Generation Start-up: Fitness platform Steppi rewards UAE residents for being active – The National

Generation Start-up: Fitness platform Steppi rewards UAE residents for being active – The National

The company is looking to help employers take steps towards improving the health of their workforce

















Joe Franklin (left) and Milos Savic, the founders of Steppi. The company's goal is to address the inactivity in this region. Reem Mohammed/The National









It was a "really small gap“ in the market that inspired start-up founders Joe Franklin and Milos Savic to set up Steppi, a platform that rewards users for engaging in physical activity.



The duo worked for US wearable technology company Fitbit in Dubai when new government regulations were unveiled last year on the use of information and communication technology in the UAE's healthcare sector.









Part of it is educational as well. Why is it important to do 10,000 steps a day? Not everyone understand these kinds of statistics.





Joe Franklin, Steppi





Under the country's ICT Health Law, health data such as activity levels recorded by wearable devices could no longer be stored, processed, generated, or transferred outside of the UAE, unless approved by the government.



"The law required that wearable data should be hosted on local servers and none of the big brands could