Angele Giuliano, Managing Director at AcrossLimits, and Kais Badran, CEO at Grey Matter, embarked on a journey around two years ago to create a joint venture where they could align their expertise to build bridges between startups in Europe and investors in the GCC countries.
In today’s fast-evolving landscape, collaboration is often the key to innovation. Future Story represents the culmination of thoughtful planning, shared ambitions, and a commitment to delivering greater value together than they could apart.
Future Story is a new initiative that is bringing future technologies to today’s world, shortening the time between innovation and implementation. We facilitate investment, business development and market penetration whilst matchmaking between companies and investors / buyers from different markets.
In its matchmaking role, Future Story pairs start-ups that are leading the way in developing some of the most innovative technological solutions with investors looking to be part of their journey of growth and success. Future Story works with these start-ups to ensure that they are investor ready, whilst also working with investors to understand their interests, and bring to them an investment opportunity that is perfectly suited to their requirements.
Both Angele Giuliano and Kais Badran have shared some insights on why Future Story was created.
> Can you briefly introduce yourself?
_Angele Giuliano (AG)
My name is Angele Giuliano. I am an entrepreneur from Malta and I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years in sectors related to technology and deep-tech.
My areas of interest are normally digital education and digital health, especially where we can see that technology can make a difference to improve these two areas of society. I also work a lot in the European Union sphere.
I have built, together with my company AcrossLimits, over 80 successful EU projects, some of which were focusing on the sectors of digital health and digital education, but always with an angle to help the business world.
_Kais Badran (KB)
I am Kais Badran, co-founder of Future Story, where we’re driven by the mission to spark change on a global scale.
My journey has been one of relentless pursuit – from large-scale industrial modernisation initiatives and collaborations with the World Bank, to coaching and listening to over 2,000 business pitches.
I’ve started three companies, each achieving global success with a focus on disruptive growth and a commitment to making a positive difference.
Future Story is my latest venture, empowering game-changing technologies and visionary entrepreneurs in wellness, education, and beyond to build the future we all want to see.
> What are the business trends that have inspired you to start Future Story?
_AG
From my work at the European Union level, I see a lot of innovations coming out from research labs, from universities and from startups, that are really the next big thing, something that should change the world.
However, unfortunately what happens is that these companies and inventions never find the right funding for them, never find the right business partner for them within Europe. This creates a situation where they do not grow to their full potential.
Therefore, what inspired me for Future Story was really to find a way to allow these inventions to reach their full potential, to grow, to make an impact on society and to actually finally go even beyond the shores of Europe.
_KB
We’re living in a time where technology is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, creating exponential opportunities to solve some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.
Future Story was inspired by the incredible potential of fields like epigenetics, AI, and quantum encryption to reshape not just industries but entire ecosystems of human potential.
These trends show us that the future doesn’t happen to us; we create it. Future Story aims to be a catalyst for entrepreneurs who dare to push these boundaries and build solutions that elevate human experience.
> How did you identify the right partner for the Future Story joint venture, and what factors made them the ideal choice?
_KB
Selecting the right partner for Future Story was all about shared values and vision. Our partner had to be both technically brilliant and unwaveringly committed to harnessing technology for good.
We were seeking a collaborator who sees beyond profits – someone who understands that the innovations we’re driving have the potential to impact millions. Therefore, this alignment on ethics, purpose, and vision made Angele Giuliano the ideal partner for what we aim to achieve through Future Story.
_AG
This was a match of like-minded professionals. I was in Finland for an event, and the speaker at this event was Kais Badran, now my business partner in Future Story. He was explaining about all the different business opportunities within the Gulf region, within Dubai where he’s from, and how they look towards Europe for the innovation and inspiration because they can see that the region cannot only continue existing on fossil fuels but need to diversify.
I thought that this could be the interesting other part of the jigsaw puzzle. I wanted to help companies from Europe grow and scale up and find funding, but instead of trying to look for it in Europe, I wondered if we could look for it in this region, the Gulf region.
This really made the two sides find each other and I got talking with Kais. He’s a very open and friendly business person. We have known each other now for close to 6 or 7 years, if not more. We’ve already done some other small business ventures together.
Therefore, Future Story would fit with my experience from the EU, his experience from the Gulf, and we put them together, and hopefully there is a happy Future Story out of it.
> What were the core business objectives and values of Future Story when it was first conceived?
_AG
The idea was to focus particularly on Deep Tech, especially Health. We’re seeing a lot of interest in improving health, improving longevity of people, and improving quality of life, not just how long you live, but how well you live. I see a lot of innovations coming out of Europe and there’s a lot of demand for these in the Gulf, which is quite a hub nowadays of health and innovation in that sector. Therefore, that was one of the first values: to bring better health and more innovative health tools to the region.
The other value was the other way round: to utilise the contacts and the business potential for investment from investors of the region, investing in European companies. This is possibly not something that is done a lot, but there is definitely a lot of potential, and this will grow.
When Future Story was conceived, those were the two areas that we focused on. Then we eventually ventured into other sectors.
_KB
At its core, Future Story was conceived as an impact-driven powerhouse designed to fuel ventures that are shaping the future.
Our objectives focus on driving forward technologies that will improve lives, whether through enhanced health, educational access, or advanced digital security.
Our values – integrity, innovation, and impact – are the guiding principles behind every investment, partnership, and initiative.
Future Story is about investing in breakthroughs that will make tomorrow’s world safer, healthier, and more empowered.
Are you interested in being involved in Future Story? Sign up here!
> Join us as a Start-Up Company
In order to join us as a start-up company so that we can match you with investors that make sense for you, you must:
- Give a brief description of your innovation
- Indicate the market in which you operate
- Let us know in which country you are registered
- Send us a pitch deck
> Join us as an Investor
In order to join us as an investor so that we can match you with start-ups that make sense for you, you must:
- Give a brief description of yourself or your investment company
- Indicate the sector or sectors that you would like to invest in
- Indicate in which stage of investment you normally enter (pre-seed, seed, series A, B, C etc)