EDITOR'S NOTE
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery WHEN THE BIG GUYS COME KNOCKING, YOU KNOW YOUR STARTUP HAS GOTTEN IT RIGHT The entrepreneurial ecosystem weighs in on ENOC vs. CAFU
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ast month, Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) Group announced that it would be launching ENOC Link, a new digital venture that would see the Government of Dubaiowned oil and gas entity start delivering fuel at the doorsteps of businesses and fleets across the UAE, with a longer term plan to cater to communities as well to serve the general public. As a concept, there’s a lot of similarity between ENOC Link’s offering and what homegrown UAE app CAFU, which was founded by Rashid Al Ghurair (a board member at Al Ghurair Investments, and the founder of MENA Energy), has been providing as a service in the UAE since November 2018. This feeling of sameness between the two ventures was compounded when a Gulf News article on ENOC Link’s launch quoted ENOC Group CEO Saif Al Falasi saying, “The difference between us and CAFU is safety. We’ve been in this business many years, and have trained our staff in case of all circumstances. There will be new regulations, and services
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will have to meet specifications. It co-founder Ali Al-Salim told me in is my understanding that only three an email: “It’s natural for the managemain national oil companies (ENOC, ment of any organization to seek out ADNOC, and Emarat) can sell fuel in new ways to grow their revenues and the UAE, and in the future, the govmargins… I don’t have advice for ernment will regulate who is going to ENOC, as their behavior is completely be in the market or not.” rational, they need to increase revFor those of us who champion entreenues in a market that is saturated, preneurs and startups in the UAE, it and probably only grows in line with shouldn’t be hard to understand why population or GDP. Rolling out new Al Falasi’s statement caused quite services is one way to explore ada bit of chatter in the social media ditional growth, and possibly margin space, as it went against many of the expansion.” public statements that have been Robyn Brazzil, Director of the made about supporting innovators in startAD program at NYU Abu Dhabi, the country. ENOC’s moves was seen agreed with Al-Salim, noting that by some as an example of how large startups should always be prepared enterprises, by virtue of the capital for the fact that somewhere along and resources they have, can elbow their business trajectories, they are out startups operating in a particular going to come up against competition, domain, although it must be said here and that can be anyone from another that CAFU is quite well-funded as a young upstart, or an experienced startup, having declared AED100 milconglomerate. “It's just not a fair lion of total investments to us in the September 2019 issue of Entrepreneur Middle East. At the same time, while there is a certain emotional appeal to the “support our startups” cry that went around Dubai Twitter when ENOC Link was announced, one must remember that there is no rule in the business realm that bars well-established corporates from swooping in on a startup’s domain. Commenting on ENOC’s Aby Sam Thomas, Editor in Chief, Entrepreneur Middle East, and Rashid Al Ghurair, founder and CEO, CAFU play, Arkan Partners
