Startup Spotlight: How UAE-Based Duverse Is Creating Sustainable Cities To Enhance The Mental Wellness Of Its Dwellers "I wanted to drive actual tangible impact and transform the way we design and build our cities to positively impact us and the environment."
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This article is part of an ongoing series covering startups that have been a part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) accelerator program.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to most of us today that the increasing number of cities being built worldwide has directly led to unfavorable environmental consequences. In fact, while discussing the solutions that can attain the eleventh United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) -i.e. to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by 2030- the UN Environment Program (UNEP) highlights that "...cities are particularly vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters impacts." Addressing this issue is Duverse, a UAE-based startup that aims to leverage advanced technologies to achieve sustainable urban resilience.
"Cities are responsible for over 70% of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while building and construction are responsible for 37% of the annual GHG emissions, and 40% of the global energy consumption [as per the UNEP]," explains Hasan Algarhy, founder and CEO of Duverse. "At Duverse, we thus develop technologies that help urban planners design human-centric cities more efficiently and in line with environmental, social, governance (ESG) regulations. We utilize emerging technologies including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI), and others to enhance the performance of various sectors, and government organizations, focusing on city development and urban planning. Our solutions assist organizations in achieving their sustainability goals by adopting effective digital transformation strategies."
But environmental impact is only one part of the puzzle that Duverse is aiming to solve- the second aspect it seeks to address is one that may, at first, come as a bit of a surprise to some: mental health. A report by the World Economic Forum shows that depression is 20% higher among city dwellers, anxiety is 21% more prevalent, and the risk of developing psychosis [a psychiatric disorder associated with hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia] is 77% higher. "It is said that by 2050, 70% of the world's population will be living in cities," Algarhy adds. "As such, we realized that the way we currently build and design our cities is generally negatively impacting and consuming us mentally and physically as well, in addition to harming the environment and the whole ecosystem. With over 18 years of experience in the fields of urban planning and psychology, during which I got to explore how the way we design and build our cities impacts us and shapes our personality, I decided to create Duverse."
Duverse was thus launched in Dubai in 2022 with services like urban planning solutions such as smart zoning and land use planning which use AI and data analytics to optimize land use and zoning decisions for sustainable growth, digital twins that offer proactive decision-making capabilities and show real-time spatial insight for assets, developments, and projects; and management tools for smart cities wherein IoT-enabled infrastructure solutions are used for monitoring and maintaining critical city assets (such as bridges, roads, and water systems) to prevent failures and ensure longevity. "I wanted to drive actual tangible impact and transform the way we design and build our cities to positively impact us and the environment," Algarhy explains. "Emerging technologies such as VR, digital twins, AI, and others have a huge potential that is far from being utilized. We thus crafted our human-centric tech solutions to lead the change and transform the way we design, build, and operate our cities. Duverse is mainly about emerging technologies and innovations. What we think of as disruptive technologies are mostly assisting tools to free human time for more creative, strategic, and value-added tasks and lifestyles."
Operating as both a business to business (B2B) as well as a business to government (B2G) entity, Duverse works on a contract basis with its business clients and government organizations, and provides subscription-based services too. "Duverse has shown extraordinary resilience since it was founded in 2022, and managed to show sustainable growth in terms of clients and revenue," Algarhy says. "Our current annual revenue is circa $650K with an annual growth of circa 45%. In 2023, Duverse was selected as one of the companies in the Future 100 list, a collaborative initiative between the UAE Ministry of Economy and the Government Development and the Future Office. In the same year, we were also listed on a UK crowdfunding platform with a pre-money valuation of circa US$7.7 million."
Despite combining the concepts of sustainability and mental wellbeing into urban planning, Algarhy is quick to point out that his startup's true differentiating factor is the team that makes up Duverse. "In fact. the extensive experience of our team is one of the key strengths," he says. "A multidisciplinary extensive field and academic experience in urban planning, technology, psychology, business growth, and other disciplines that boosts the growth of the company supported by strong technical knowledge and field experience. Our solutions are always based on understanding what differentiates the human mind and our collective intelligence from the machine mind and its artificial intelligence and how can we leverage and build on that, how can we utilize the power of both to achieve the highest and most effective impact. From day one we positioned ourselves as a human-centric company. Everything we do is centered around how we achieve positive impacts on humans, and improve their lives, their mental health, well-being, and economic situations."
But not everyone in the business landscape has necessarily viewed advanced technologies as a tool to enable more sustainable and healthy cities- and therein lies Duverse's biggest challenge. "Our main hurdles have been the adoption of emerging technologies, and raising awareness of how to utilize these technologies," Algarhy explains. "Leading a paradigm shift from fearing technology and seeing it as being disruptive and taking away jobs to acknowledging that these technologies are assisting us to be more productive and focus on strategic and creative tasks in our lives." But one entity in the UAE ecosystem that has neatly aligned with Duverse's goals has been the MBRIF Innovation Accelerator program. "The program has fulfilled its promise so far with informative mentorship sessions, inviting us to participate in the UAE delegation to Lithuania in August led by H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq the Minister of Economy, and leading to an effective, and successful trip including signing partnership agreements with Lithuanian companies to bring additional innovative solutions to the UAE. MBRIF program has also given us the opportunity to participate in the 2024 edition of the Expand North Star, which is a great initiative."
Equipped with the MBRIF's support and driven by its own goals to create a sustainable future, Algarhy says Duverse is now focused on "achieving significant growth." "The way we currently build and design our cities is generally negatively impacting and consuming us mentally and physically, in addition to harming the environment and the whole ecosystem," he reiterates. "Now that we have realized how emerging technologies such as VR, AI, and digital twins can help in solving these problems, we are more geared up than ever to turn our cities into being human-centric and improving the wellbeing and mental health of the residents of the cities, in addition to leading to significant improvements in how we run and operate the cities."
