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Another day, another new addition to the StartUp Bahrain community, and this time, our new members, a corporate innovation specialist who helps startups and corporates to connect, collaborate and scale across the fast growing markets of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. And that my friends, is Hong Kong native, Nest.

Nest is a venture capital and business accelerator that provides access to corporates to foster innovation and adopt new technologies; and to startups to validate their solutions and commercialize. Since 2015, over 150 startups with the latest technologies have been accelerated with their corporate partners globally; including DBS, INFINITI, AIA, FedEx, Bangkok Bank etc and various governments. In a new initiative that was the result of an agreement with the Middle Eastern arm of multi-national payments company, American Express (AMEX).

 

The collaboration gave birth to “ACCELERATE ME,” an accelerator program that helps develop startups and small-to-medium enterprises (SME) that have a high potential for growth, along with Nest, AMEX has their eyes set on delivering innovative digital solutions to customers and business partners in the region.

Nest and AMEX’s line up is made up of 7 startups from Dubai, the US, the UK, Lebanon, Singapore, and Hong Kong, ranging from different fields of peer-to-peer, FinTech, Financial services, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence. They’re predominantly Business-to-Business (B2B), digital solution providers that have a lot to show for themselves, and even more to offer their prospective clientele. Sounds exciting? Well, here is the line up of startups partaking in this cycle!

Crayon Data – Singapore

A mixture of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence make up the composition of this startup that operates with the vision to “simplify the world’s choices,” and this is done through Maya™, a search engine that is purely driven by delivering experiences catered to the user based on their taste.

Bloom – USA

What do customers want in the digital age? Their privacy back! Bloom is a blockchain identity management system with the purpose of reducing the risk of identity theft and fraud prevention. This is done through their decentralizing the way a customer’s sensitive information is shared between two parties, whether it’s being used for accessing personal accounts or credit and financial services.

Divido – UK

An application that helps facilitate payment between a retailer and a customer, Divido is a consumer finance platform that gives its users the option to pay at the checkout, online or in the store.

FOO – Lebanon

How do businesses deal with other businesses? Let us rephrase that, how do businesses work out financial concerns with one another securely and reliably? FOO is a company that is focused on delivering business-to-business FinTech solutions, with a premier focus on mobile wallets and payment platforms.

Neener Analytics – USA

“I’ll pay you back later,” or in some cases, never! Neener Analytics’ application and ideology take on a different route than most, operating with the belief that the ability of a customer doesn’t determine whether or not they plan to pay a business back, they argue that it’s their willingness instead. The answer to that question can be found in a customer’s social media profile, believe it or not, as the application analyzes it and then informs the business of whether or not the customer may be a flight risk.

Payment Choice – Hong Kong

An electronic wallet that you can use worldwide? Sign us up! Payment Choice, do precisely what their name sets them out to be, they provide customers with a frictionless cross-border payment ecosystem for e-wallets”, enabling consumers to pay, and merchants to accept any e-wallet of the consumer’s choice.

Beehive – UAE

Operating a startup or a small to medium enterprise (SME) and looking for the right channels of finance? Beehive is the connection you have been waiting for, as the region’s only regulated peer-to-peer platform that connects smart investors to creditworthy SME’s.

And that’s a wrap! Those are the 7 startups participating in Nest’s first cohort. StartUp Bahrain would like to wish Nest and Amex the best of luck on this endeavor, and to the startups enrolled in ACCELERATE ME, welcome to the community, we look forward to seeing what you have to bring to the ecosystem.

Want to know more about Nest VC and Accelerate ME? Then head over to their website or visit their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to find out more!

And while you’re at it, have you seen our new video on our startup ecosystem? You don’t want to miss it!