Karim was invited as both a speaker and a jury member at the Sustainova sustainable startup challenge held at the DIFC Innovation Hub on the sidelines of GITEX Impact in Dubai. As part of the jury, Karim met the 10 finalists alongside: Matteo Boffa from Swiss Business Council United Arab Emirates, Lola Fernandez Flores from VentureSouq, Steve Khayat from Phoenix Venture Partners, and Awdesh Chetal from Risin Ventures.
The competition resulted in three winners: FortyGuard (Jay Sadiq), Olive Gaea (Jessica Scopacasa and Vivek Tripathi) and Mruna (Ziad Hussami)
FortyGuard provides temperature monitoring and reduction solutions, Mruna provides nature-inspired and decentralized wastewater treatment systems, and Olive Gaea is a next-generation ESG and carbon accounting platform.
The event kicked off with a keynote by Farrukh Shad from Schneider Electric (named the most sustainable company in 2025) and an insightful panel moderated by Sal Jafar from ESG Mena with Sabrina Salama from Seedstars, MARIA FLOUDA from Sustainability Switch Consultancy, Jay Sadiq from FortyGuard, and Dr. Jacinta Dsilva from SEE Institute
A special mention to the other remarkable finalists of Sustainova: Nadeera, Coral, MANHAT, Mywater, Nayan, Sulmi and SustainInsight.
These entrepreneurs are leading the charge in developing innovative solutions to the triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution), bringing a renewed sense of hope to our region and the world.
