The winners of the fourth Arabian Business StartUp Awards, which celebrate the individuals and teams behind a number of homegrown start-ups and SMEs, were announced at a gala event held at The Westin Hotel, Dubai Mina Seyahi.
The Arabian Business StartUp team received more than 400 nominations for this year’s awards. Those were painstakingly whittled down to around six shortlisted nominees in each of the 14 categories.
Once the shortlist was finalised, our six-strong judging panel was tasked with the challenge of choosing the 14 winners. This year’s judging panellists were:
• Muna Al Gurg, director of retail at Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group and YAL Board Member
• Najla Al Midfa, general manager of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center
• Donna Benton, founder of The Entertainer
• Prashant (PK) Gulati, founder of The Assembly, and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) president
• Habib Haddad, CEO of Wamda
• Walid Akawi, CEO of ITP Publishing Group
In addition to the 14 previously announced awards, the Arabian Business StartUp team added two very special awards – StartUp Inventor of the Year and SME Bank of the Year – echoing the changes taking place in the UAE’s fast-developing start-up and SME sector.
Full list of winners:
Mentor of the Year
Sirine Fadoul, dTEC
Incubator/Accelerator of the Year
Dubai Future Accelerators
Start Up Programme of the Year
Collaborative Entrepreneurship
New Media Start Up of the Year
TaskSpotting
Social Enterprise of the Year
Smart Labour
Start Up of the Year
Insydo
StartUp Inventor of the Year
Wrappup
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Ala' AlSallal, Jamalon
Entrepreneur of the Year
Mai Medhat, Eventtus
Intrapreneur of the Year
Catherina Ballout, MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan Arab Region
Investor of the Year
Dany Farha and Amir Farha, BECO Capital
Funding Initiative of the Year
Souq.com
SME Bank of the Year
RAK Bank
Influential Woman in Business Award
Hala Fadel, MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan Arab Region
SME of the Year
Right Bite
SME Leader of the Year
Harmony Cosmetics
People’s Choice Award: Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, took home the newly-established People’s Choice Award: Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
From October 16 to November 6, supporters of MENA entrepreneurs from all around the world voted for their favourite of 57 entrepreneurs competing for the People’s Choice Award: Entrepreneur of the Year. The award is inspired and built upon the Entrepreneur of the Week column, which has been published weekly on ArabianBusiness.com since September 7, 2015.
The Arabian Business StartUp Awards 2016 were held in partnership with AJSM Investments, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Skyline University College, Mastercard, MMI Group, Chivas Group and Dawaam.
