Questions/Answers

Mohammad Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) is a program conceived by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in the UAE. The program is MOF’s response to the UAE’s Innovation Strategy; a national plan that sets out to create an innovation enabling environment and develop the UAE economy across 7 priority sectors through the nurturing of innovation. The MBRIF brand was launched in 2015 with its 1st sub-program called the Guarantee Scheme (GS); a 2 billion dirham pot of money set aside to support high potential innovators through a government-backed guarantee The GS was designed to encourage local banks and financial institutions to fund up and coming innovations and innovators through the provision of debt financing. The GS was the first step of the MBRIF to pave the way for innovators to thrive by eliminating a fundamental challenge they faced – access to funding (more specifically access to debt with favorable rates and repayment terms). In 2018, the MBRIF launched its 2nd sub-program, the Innovation Accelerator (IA). The IA rounds out the broader MBRIF proposition by providing a robust and holistic ecosystem of support to high potential innovators. The IA serves as the vehicle to identify high potential innovators from across the globe, provide them with access to world-class resources, expertise, and opportunities packaged in a tailored journey designed around each innovator making for a truly bespoke experience. In addition, this program (unlike typical Accelerators around the world) provides support and resources to high potential innovators completely free of cost. MOF funds the entire journey of innovators and does so as an investment into the development of the UAE economy, the 7 priority sectors outlined in the UAE Innovation Strategy, and the development of Innovators themselves whom are poised to tackle the world’s most pressing problems and reshape the face of conventional industry.

We believe that MBRIF should be given due consideration in relation to Category 2 of the UNPSA above given its: Construct as a Federal government program designed to nurture innovation Framework to promote innovations by providing funds & supporting services Collaboration with other government stakeholders in nurturing innovation Ambition to transform the innovation landscape in the UAE & the broader region Strategic importance in driving the UAE’s innovation agenda Approach to nurture innovators from across the world Approach to address key gaps that exist in the innovation landscape Tangible impact and achievements in nurturing diverse innovations

The MBRIF program tackles 15 of the 17 SDG’s outlined in the UN 2030 Agenda (excluding SDG 1 and 16). This is done through a mix of the program existence in and of itself as well as the work the program is doing with its diverse and growing member base of innovators. Our program’s alignment to the SDG’s and their targets including a brief on ‘how’ is outlined in our submission’s Report. An example of alignment to SDG’s is MBRIF’s alignment to SDG 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. The broader MBRIF program is conceived around the premise of driving game changing innovations nurtured in the UAE with the objective of developing the local talent pool and promoting job creation. Key targets for this SDG that we align with include targets 8.2, 8.3, and 8.10.

MBRIF is sponsored and fully funded by the UAE Government. However, within its few years of operations has already seen a return on its investment multi-fold. Our innovators have already secured over $20 million in funding. This means that through MBRIF and its support, the market gained confidence to fund MBRIF’s innovators to fuel their growth. By practically assisting innovators, guiding them on a path to tangible impact in the market, and rallying the broader market to support them, MBRIF can be said to be sustainable with its net benefits socially, economically, and environmentally far outweighing its cost to run.

Innovation is on the forefront of the UAE growth agenda. However, the market is fragmented with dozens of players focused on nurturing it. Despite the existence of these programs, innovators still find themselves in a position where they face many challenges and obstacles (e.g. funding is inaccessible, professional advice is prohibitively expensive, trusted mentors are scarce). Gaps existed in the innovation landscape including unifying key players and creating a program that truly cared about the interests of the innovator by removing barriers and providing world class support. MBRIF addressed this gap with the launch of its program. Innovators now have access to a international program that leverages a holistic ecosystem of mentors, coaches, experts, resources, relationships, world-class services, and tools to fuel their development and growth. Our value proposition of ‘taking innovations further, faster’ is predicated on maximum support with minimal (zero) cost from the Innovators we serve. Beyond associated fees relating to bank charges for the GS, MBRIF is 100% free of charge. MOF recognized that for real progress to occur, a significant effort (and investment) was required to remove barriers and challenges in the path of innovators so they can focus on what matters most; their innovations.

MBRIF program is designed to identify and consider true innovations irrespective of their origin or team gender. MBRIF recognize that progress cannot be confined with borders or gender and as such has conceived a program that is truly gender agnostic and beyond borders. Serving both the interests of the local UAE economy as well as those of the broader global community. We leave no innovation behind and work with a broad ecosystem to deliver truly impactful results to the businesses we support. We in fact encourage female founders and give weight to female entrepreneurs to foster a more diverse landscape.

The targeted groups MBRIF is looking to serve are innovators from all around the world. Since its inception, MBRIF has offered valuable support, development, and growth opportunities which are equipping these innovators to thrive within the UAE and beyond. The 2 sub-programs of MBRIF collectively have successfully delivered value to our growing pool of innovators. Their feedback speaks volumes to the uniqueness and caliber of the MBRIF. Their satisfaction scores stand as a testament to the value MBRIF and its team are delivering to these innovators. Their stats cement the significance of MBRIF within the Start-up community with over 33 members onboarded, over $20mn in funding raised, over 1,500 hours of support services delivered, and over 60 connections facilitated with prospective partners and customers in the market. This collectively translates into a broad array of achievements of our members including: Growth of employee headcount Expansion of innovator operations across borders Achieving profitability of innovator businesses Substantial revenue growth Increased business valuation of our innovator’s businesses Demonstrated impact of new innovations across industries Member recognition within global indexes Growth of customer base Tangible benefit delivered to our innovator’s end customers

The program was initially conceived in November 2015 commencing with the launched of the MBRIF brand and its first sub-program; the GS. The GS was operated for just over a year prior to active steps taken to design and launch its second sub-program; the Innovation Accelerator. Both programs were launched (2 years apart) and since the launch of the Innovation Accelerator, the MBRIF brand has taken active steps to unify both sub-programs in terms of process, team, marketing, and governance. Now, with both sub-programs in full operational swing, the overall MBRIF program monitors progress across both collectively on a weekly basis with the Ministry of Finance and Monthly with the Minister of Finance and broader Ministry Leadership to evaluate performance, identify key challenges, and formulate mitigation strategies to said challenges. The 2 sub-programs now follow a pre-defined annual process comprising intake of new applicants, evaluation of these applications, selection of new program members, and servicing of these members for a period of 9 to 12 months.

Obstacles encountered including solidifying the MBRIF brand within a regional and local market saturated with innovation led programs. Our biggest challenge was getting banks on board to support government backed guarantee scheme. Other challenge was to distinguishing ourselves, generating awareness, and formalizing our brand within the market. The first cohort of the Guarantee Scheme and Innovation Accelerator specifically was of key importance given it was the sub-program's opportunity to demonstrate to the market the depth and breadth of support that MBRIF can deliver. We now have a more solidified reputation in the market we will look to expand going forward.

MBRIF in the context of the UAE is the first government initiative to finance innovation through guarantee backing for commercial loans into innovation projects. It is integrated into UAE’s Area 2071, a dedicated multi-purpose complex dedicated to nurturing innovation. This translates into a working environment for innovators that provides key resources only a few steps away. MBRIF’s proposition of ‘taking innovations further, faster’ is predicated on maximum support with minimal cost from the Innovators we serve. MBRIF is utilizes a diverse and unified ecosystem of partners, resources and technology platforms that work together to maximize synergies and impact.

MBRIF is inspired by innovation funds in other countries (e.g. Swiss Technology Fund), MBRIF bridges a funding gap through guarantees and comforting innovators to focus on their products and services MBRIF’s success to date can be credited to its ability to adopt global learnings to a local context. In the process, the MOF created a program that is truly unique and gaining traction quickly within the market and the Innovation Ecosystem. The learnings, tools, and experience of MBRIF are things that can be replicated in other geographies. We already are seeing this regional countries are looking to replicate similar programs.

Formally been not adopted abroad yet, - however it has been referenced with multiple organizations having been in contact with the MBRIF team to better understand the scope of our work, the methods to our delivery, and the extent of our achievements. As described above, the potential to be replicated exists but not as a carbon copy. With such programs, context fit is key and carbon copies will not yield the desired result. The regional and local context needs to be considered when replicating what we have done in the UAE elsewhere. However, what can be referenced and replicated is our overall approach to serving innovators, our lessons learned in establishing a government sponsored Innovation program, and the tools we use to serve our innovators.

As described above, the potential to be replicated exists but not as a carbon copy. With such programs, context fit is key and carbon copies will not yield the desired result. The regional and local context needs to be considered when replicating what we have done in the UAE elsewhere. However, what can be referenced and replicated is our overall approach to serving innovators, our lessons learned in establishing a government sponsored Innovation program, and the tools we use to serve our innovators.

AED 300 million federal reserves were allocated towards guarantee scheme to support innovations through MBRIF. A design exercise was also conducted to conceive MBRIF leveraging global consultancy houses to design a fit-for-purpose program for the UAE. This supplemented with the acquisition of specific technology tools such as selection platform was utilized to round off the design process of the program. The program relies on a dedicated team of coaches, mentors, and admin staff to drive the day-to-day operations of MBRIF, maintain and grow the programs partner ecosystem, and serve the program's innovators with funding sourced from MOF.

MBRIF Guarantee Scheme is operated by Emirates Development Bank (EDB) which is a government entity, provisioned with AED 300 million federal reserves to back the guarantees. MBRIF is an investment the UAE is making to maximize value delivered to innovators, value to the market who engage these innovators, value to the UAE economy who benefits from the growth of these innovators, and value to the region who benefit from the growth of these innovators and their innovations. We firmly believe that the benefits of a program like MBRIF far outweigh its required financial costs and make it sustainable over time.

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Was evaluated internally by the Operator team with findings validated by the MOF leadership. Additionally, the GS sub-program was audited by an external consultant

Reference was made to the program's pre-designed processes, target operating model to assess if they are being adhered to. The sub-program KPI's were evaluated with performance metrics calculated to assess performance to date across each sub-program

The findings are broadly positive. The impact and achievements of the MBRIF program are noteworthy with member satisfaction above targets, applicant volumes above target, and overall tangible impact higher than expected. The assessment is being used to feed into planning exercise for MBRIF's next calendar year where we will address areas we can perform better (market awareness for example) and implement remedies to improve in the new year.

MBRIF, through its partnership ecosystem, has established a series of mutual relationships formulated to drive progress in innovation within the UAE. The program now actively works with its partner network to drive this shared agenda. MBRIF has partnered with other government stakeholders like Dubai SME, Dubai Future Foundation to work horizontally to drive innovation and promote integrated mechanism for sustainable development. The sponsorship of MBRIF by MOF unlocks further support and collaboration potential with the broader UAE government who also support the MBRIF program both in a general sense and more specifically to enable their individual innovation agendas.

To drive tangible development of Innovators and impact to the UAE economy, MBRIF developed and deployed a multi-faceted ecosystem leveraging a diverse network Partners spanning the government and private sector. MBRIF’s partners and collaborations include UAE government agencies, Innovation Centric Programs, subject matter experts from across industry, coaches and mentors with years of experience on the forefront of global innovation, an independent Decision Committee comprised of senior executives from the public and private sector, and a network of global private sector organizations. To solidify the MBRIF program’s proposition, a Partnership Framework was designed to identify the types of Partners we needed to engage, the purpose each will be serving, and the value proposition on offer to them to fuel fruitful collaboration. This framework explicitly makes reference to key capability and resource gaps of MBRIF and looks to address them by assembling a partner ecosystem. This ecosystem ensures: Member innovations and carefully and thoughtfully nurtured Relevant subject matter expertise is accessible to support MBRIF across its 7 priority sectors Relevant resources that innovators and the broader MBRIF program require is readily available Network of relationships and potential to create opportunities within the market is maintained for our innovators

MBRIF has learned that true innovation is difficult to quantify and often can take many forms. Innovation can come in the form of a tech enabled service, a product, or a new business model. Additionally, innovation is regional specific. What may already exist in more mature markets can still be deemed new and innovative in the UAE. This broad lesson has taught us to be more mindful when assessing innovations and their potential. Our application process has been revised to account for this fact going forward. The dynamic nature of the innovation ecosystem required constant re-calibration of the application of MBRIF and the traction gained in applications required dynamic answers from a promotional instrument under fiscal and economic policy. We have learned that a conscious effort to support diverse innovations will yield tangible impact. Our current pool of innovators are diverse and their work broadly covers a meaningful part of the UN 2030 agenda. Lastly, we have also learned marketing and awareness is pivotal to drive progress of our program and communicate achievements of our members on a rolling basis. Going forward, we will continue to foster a diverse mix of innovators to address multiple global challenges and priorities simultaneously.