The Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) Group has announced the launch of ‘NEXT’, an accelerator programme designed to unlock growth opportunities and address challenges in the energy sector by building new digital ventures for business-to-business and consumer categories
According to a statement, NEXT underpins the Group’s commitment to contribute to the future agenda of the UAE and Dubai’s vision of being a global platform for knowledge-based, sustainable and innovation-focused businesses.
The programme will deliver ENOC’s vision for the future by building new digital ventures, enabling a digital transformation of the core through an organisation-wide SAP system implementation and digital upskilling its workforce.
Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO of ENOC, said, “The UAE is deliberately advancing its innovation agenda to create breakthrough solutions that can address global opportunities and pressing challenges.”
“From developments such as AREA 2071’s hosting of 20 global start-ups valued at US$11mn to participate in two global accelerator programmes, to Dubai’s plans to invest US$272mn in projects and companies that take part in its future accelerators programme, the move towards encouraging research and development and incubation programmes across key sectors is a reality,” he added.
“At ENOC, we believe in the importance of disruption and entrepreneurialism to be able to answer new and unseen challenges, and NEXT is designed to do just that. In addition to creating new revenue streams through digital ventures, NEXT will also look at synergies between different segments across the Group and leverage our existing data and knowledge to unlock growth opportunities across different markets,” continued Al Falasi.
The Group has partnered with several global players to deliver the different components of NEXT including BCG Digital Ventures - a US-based corporate investment and incubation firm, Moro, and the Dubai government-owned digital data hub and EY, a multinational professional services firm.
