Fantom Foundation is pleased to announce their partnership with The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum. This partnership will see Fantom Foundation establish an operational presence in Dubai.

This partnership is the result of Fantom’s successful trip to Dubai in April and subsequent negotiations by the Sydney-based Fantom Innovation Lab, led by Ashton Hettiarachi and David Freuden, along with Technical Advisor Andre Cronje.

Dubai has committed to becoming a world-leader in blockchain adoption as part of Smart Dubai

initiative. Dubai aims to be the “first city fully powered by blockchain by 2021.”  The Dubai’s Smart City strategy features over 100 initiatives and 1,000+ smart services across government services, transport, communication, infrastructure, financial services, supply chain management and urban planning all designed to improve the lives of their residents.

This partnership allows for Fantom to operate under the corporate umbrella of The Private Office of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum to engage with the Dubai and UAE government and the private sector.

“This day marks the beginning of a new partnership that lays the groundwork for integrating Fantom Foundation’s technology and expertise into the vision of Dubai to become a blockchain city. Given their extensive experience in technology R&D and working with partners, we look forward to seeing how this will significantly benefit the Smart Dubai initiative strategy,” said Hisham Al Gurg, CEO, SEED Group and The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum.

Patrick Osman, Director – International Ventures, The Private Office, Hisham Al Gurg, CEO, The Private Office, Ashton Hettiarachi, Head of Innovation Lab, Fantom Foundation, David Freuden, Partner, Fantom Foundation

“We are super excited to partner up with The Private Office of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum to bring innovation and build solutions for Dubai to create new economic opportunities and deliver better user experience for UAE citizens.”   Ashton Hettiarachi, Head of Innovation Lab, Fantom Foundation.

Fantom Smart City focus

In February 2019, Fantom expanded their strategy of going “beyond blockchain” by becoming the IT infrastructure backbone to complex high data generating industries that requires both large quantities of data and speed. These industries include public utilities, smart living products and services, healthcare, education, traffic management, resource management, and environmental management. The majority of the enterprises are service providers to smart cities. 

The opportunities identified as ideally suited to Fantom’s Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology deliver significant scale, long term growth and are replicable into other geographical markets.

Sydney-based Fantom Innovation Lab have been focused on researching all forms of blockchain adoption, with specific focus in UAE region, specifically including but not limited to, Smart City Initiatives.

From a global perspective, the UAE, and Dubai in particular, have demonstrated an unrivalled commitment towards adopting blockchain solutions as part of their Smart City initiative.

Fantom’s goal is to work closely with the various governing bodies including Smart Dubai, Dubai Blockchain Center, Dubai Future Fund and Accelerators as well as with the innovation teams within the various govt departments such as the  RTA, Land Development, Dubai Police and Dept of Health.

Disclaimer:  David Freuden is a member of the Fantom Innovation Team