We are pleased to announce that our CEO, Jay Sadiq, was invited to speak at the 24th session of the MBRIF Innovation Journeys Series. This prestigious event highlights the journeys of some of the world’s most talented minds, sharing their startup stories, challenges, and successes.
About MBRIF
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF), created by the UAE Ministry of Finance, aims to discover and support promising innovations locally and globally. By fostering the growth of innovative businesses, MBRIF contributes to the future of the UAE's economy. It operates through two main programs: the Guarantee Scheme (since 2016) and the Innovation Accelerator (since 2019), focusing on key sectors like Space, Transport, Education, Technology, Water, Clean Energy, and Health. FortyGuard is proud to be an alumnus of the MBRIF Innovation Accelerator.
About the Innovation Journeys Series
The Innovation Journeys Series is a monthly conversation series on LinkedIn Live, initiated by MBRIF. Hosted by Shaker Zainal, Head of MBRIF and Chief mSMEs Officer at EDB, it features live discussions with leading entrepreneurs about their startup journeys, challenges, and successes. The series concludes with a Q&A session, allowing the audience to engage directly with the speakers.
Insights from the Session
During the session, Jay shared the inspiration behind FortyGuard, rooted in his personal experiences with urban heat while growing up in Abu Dhabi. His struggle with asthma and the limitations posed by urban heat inspired him to develop innovative solutions to cool down cities. Jay explained how the idea for FortyGuard was inspired by observing Los Angeles's use of white pigments to cool roads. Adapting this concept to the UAE required overcoming unique challenges, such as ensuring road safety and managing energy costs. This led to the development of an innovative asphalt and concrete coating that significantly reduces heat.
The session also touched on the unique challenges faced by climate-tech startups, emphasizing the need for resilience and a strong team. Jay advised aspiring entrepreneurs to focus on creating a team with shared values and a strong purpose to navigate the high risks and costs associated with innovative solutions.
The discussion then moved to how FortyGuard’s strategic pivot from a material science company to a data-centric model was crucial in attracting the right investors. Leveraging relationships and networks, particularly through MBRIF, helped establish strong connections with key stakeholders. Expanding to the US market also proved beneficial due to the rising demand for urban heat mitigation solutions and the supportive data ecosystem.
Jay shared FortyGuard’s vision of becoming the “Google of Temperature” by developing advanced temperature models and integrating them into various products. This includes the Temperature Operating System (tOS), which provides high-resolution, predictive temperature data for urban planning, energy optimization, and more. Collaborating with established platforms like Google, IBM, and Microsoft, FortyGuard aims to make its technology widely accessible.
They also talked about FortyGuard's collaboration with NVIDIA on the Earth-2 initiative, highlighting the importance of strategic partnerships. Leveraging NVIDIA’s advanced computing power, FortyGuard aims to create a digital twin of urban heat, providing detailed and accurate temperature models.
Finally, Jay advised early-stage founders to prototype solutions in real environments and utilize cloud services for scalable infrastructure. He emphasized the importance of bringing products to market quickly, collecting user feedback, and iterating based on this feedback. Balancing ambitious goals with day-to-day operations requires a clear focus on integrating AI and machine learning for enhanced predictive models. FortyGuard aims to leverage these technologies to advance urban climate resilience and improve livability in cities.
The session concluded with an emphasis on the importance of resilience and support systems in entrepreneurship. FortyGuard’s future focus includes improving data infrastructure, partnering with industry leaders, and advancing predictive models to provide comprehensive solutions for urban temperature intelligence.