Washington, D.C. startup incubator 1776 is boosting its international presence with a new space for member startups in Dubai. The campus will be part of the new Dubai Museum of the Future Foundation, created by the United Arab Emirates to support new innovation in the country.
"His Highness Sheikh Mohammed [bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the United Arab Emirates] has really set a tone where the future of Dubai rests on attracting knowledge workers and boosting innovation," 1776 co-founder Evan Burfield told DC Inno in an interview. "There's this understanding that Dubai really has to commit to being the city of the future."
The partnership includes both a physical space for events and where startups can work and an advisory role by 1776 to help the UAE come up with a regulatory system to encourage new innovation. 1776 started talking to the UAE about this arrangement around the time 1776 held its Challenge Cup event in Dubai last year.
This news comes just a couple of weeks after 1776 announced a $7.2 million investment from a group of investors including Steve and Jean Case and led by the Pepper Group, an Australian technology investment firm. That money now has a whole new country to work in. And it brings the global ambitions that 1776 co-founder Donna Harris talked to DC Inno about last year a lot closer to reality.
Dubai makes a lot of sense as the place for that growth according to Burfield. The government and business community there are looking to solve the same problems that 1776 has laid out as the ones for its member companies to solve, and the campus itself is central both physically and culturally much the way that 1776 was set up very deliberately just a few blocks from the White House.
"Dubai is constantly experimenting and innovating. It's inspiring and exciting to us," Burfield said. "They're looking for innovations in healthcare, education, transportation and smart cities, space, energy. Really, it could not align more perfectly with us."
"Dubai is constantly experimenting and innovating."
Burfield wouldn't reveal any financial details, referring to it as a strategic partnership rather than as any kind of space rental or other arrangement. He said that this is only a first step in the longer term plan for an international presence for 1776, something implied in the some of 1776's other recent moves like hiring former CNN reporter Erin McPike as communications director. And of course there are a lot of possibilities inherent in having a place in Dubai as well.
"It's a different culture and they are finding answers through a new lens," Burfield said. "They're committed to coming up with ideas for sustainability, planning for a post-oil future. Dubai is a great start for our international program to grow."
