Woi.eco launches initiative to build companies around unsolved problems across five markets

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An entrepreneurship organization founded by Shafi Shoukath is trying to turn the problems countries have failed to solve into companies, starting with five markets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The organization, WOI.eco, is working in the United Arab Emirates, India, Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Its premise is that the people who live with a problem understand it better than outside experts, and are therefore well placed to build a business that fixes it.

“Every nation has problems,” Shoukath said. “But every nation also has people who understand those problems better than anyone else.”

The approach starts with research into a country’s industries, resources and shortfalls. Gaps that emerge — in health care, farming, credit or transportation — are described as business opportunities and presented to would-be entrepreneurs.

The group then uses what the industry calls a venture studio, in which an organization helps build a company from the beginning rather than investing in one that already exists. Large companies are brought in as early customers, and universities supply research and staff.

Shoukath said each of the five countries starts from a different position. The Emirates draws global money and workers. India offers size and engineering talent. Kenya has an active technology scene in finance and agriculture. Malaysia has factories and access to Southeast Asian markets. Sri Lanka has educated workers whose skills, he said, have not translated into growth.

The organization says technology developed in one country can be sold in another, and that money raised in the Emirates can reach founders elsewhere in the network.

Efforts to build startup economies have a mixed record. Governments and aid agencies have spent heavily over the past 20 years on business incubators, technology parks and startup funds. The buildings and training programs were generally delivered. Companies that survived on their own were less common.

Shoukath said such efforts take years rather than months, that new companies need investors willing to wait, and that governments and businesses have to cooperate for longer than election cycles allow.

He said the organization should be judged on the companies it helps create and the money those companies return, not on its stated goals.