DIFC launches Studio Launchpad to develop finance, digital asset ecosystem

DIFC launches Studio Launchpad to develop finance, digital asset ecosystem

Dubai: The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has launched the world’s first venture studio platform - Studio Launchpad. The platform focusses on ubiquitous finance and digital asset technologies. The Studio Launchpad is supported by an international group of venture building experts, digital asset pioneers and emerging technology strategists. It is designed to attract and engage a consortium of leading start-up and corporate venture studios. The effort builds upon DIFC’s ecosystem to enable collaboration and co-creation between venture studios, corporations, entrepreneurs, investors and academic partners from around the world. With this initiative, Dubai is expected to become the leading hub for venture building in MEASA and join cities like San Francisco, New York, Berlin and Paris. Over the next 5 years, over 20 studios will setup in the DIFC and are expected to launch over 200 new ventures of which over 100 will be scale-ups and 10 will gain unicorn status. Together they will create over 8,000 innovation jobs in Dubai and attract over Dh2 billion in venture capital. “We see great potential to leverage the venture studio model to accelerate creation of scale-ups and unicorns from Dubai that will contribute over-proportionally to new job creation and economic development,” said Essa