Flat6Labs Bahrain Eyes Stakes in 2 Indian Startups

Flat6Labs Bahrain is in advanced dialogue with two Indian startups, EXPRESSbase Systems and Articbot, to acquire an undisclosed amount in equity stakes. Both startups were selected for Flat6Lab Bahrain’s accelerator programme at GITEX 2019 Technology Week in Dubai.

The deal aims to help the two Kerala-based startups to develop products for their market in Bahrain, and later in the GCC market as part of the acceleration programme.

“Flat6Labs Bahrain has already selected the two India startups for their acceleration programme and is currently in negotiations with the promoters for acquiring minority stakes in these companies,” says Ashok Kurian, Manager of Business Development at the Kerala Startup Mission, to Arabian Business.

EXPRESSbase Systems is a software product startup that runs on a platform on the cloud which builds and runs business applications tenfold faster, while on the other hand, Articbot is India’s first multilingual chatbot, based on conversation artificial intelligence (AI).

KSUM, a state government—funded agency that promotes startup ventures in the province, has also entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bahrain Economic Development Board (BEDB) to work hand-in-hand to promote startups of their respective regions in each other’s market.  Both EXPRESSbase Systems and Articbot are Kerala-based tech companies that are part of the KSUM-backed startups.

“While BEDB will help our startups to acquire business and funding in Bahrain, we will help startups based in Bahrain to access the Indian market. As part of the deal, BEDB and KSUM will work together to identify startups in Bahrain and Kerala with similar products and help them to collaborate on developing international markets for their products as also for co-development of products,” says Kurian.

KSUM officials also held talks at GITEX with representatives of several government and private bodies in UAE and other GCC countries, such as Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (DTEC), Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre, and Taqnia to explore funding and development opportunities for startups from the state.

Kurian adds that a high-level of delegation from BEDB is soon expected to visit Kerala for further discussions.