Global Grad Show announces 1,000 projects have signed up to its Entrepreneurship Programme to fuel the next generation of start-ups

Global Grad Show, an initiative by the Art Dubai Group, has announced that 1,000 projects across all continents have signed up to its first phase of training for its entrepreneurship programme.

Now in its seventh year, the work of Global Grad Show highlights the growing potential of social impact start-ups, as well as showcasing the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs, scientists and designers. Two of these projects are currently discussing investment terms with Global Grad Show partner A.R.M. Holding, who have pledged 10 million AED (£2 million) over 10 years, to support programme participants with seed capital.

Launched in 2019, the programme has welcomed over 300 participants to date and offers academic innovators start up-building training, mentorship and access to business development and funding opportunities, to help graduates advance their projects towards implementation.

Global Grad Show strongly believes that more attention should be paid to early-stage projects and start-ups, as a greater volume needs to survive and grow, in order to form the pool that feeds the entire downstream ecosystem. Without a larger early-stage pool, it’s harder to achieve a robust flow down the line.    

Now in its seventh year, the work of Global Grad Show highlights the growing potential of social impact start-ups, as well as showcasing the next generation of world-changing entrepreneurs, scientists and designers. Two of these projects are currently discussing investment terms with Global Grad Show partner A.R.M. Holding, who have pledged 10 million AED (£2 million) over 10 years, to support programme participants with seed capital.

Director at Global Grad Show, Tadeu Baldani Caravieri commented: “For many economic reasons the attention is often concentrated in start-ups that are already many years into their development journey. Much less frequently mentioned, but not less important in our opinion, is the relevance of support to social impact startups at early stage. Without the necessary nurturing mechanisms at the source of the entire stream, fewer disruptive and high-potential projects will make it to later stages where capital, business opportunities and costumers start paying attention to them”.

This annual showcase and platform for the most promising projects from universities around the globe, has so far seen 15 teams successfully complete all stages of the programme, from training to individual selection, venture-building acceleration and pitching to investors. To date, the programme has also helped to grow and realise several graduate’s ideas including the SpectrumLab – a project from the Collège des Ingénieurs, and Foresight from Imperial College London.

• SpectrumLab, a project from the 2019 cohort received seed funding through successful completion of Global Grad Show’s entrepreneurship programme. That funding has since financed the development of testing rounds, with specialised labs in the US, with the team now gearing up for a next round of investment to prepare for market launch. Spectrum is a reflective thermochromic paint that changes its colour based on temperature. A potentially revolutionary material for the construction industry, it provides a passive cooling/heating solution for buildings, improving its overall energy efficiency. The project’s vision (and science) is also intended to reduce overall temperatures within urban areas.

• Sam Tukra’s Foresight was part of Global Grad Show’s COVID-19 open call in 2020 – the first call of its kind to look for solutions to the collateral issues of the pandemic. It’s an AI-enabled system that helps to predict early onset of organ failure, up to 48hs ahead of current methods, which can translate into millions of lives saved and drastic improvements to public health systems and budgets. With Global Grad Show support, Sam has continued his work, currently gathering high-profile support among health specialists and authorities to run alpha clinical tests, to generate the relevant evidence needed for procurement by hospitals. The outcomes of his research is currently under revision for journal publication – an important validation step for heath innovation of this magnitude.

This year’s edition of Global Grad Show, taking place in November 2021, has seen a 200% increase in the volume of applications. With the support of partners investing in the start-ups, like A.R.M. Holding, and leveraging the Dubai business ecosystem to pilot and collaborate with the projects, more solutions should become ready to go to market.           

Director at Global Grad Show, Tadeu Baldani Caravieri commented: “For many economic reasons the attention is often concentrated in start-ups that are already many years into their development journey. Much less frequently mentioned, but not less important in our opinion, is the relevance of support to social impact startups at early stage. Without the necessary nurturing mechanisms at the source of the entire stream, fewer disruptive and high-potential projects will make it to later stages where capital, business opportunities and costumers start paying attention to them”.

Two of these projects are currently discussing investment terms with Global Grad Show partner A.R.M. Holding, who have pledged 10 million AED (£2 million) over 10 years, to support programme participants with seed capital.

This year Global Grad Show expect to graduate at least twice as many projects at the end of the cycle. The journey is a 4-month process of validating the fit between solution vs. problem, product vs. market and business model vs. investors criteria. That applies to projects from backgrounds varying from data science to biomaterials, healthcare and food production. This cohort should see projects that reflect global increased concerns about the environment, health, social and economic security, however manifested through less-obvious disciplines, such as self-regenerating biomes, superfoods, non-biased digital environments and end-of-life planning.          

Tadeu Baldani Caravieri, Director at Global Grad Show, concluded, “The programme’s aim is to bring entrepreneurship into the picture. We are starting to help graduates to translate thoroughly researched technology into coherent business models, but we feel the impact is sometimes even more primary: in many cases, we are the first ones to give them a concrete nudge in the direction of entrepreneurship. And that can trigger great things. These are extraordinarily talented and committed people, which means two complementing things: they can make progress and adjust very quickly and that’s usually priority number one for investors, impact-oriented or not”.      

Social impact enterprises and associated financial instruments are now part of a market worth more than $700bn*, leading a trend that is changing the investment landscape. The global demand for Impact Investing options has been estimated at $26 Trillion by the IFC.