The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) announced individual partnerships with financial services company “Peninsula Real Estate” and enterprise software firm “Eureka” as part of its AED2 billion (US$545 million) Innovation Programme.
Under the agreement, ADIO will provide financial and non-financial incentives to support each company’s growth in Abu Dhabi.
The partnerships will accelerate the advancement of Peninsula’s and Eureka’s market capabilities and technologies in their respective fields while developing specialist skillsets that expand Abu Dhabi’s knowledge economy. The addition of investment analysts, asset managers, and data scientists broaden the pool of talent in the financial services and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors.
Markus Thomas, Head of Investments at ADIO, said, “As Abu Dhabi progresses toward a knowledge-based economy, we are prioritizing the development of human capital to drive innovation and ideas. Both Peninsula and Eureka are building impressive organizations based on innovative technology, business models and are driven by expert teams. Attracting such talent to the emirate enhances the real estate and data analytics sector capabilities. It sends a clear message of what one expects from Abu Dhabi in terms of best-in-class businesses.”
Real estate investment company Peninsula utilizes quantitative macro and micro research to provide a platform through which international institutional capital benefits from enhanced access to GCC real estate markets.
ADIO’s Innovation Programme support enables Peninsula to expand its capabilities from its investment, research, and operations headquarters in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
James Gallon, CEO, and Co-founder of Peninsula said, “At Peninsula, we deploy thought-leading research on the impact of liquidity and governance to address the pricing of risk of real assets. We work with real estate asset owners in Abu Dhabi and the wider GCC region to optimize and unlock asset value through an innovative liquidity solution.”
Enterprise software company Eureka enables companies to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to large-scale external and internal data sets and combine them to derive intelligence at scale. Eureka’s market intelligence product Omni provides the most extensive continuous market research panel in the country. Its DS2 Feature Store and ML Ops platform power these products and independently provide data scientists with the tools to apply machine learning at scale.
Under the partnership with ADIO, Eureka will establish its technology R&D and operational headquarters in Abu Dhabi. Eureka’s senior leadership team, data scientists, and engineers will relocate to Abu Dhabi.
Benjamin Soemartopo, CEO of Eureka, said, “For a global company operating across Asia, Middle East, Africa, and the US, Abu Dhabi provides us with a central location and convenient time zone to operate 24×7. Furthermore, the UAE’s quality of life and management of the pandemic has given us the confidence to establish our headquarters in a supportive environment for our current team and as we expand.”
ADIO’s Innovation Programme targets innovation-led companies and early-stage companies in high-growth areas, including financial services, ICT, health services and biopharma, agriculture technology, ecotourism, and more.
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