New SME District launched in Al Seef, Dubai

One of the most important elements within the startup ecosystem is exactly that, an ecosystem — it is incredibly important that the startups and facilities that come with it, such as investors, enablers, and related government entities, are located close to each other; this allows for an increase in knowledge transfer and less time wasted on transportation and other ways of long-distance communication. This may seem benign, but this is one of the reasons why Silicon Valley is the startup and venture capital capital of the world — it is all located within a certain area, which helps the startup ecosystem tremendously.

Recently, Meraas and Dubai SME, the small and medium enterprise (SME) agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), have signed a partnership to launch the Al Seef SME District, an innovation hub within Al Seef. With this move, the company and government aim to improve the SME ecosystem by creating a central hub for innovation in fast-emerging and cutting edge sectors. Learn more about the new hub here.