UAE firms benefit from Khalifa Fund’s Franchise Initiative

The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development officially completed its 2019-2020 edition of the “Franchise Initiative”, which assisted three UAE-owned and operated businesses in becoming the latest entities to benefit from the long-serving initiative, and become ready to expand.

The three initiatives benefited from the program are;

1. Amaryliss Flowers, a one-stop-shop for flower arrangements which imports premium quality flowers from international locations such as Colombia and Holland, with express delivery services
2. Rafeeg, an online app marketplace that connects home improvement needs and maintenance professionals with customers through a user-friendly interface and
3. Rolling Wheels, the first roller skating rink in the UAE, which also provides a portable roller skating floor for outdoor events. They will all receive another year of guidance to help them complete their franchise process.

The Khalifa Fund provided these organizations with strategic planning and franchising structure, legal documentations, area development, an operations manual, marketing tools, who will continue to receive one year of ongoing consultancy.

The Khalifa Fund which originally partnered with FranCorp in 2013, launched the Franchise Initiative later to support the expansion process of the promising enterprises that showed the potential to grow locally, regionally and internationally.

To date, the Khalifa Fund has aided in the franchising requirements of 12 businesses.

“Khalifa Fund has continuously dedicated itself to supporting, guiding and nurturing UAE SMEs, from ideation phase to franchising. To work towards the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, and the UAE National Agenda striving to achieve Vision 2021, it is now more important than ever to showcase how the Khalifa Fund fully supports SMEs by empowering and enabling them to become fully-fledged franchises.”

Layla Al Mulla, Founder of Amaryliss Flowers said, “Khalifa Fund has provided us with the support we required to make it to the next level of our business operations. In the UAE, our industry is very competitive, so gaining guidance and mentorship from the Khalifa Fund has helped us propel towards franchising.”

Khamis AlSheryani, Founder of Rafeeg stated, “Thanks to the support of the Franchise Initiative and the ongoing financial support and guidance from the Khalifa Fund I was able to achieve my vision of launching the Rafeeg application, which is becoming a pioneer in the field of various services, gaining the trust of customers in a short time. Due to the support we received from the Khalifa Fund, we are now looking to expand into Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as more places across the MENA region within the next five years.”

Israa AlSaiqal, Co-Founder of Rolling Wheels shared, “With support from the Khalifa Fund, I was able to launch Rolling Wheels, a new concept for children’s entertainment in the UAE. The first branch was opened in 2017, with there now being two branches in Abu Dhabi. We have signed our first franchise earlier this year, and we expect to open the third Rolling Wheels in Yas mall in 2021.”