Gulf Capital SME Insights – Your strategy for the next decade

Testimonials

Essam Disi

Director of Strategy and Policy
Department of Economy and Tourism

The great thing about the Gulf Capital SME Awards is that we see new SME success stories every year. This year means more for SMEs, as they managed to survive the pandemic and led the economic recovery phase.

Lurdh R. Allam

CEO and Co- Founder
ArtSmiley

ArtSmiley Won the Gulf Capital SME Award under the segment for Digital Business of the Year twice in a row for the years 2020 & 2021. This is really great recognition for our business, our team, and as great satisfaction as an individual and c0-founder of ArtSmiley. This also proves our commitment to delivering the best quality services to our clients and helps us grow faster and reach many in the industry. My heartful thanks to the Gulf Capital SME team and sponsors who are supporting this initiative in the industry, as this inspires many upcoming SMEs in the coming years.

Tarek Ghobar

Co-Founder
PointCheckout

Being awarded the Disruption of the Year was an emotional moment for us, because it goes to thank our team first of all for the hard work they have done during a pandemic year and shows the impact their work had created for our clients. Our payment technology has a clear added value to SMEs, and we look forward to growing further together. Thank you Gulf Capital SME Awards team.

Mohammad Absi Halabi

Founder and CEO
Swftbox

We were honored to win New Entrepreneur of the Year. The process was insightful and transparent, and the win provided us with validation alongside many incredible peers and helped raise our profile in our sector.

Tahany Taher

Co-founder
HAYAWIIA

Winning the Gulf Capital SME award for Fedex Start-up Business of The Year 2021 proves our work is among the best in the industry, shows our community we deliver on our promises & motivates our team to work collectively towards the positive future we are building.

K.S. Parag

Managing Director
FVC Inc.

Recognition for SMEs during these unprecedented times is important. SMEs who learn to adapt quickly, understand the challenges and forge ahead aggressively will be key winners. The SME INSIGHTS platform will help business leaders hone their skills for early adoption and provide a successful operational framework to execute their ideas.

Cheryl J. Thornton

Director, People Services
RAK Academy

I first became involved with the Gulf Capital SME Awards in 2019. The caliber of candidates was outstanding and I was amazed by the local and regional talent in the market. The pandemic has led to many new start-ups in the Middle East particularly in the Fintech space. In 2020, the MEED team adapted quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic and hosted a well-organized awards reception to celebrate all the winners. I am excited about this year’s awards and look forward to being part of it once more. It is through platforms such as the SME awards that one continues to see innovation in the SME space.

Ashish Panjabi

President
TiE Dubai

Apart from the obvious fact that judging could be done virtually, it was encouraging to see many of the participants in last year’s competition assessing how their business could remain relevant in what is now the “new normal.” Many of the entries demonstrated that they didn’t pivot just for the sake of the survival of their business but rather because they found they could make a greater impact by pivoting. Covid-19 has been led by innovative entrepreneurs and they’ve shined the torch during what was a gloomy period for most. I’m hoping to see more exciting demonstrations of this in the current year’s entries.

Debbie Nicol

Managing Director
Business en motion

In each edition, over the last six years, I have had an extremely fulfilling experience as a judge for the SME Awards. Every category, every participant is unique and brings a new dimension to the awards programme that makes it such a thorough and enjoyable learning experience.

Jaya Maru

Co-founder and CEO Middle East
Rewardz

In my two years of association with the Gulf Capital SME Awards, I’ve had the opportunity to judge and mentor some outstanding businesses while evaluating the entries. Selecting the winners is an intensive, collaborative effort and a great learning curve for the panel of judges too! I’ve been impressed with the digitisation efforts from SMEs and agility of business owners to be able to think on their feet. I look forward to SME’s adopting more aggressive ESG approaches that benefit customers, employees and the community as a whole.

What we are talking

What we’re talking about in 2021

Finance

Running an SME is no easy feat, the success of which boils down to one critical aspect – money management. Our programme will outline the framework for a solid financial future with healthy profit margins to keep a business viable and attractive for future investors.

Technology

There’s no escaping technology. Digital transformation can improve operational efficiency, simplify archaic internal processes, and help a business scale sensibly, irrespective of its sector. Our discussions will reveal practical examples and benefits of using 4IR technologies.

Legal

Legal is a pressing theme that we’ll explore with our audience to help them mitigate contractual risks, avoid commercial disputes, and understand the regional law and its implications to forge better partnerships.

Environment

As part of the wider ESG spectrum, we aim to educate business owners on how they can make transformative and sustainable decisions to help grow their business into the future. With sustainable investing becoming more and more mainstream, there is no better time to incorporate a business plan for the planet into that of a business.

Social

A motivated, self-driven team with largely limited resources is usually the crux of an SME. Our programmes will recommend decisive policies to protect human capital so SME’s can embed an inclusive growth mindset.

Governance

Our programme will guide leadership teams to embrace change and good governance, swiftly and effectively. Early adopters of the latest ESG trends can remodel their business for greater top-line growth, reduced operating costs, and can better adapt to regulatory and legal challenges.

Community

Content-driven, relevant discussions bringing together 50+ panellists and industry thought leaders – all entrepreneurial, agile and experts in their fields. This is an opportunity to be heard, share pain points, and find creative solutions together.
Register for Live Events

Recognition

A dynamic awards programme that gives SME’s a platform to magnify their brand value and benchmark against peers. A stamp of success from our cohort of 60+ judges that will attract future partners, investors, and employees.
Start an Entry

Growth

Accelerating innovation and growth of the SME sector is our priority. With our thriving 20K strong community and interactive programmes, our platform aspires to be an incubator of ideas giving registrants access to every resource needed for success.
Access the INSIGHTS HUB

Awards Categories

Categories

Gulf Capital Business of the Year

This award is designed to identify the GCC-based business that can show evidence of maintaining consistent growth and strong financial performance. The winner will have demonstrated how it is delivering its company vision and mission. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth and innovation.

Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plan, how the business is developing its employees, the leadership of the business as well as ESG strategies that are in place.
B2B Small Business of the Year

This award is designed to recognize Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE-based B2B Businesses that can show evidence of maintaining consistent growth and strong financial performance. The winner will have demonstrated how it is delivering its company vision and mission. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth, and innovation. Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plan, how the business is developing its employees and the leadership of the business as well as ESG strategies that are in place.

Businesses with a turnover of more than 5m AED / 0.51m Bahraini Dinar / 0.42m Kuwaiti Dinar / 0.52m Omani Rial / 5.1m SAR and less than 40m AED / 4.1m Bahraini Dinar / 3.24m Kuwaiti Dinar / 4.19m Omani Rial / 40.85m SAR; and less than 250 employees are eligible to enter.
B2C Small Business of the Year

This award is designed to recognize Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE-based B2C Businesses that can show evidence of maintaining consistent growth and strong financial performance. The winner will have demonstrated how it is delivering its company's vision and mission. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth, and innovation. Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plans, how the business is developing its employees and the leadership of the business as well as analyze ESG strategies that are in place.

Businesses with turnover of more than 5m AED / 0.51m Bahraini Dinar / 0.42m Kuwaiti Dinar / 0.52m Omani Rial / 5.1m SAR and less than AED 40m / 4.1m Bahraini Dinar / 3.24m Kuwaiti Dinar / 4.19m Omani Rial / 40.85m SAR and less than 250 employees are eligible to enter.
Business Innovation of the Year

This award recognises innovations in any part of a business. The submitted innovation could be a product, service, project or initiative in any department, e.g. customer service, marketing, PR, technology implementation, new product concepts. Entrants must be able to evidence how the innovation has impacted the business and created a competitive advantage in their field.
Business Leader of the Year

This award recognises outstanding leadership within SMEs in the GCC. Judges will look for a leader who can demonstrate examples of excellent business leadership in empowering his/her employees and leadership approach, a successful existing and future growth plan and evidence how his/her successful leadership has had a direct impact on the success of their business.
Cigna People and Culture of the Year

This award will go to the organisation that can best demonstrate how the business has created a positive working environment and invested in developing its people and compliance with ESG strategies.

Entrants for this award must be able to show how the company focuses on motivating its team, engaging its team in the company's core values and how this has positively impacted the business' commercial performance and competitive advantage.
Customer Focus of the Year

This award recognises organisations that truly have the customer at the center of their business. The winning business for this category will successfully demonstrate how they have built their business plan keeping their customers at the core, evidencing the development of new services/products and revenue streams according to their customers' needs.

Judges will also look for exemplary customer service examples and outstanding communication with customers.
Digital Business of the Year

Open to any Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE business trading online, this award will go to the candidate that can best demonstrate consistent growth and strong financial performance through e-commerce. Judges will look for evidence of concept and product development, exceptional implementation, customer engagement & functionality, and innovation. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth and innovation.

Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plans, how the business is developing its employees, leadership of the business and also measure the ESG strategies that are in place.
Disruption of the Year

This award recognises an SME which has created an innovative disruption in a new market or a disruption in an existing market. The disruption must have gone to market in the last year and be profitable for the business. The winning business must be able to show evidence of how the disruption has changed its market. Entrants must be able to show judges how the disruption was developed, tested with customers and the tracked results for the business.
Emirati Business of the Year

This award is designed to identify the Emirati-owned and UAE-based business that can show evidence of maintaining consistent growth and strong financial performance. The winner will have demonstrated how it is successfully delivering its company vision and mission. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth and innovation.

Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plan, how the business is developing its employees, the leadership of the business and ESG strategies that are in place.
Entrepreneur of the Year

This award will recognise the most inspiring, dynamic and driven leader trading for 18 months or more. Entrants must show how they have overcome challenges to grow their successful business and how they have achieved this through passion, commitment, innovation, market knowledge as well as inspiring and motivating their team.
FedEx Start-up Business of the Year

This award is designed to identify the Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE start-up business that can evidence how the business has put in place strong foundations and plans for future growth. The winner will have demonstrated how it has created and is delivering its company vision and mission. Examples of how the business concept, services and products have been developed must be demonstrated together with how the business has communicated with its customer base.

Entrants must have been trading for two years or less.
Micro Business of the Year

This award is designed to identify Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE-based businesses that can show evidence of maintaining consistent growth and strong financial performance. The winner will have demonstrated how it is delivering its company vision and mission. Entrants for this award must show how they have been successful in delivering key goals, competitor advantage, growth, and innovation.

Judges will also look for excellent customer service, future growth plans, how the business is developing its employees, the leadership of the business as well as ESG strategies that are in place.

Businesses with turnover less than 5m AED / 0.51m Bahraini Dinar / 0.42m Kuwaiti Dinar / 0.52m Omani Rial / 5.1m SAR and less than 250 employees are eligible to enter.
New Entrepreneur of the Year

This award will recognise the most inspiring, dynamic, and driven leader trading for 18 months or less.

Entrants must show how they have overcome challenges to successfully grow their business and how they have achieved this through passion, commitment, innovation, market knowledge, innovation and inspiring and motivating their team.
Sustainable Business of the Year

This award will go to the organization that can best demonstrate harmony between profitability, social commitment and environmental concern. The winner will be the business that gives evidence on how it positively impacts local and/or global society and environment while using its own resources economically.

Judges will look for evidence of how the sustainable business has reduced any negative environmental impacts and ethically addressed socio-economic implications across the value chain. Additionally, judges will consider how the business has improved one or more of the following areas: customer perception, staff engagement and treatment, commercial performance, and environmental stewardship.

Companies that do not have a proper sustainability strategy in place will not be eligible for this award.
Technology Startup of the Year

This award will recognize new technology businesses, poised to positively impact the region’s role in the future of the global economy. Entrants must demonstrate how they have been successful in addressing a challenge, generating traction in the market, and the impact created on a local, regional, and global scale. To be eligible, startups must have been in operation for less than three years and be pre-series A in terms of fundraising.