News & Events

GI$CO (Global Innovation Startup Competition) at the Global Forum in Muscat, Oman — Digital Transformation meets small business innovation. The Global Forum & Active Media are hosting the 5th annual Global Innovation Startup Competition (GI$CO) for start-up and scale-up companies and innovative ideas to be presented at the conclusion of the 2022 Global Forum.

The Competition Company and Presenter List:

Margie Traxler: Founder/CEO - Grain Free Mama's

Grain Free Mama’s was officially started in March 2018, by bootstrapping. Utilizing my knowledge of the food industry from my 22 years of experience as a restaurant owner, I was able to accomplish a lot independently. For the previous 13 years, I had been learning everything I could learn; training myself to formulate and to become a natural food scientist, using my resources the most efficient way for research, experimenting and perfecting, and repeatedly knocking on very large doors. The number of people who were coming to me asking for help just kept growing and growing…and it was time.

Margie’s short bio: Margie received her BS in Biology (Portland State University, 1987).  She has 22 year’s experience as a Restaurant Owner, 4 years Division 1 (full scholarship) playing women’s basketball in college/University, and then spent 4 years as a college coach afterward.  She is a focused leader, motivator, gifted speaker and teacher.

 In 2004, Margie received the news that her daughter needed to eat ‘gluten-free’.   There were few healthy gluten-free baked goods available that tasted good.  Educated as a biologist, with a focus on microbiology and botany, she became a Natural Food Scientist to create truly healthy food products.  This is her goal and passion; to create the foods and resources needed so that consumers worldwide can safely enjoy baked goods without compromising health.”

Her favorite quote is ‘‘In order to achieve the impossible you have to be able to see the invisible”

Zainab Alkindi: Team tech Manager - iTrans

iTrans is an interactive platform that provides fast and easy door-to-door delivery service at the specified time, date and location. This platform has been designed for community services and to facilitate the individual's daily life and tasks. Users of the platform can transfer any type of package up to 50 kg like food, staff, clothes, electronics and etc. Our mission is to simplify the way for people who are looking for logistic services and enable them to deliver any desired packages or products to any destination in Oman. Also, to provide high-quality services and get customers satisfaction and trust. We have more than 31000 shipments and more than 3000 drivers with more than 3000 stores and small businesses.

Vinod Kumar Bharadwaj: EVP/Founder - TibaRay, Inc.

PROBLEM

Globally in 2021, cancer killed over 10 million people (>600,000 in the U.S.). For all types of treatment, the ability to cure cancer is limited by damage to normal tissue. These compromises occur in Radiation Therapy because treatments are too slow, which allows tumors to move during treatment and subjects normal tissues to excess collateral damage. Slow treatments are also inefficient, limiting the number of patients a machine can treat. 

SOLUTION

A new Radiation Therapy solution, PHASER, will treat over 400 times faster than the fastest machines today, treating in less than one second, instead of several minutes. This sub-second “FLASH” treatment will “freeze” motion during treatment and invoke a newly discovered breakthrough biological effect – FLASH radiation kills cancer cells while causing less damage to normal organs. Also, more efficient treatments will allow clinics to treat at least twice as many patients on PHASER.

PHASER beam delivery will have no moving parts. It will fit into existing shielded treatment rooms. Our unique compact and cost-effective technology will make the most sophisticated, life-saving Radiation Therapy available as the new standard of care worldwide.

TECHNOLOGY

Such a dramatic increase in treatment speed requires both a novel integrated system concept and breakthrough enabling technologies in linear accelerators, beam shaping, and RF power generation and distribution. These breakthroughs came primarily out of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford with TibaRay implementation and extension.

Ahmed Al Marjeby: Co-founder & CEO - Nashid

NASHID - A DIGITAL IDENTITY PLATFORM

“An Executive Summary”

Paper-based identity documents are digitally non-verifiable! Over 700 billion dollars are lost annually in identity theft and fraud from scanning and sharing identity documents with service providers. Moreover, paper IDs require in-person verifications and create manual workflows. They are exposed, physically taxing, time consuming, and no longer fit for purpose in the digital economy.

To combat these issues, Nashid will develop and assign verifiable digital identities to businesses and people. This will remove any possibility of fraud, automate online identity verifications, and save time.

What makes it all possible is the internationally approved technology stack using verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers, and the blockchain. These layers create standardized digital certificates for businesses and people, and uses the blockchain as a trusted 3rd party to maintain data integrity.

So, what is Nashid?

Nashid is a Digital Identity platform – powered by the blockchain – to allow users access to services in a way that is both portable and verifiable.

This means, after every user performs a 1-minute eKYC Digital Verification to obtain Nashid ID, they will be able to join any company registered in Nashid’s ecosystem without having to visit them physically. 

Nashid is targeting the private sector of the MENA region, which is a sizable market of $4.3 Billion dollars, from which $285 million dollars of it is directly obtainable. And the business model isto generate revenue from service providers such as banking, telecommunication, and insurance companies, in 2 ways; a subscription fee to the network and a transaction fee for every verification made.

The go-to market strategy is to integrate Nashid’s own eKYC digital onboarding tool with Service Providers such as SAAS software. These integrations and relationships will then be leveraged to onboard service providers to Nashid’s ecosystem and use the verifiable digital identity solution to automate access and mitigate fraud.

Unlike other identity verification services, Nashid is split into a specialized identity product that is enterprise-ready, and a user identity wallet that gives users control and ownership over their identity information, establishing a clear consent-based data sharing model which complies to personal data protection laws.

The founding team consists of two experienced startup founders. Ahmed Al Marjeby -Cofounder and CEO- is a previous founder of two tech startups in the ecommerce and blockchain industries. Mahmood Al Lawati -Cofounder and CTO- is also a previous founder of a tech startup in the property tech industry. As a team, they have both technical and business expertise with a cumulative experience of over 12 years in Tech startups and business.

Their mission: to create digital Identities that belong to the people, are utilized by enterprise, and used to digitally access services, with just a click!

Juan Daniel Gonçalves (repalced Kinga Dancsházy) CEO - D-Tag Analytics Inc.

D-TAG is a compound name made up of “data” and “tagging.” It was founded in 2017 to satisfy our quest to find the fact and feeling-based drivers when it comes to making a purchase decision. We had a set of analytics tools, but they didn’t bring the desired results, so we started to build our own products.

Our solutions have been developed to change the perspective businesses see social media. We have mastered how to dive deeper into what is said online, without ignoring the nuances of language, culture, and rapidly changing trends.

Once we had a prototype, we decided not to keep it to ourselves. We wanted to help other teams who struggled with the same problems as we had. This led to us building a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform which could be licensed, allowing others to take advantage of our comprehensive toolset - made by analysts for analysts.

The tremendous amount of positive feedback reassured us that there is great potential in Social Media Analytics across industries and more and more companies are recognizing it.

The question is, are you one of them?

Tariq Al Habsi: Founder and CEO - Zameeli

Zameeli is a freelance marketplace that links you with local, skilled freelancers such as videographers, models, social media experts and many more. When SMEs want to outsource skilled freelancers such as graphic designers, content creators, or even digital marketers, they often ask people around or place an ad on Instagram, But communication takes time without guarantees with limited options. So we built a solution in-house that helps SMEs to quickly connect with many freelancers at different prices with guarantees. 

Ákos Matyus: Co-founder - Orca Aerospace LTD

Due to the rising number of population and with ever-increasing number of cars on the roads, traveling across metropolitan areas is getting slower. This wastes energy, fuel, time, and productivity.

Agile flying in dense urban environment as a concept and popular commonplace in sci-fi culture is not fiction anymore. There are new designs and concepts coming out rapidly and in a very short period of time electric aircraft, rotorcraft and VTOLs will be a part of public transportation and special tasks. Traveling medium-range distances (50-60 km) with electric-powered aircraft proves to be faster and more cost-efficient. However, through design characteristics and specifications, the performance and work principle of each aircraft vary drastically. VTOL technology means that an aircraft is capable of taking-off and landing vertically almost anywhere. This makes them far more flexible and at the same time able to perform various maneuvers not possible with a conventional plane. This is a crucial advantage for aircraft in combat or emergency rescue situations. On a longer term, the aviation industry is a major source of atmospheric and noise pollution. VTOL aircraft using electric propulsion is more energy efficient and clean than those using turbine or internal combustion engines.

Akos’ short bio

I'm a co-founder of Orca Aerospace and the CTO of the startup. As a vehicle engineer specialized for alternative drive systems I got to the aerospace industry from ICE development through motorsports and defence. In the very start of electric aviation, with my colleagues I'm working on making flying more accessible and sustainable

Ahmed Alzadjali: Founder & CEO - Adeeb

Adeeb Studio is a platform for teachers and students. Where the teachers can create their own stories and exercises for the students in a user-friendly environment using a big library of ready-made graphical assets. Teachers can share their stories online with the students in Adeeb platform anytime as much as they want.

Javin Pierce: Founder and CEO - Pierce Instruments, Inc.

Pierce Instruments Inc., (PI), a product design and company foundry started in 1991 by CEO Javin Pierce a co-founder of Arthrex a leading orthopaedic company. 

PI is experienced in development of technologies in: biomechanics, aerospace, medical devices, infection control, sports, consumer, and soldier systems. Our projects range from single product conception and development, to extensive product line initiation in orthopaedic arthroscopy, endoscopic surgery, wound care, and sports biomechanics. Past, and present clients include, Arthrex Inc., Johnson & Johnson Professional Inc., Smith & Nephew, Mitek Surgical Products, Laborie Medical, Ethicon Inc. Orthopaedic Biosystems Ltd., Inc., Inion Oy, Histogenics, Symmetry Medical (SMA), ArthroCare, Lange SA. Excel Holdings, Inc.

Max Bezrukov: CEO - AC3D

We are a US-based startup developing an integrated construction 3D-printing technology

• Manufacturing of building robots (3D-printers)
• Developing proprietary 3D printing material mixes
• Developing advanced software
• Engineering and printing buildings

Purpose of the company

Our mission is to tackle the global housing crisis, waste problems, and climate change by automating the construction process via additive manufacturing.

Construction 3D printing is transformational: allowing significant improvements in speed and sustainability, while reducing the costs of construction.

Sheena Thomson: Founder and Director - CrisisFit®

CrisisFit® is a new military-inspired crisis leadership programme that blends the skills and expertise of military, corporate risk, and crisis management approaches. 

This is achieved by combining classroom learning, coaching, and mentoring from former military personnel with commercial experience and risk professionals: all are practicing risk and crisis management professionals with demonstrable success in the commercial and governmental sectors. Being crisis fit needs regular training, coaching, and exercise to build fitness and resilience. This is our core principle: preparing participants to always be CrisisFit® and to manage the worst. 

The CrisisFit® programme includes the flagship CrisisFit® course, which is spread over 12 weeks and comprises a mix of three phased face-to-face masterclasses, one-to-one coaching sessions, and practical exercises. In addition, there are several other courses designed to give participants a deeper understanding and application of the core skills required to successfully manage challenges and disruptive events. 

The CrisisFit® programme is designed and delivered by experienced experts who understand risk, and who know how to respond and how to manage situations when under intense pressure. All CrisisFit® trainers are practicing risk advisors, crisis responders, leadership experts, and psychologists delivering the programme via a distinctive blend of face-to-face teaching, remote coaching, and mentoring with shared experience.

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Sponsors

2022 GI$CO JURY