UAE - Mubasher: The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has partnered with the UAE-founded STARZPLAY, a video-on-demand service provider, to establish the company's headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
The partnership is part of ADIO’s AED 2 billion ($545 million) Innovation Programme, an initiative launched by the Abu Dhabi Government’s Ghadan 21 accelerator programme, according to a press release on Thursday.
Launched in 2015, STARZPLAY offers premium content to more than 1.8 million subscribers across 20 countries, including blockbuster movies, exclusive TV shows, kids content and Arabic series.
This step will enable the company to partner with local production houses and animation studios to produce original content, based on its existing cooperation with entities, including Abu Dhabi Media, twofour54, and Image Nation.
In addition, STARZPLAY will create a private cloud in Abu Dhabi, which will be offered to other media companies as a fully managed and turnkey over-the-top (OTT) solution.
The company will also build its technology team, including AI engineers and data scientists, to support the Abu Dhabi operations.
The Director-General of ADIO, Tariq bin Hendi, said: "As a long-term partner, we are here to help businesses aligned with our vision and fast-track their progress through support for R&D, while ensuring they are suitably equipped to grow sustainably on the global stage."
Meanwhile, the CEO and Co-Founder of STARZPLAY, Maaz Sheikh, commented: "Building the new cloud facility will bring us closer to our fans to serve them with a richer and more personalised experience."
