In Dubai, it works with a local partner that has experience with hospitals and the health authorities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the latter being the UAE’s capital and largest emirate.
“It’s good to have experienced partners in the region,” he said. “I think both in Southeast Asia and Middle East, there’s a huge amount of trust and personal relationships which matter.”
After presenting at a conference in Abu Dhabi in May, The Decision Labs was invited to try for a place in a biotech and life sciences start-up programme called HealthX. It succeeded and gained connections to local hospitals.
“There is a lot of growth and investment happening in Saudi Arabia, in UAE and in Qatar. The entire digital transformation, especially in healthcare, is happening as we are speaking,” said Mr Anupam.
For instance, he was recently encouraged during a private discussion with an official at a UAE government institution to set up a biotechnology company, and understood that there were investors ready to finance it.
“They are ready to onboard the best talents, be it from Singapore, from the US, the UK, from the top universities,” said Mr Anupam, who is an Indian citizen and in Dubai on a general manager visa.
He is trained in quantitative economics and has a master of business administration from HEC Paris and MIT Sloan School of Management.
His team currently consists of about 18 people in Bangalore, Malaysia and the Philippines, and he plans to hire his first employee in the UAE when The Decision Labs officially signs on a project there.
SINGAPORE, DUBAI CAN LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Singapore and Dubai have been described as competitors by some observers, given their status as aviation hubs, financial centres, gateways to their respective regions and their ambition to be tech and start-up hubs.
But others beg to differ.
“They are so geographically far away that I don’t think they should be competitors,” said Mr Skoumal of the two cities, which are a seven-and-a-half-hour flight apart.
“They don’t fight for the same customers. They don’t fight for the same companies. They have their own markets,” said Mr Skoumal.
“I feel like they can learn from each other, and I guess they are doing it,” he said, citing both cities’ efforts to digitalise government systems.
