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Meet Hotdesk: A Homegrown UAE Remote Workspace Platform
Co-founded by Mohamed Khaled, Hotdesk has already disrupted the tech industry, and is helping to support flexible and remote co-working worldwide.
Although the UAE has become a favored location for tech startups in recent years, Hotdesk, founded by Mohamed Khaled, stands out as one of the most compelling success stories. Despite maintaining a technical and operational base in Egypt, Hotdesk has been headquartered in the UAE since its inception in 2020, making it a genuine homegrown platform.
Hotdesk has a simple USP: The app provides instant access to remote workspaces, opening the doors to over 148+ establishments in over 800 cities worldwide. In the same way Airbnb disrupted the hospitality industry, Hotdesk makes it simple to book a desk, meeting room, or whole office within seconds.
Cofounder and CEO Mohamed Khaled has over seven years of experience working in the UAE and beyond. In addition to having ambitious expansion plans, he has already assembled a team of 50 top-flight professionals with resumes featuring the likes of Google, Swvl, and WeWork.
“Prior to entering the startup world, I spent more than six years as a Senior Associate working for one of the Big Four [including] PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG, accounting for nearly 40% of the industry’s $150 (Dh550.89) billion global market. I spent most of my time traveling and working from various locations across the region, often in silos; as a result, I was limited to the options of where to work from when it wasn’t at a client’s office. Towards the end of my time at the company, I began to rethink the ways of co-working, realizing that more flexible working options were needed for workforces of the future to adapt and thrive, and that was the germinal idea behind Hotdesk,” says Mohamed Khaled, co-founder and CEO of Hotdesk.
Also Read: Advanced Tech Adoption & Innovation Are UAE’s Top Priority
According to Khaled, Hotdesk is focused on supporting a hybrid work model known as “work 3.0”. Since COVID-19, many consultants, freelancers, and creatives now operate from a blend of different spaces, which means that traditional co-working venues, with their high fees and long contracts, aren’t always a good fit. Hotdesk overcomes this issue by allowing users to search for and book spaces at hourly, daily, monthly, or yearly terms without long contracts or tricky terms and conditions.
So how does Hotdesk benefit from offering this service to its users?
“Hotdesk matches supply and demand in the market, and the end-user always gets the best prices from the co-working hosts, enjoying us as a free service. We charge a market-based fee that varies slightly from market to market, and that fee is then collected from the co-working hosts’ revenue. Some might compare the model with Uber, Careem, or Airbnb, although we charge a lower fee and help our hosts sell workspaces, which otherwise would be vacant,” says Mohamed Khaled.
After a year of explosive growth, which saw Hotdesk grow from 15 bookings in its first month to over 10,000+ per month today, the company will next focus on expanding into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, before setting its sights on the lucrative European market.
News
NASA Forms New Partnership With Saudi Space Agency
The pair will collaborate on the Center for Space Futures, advancing space tech by bringing together public and private stakeholders.
Saudi Arabia’s space industry is on the brink of substantial expansion after generating $400 million in revenue in 2022, according to a report by the Saudi Communications, Space and Technology Commission.
Now, in a new venture with NASA, plans for a “Center for Space Futures” are set to further drive the Kingdom’s aspirations of becoming a leading player in space exploration and technology.
Capturing moments from the joint delegation visit with leaders from the Saudi and American Space Agencies @NASA to @PSU_RUH, along with scenes showcasing the audience's engagement. pic.twitter.com/oB1cFTiRNl
— وكالة الفضاء السعودية (@saudispace) May 14, 2024
The partnership between NASA and Saudi Arabia goes beyond economic advantages. The pair have already cooperated on preliminary work for the Artemis II lunar mission, which is slated for a September 2025 launch and aims to land astronauts near the moon’s South Pole.
Also Read: Plans Underway For Massive Middle East Autonomous Freight Network
During a visit to the capital, Riyadh, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson emphasized in a TV interview the broader objectives of the collaboration, which encompass “returning to the moon and then [to] Mars” while utilizing space exploration to glean important insights into climate change. The NASA spokesman also reiterated the space agency’s dedication to collaborating with Saudi Arabia on other future ventures.
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