition to driving start-up growth, the move is also expected to give a massive fillip to the region's investors and HNIs. Start-ups have established themselves as an extremely lucrative alternative investment avenue for HNIs across the globe; post a 2017 IPO, just seven years after its launch, personalised fashion provider Stich Fix provided a valuation-to-investment capital (VIC) ratio of 47x.

VCats also marked its Dubai launch with an Investor Pitch Day, which saw six start-ups making their business pitches in front of over 150 investors to secure capital funding. The selected start-ups - ImpactGuru, Kapiva, Rooter, Ideal Insurance, Hospals and University Living - were selected based on their business models, the scope of growth, and potential in both the Indian and the GCC markets.