The UAE is flying with startups to the global space and billionaire institutions

The UAE has booked its unique position in the Entrepreneurship Square, and has proven to be an important player on the global investment map, thanks to its ability to combine innovation and promising opportunities, which contributed to enhancing investor confidence and affirming its position is an ideal destination for business.

The national campaign “The Emirates is the capital of entrepreneurs in the world”, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, “God bless him”, with the aim of consolidating the UAE’s position as a global destination for entrepreneurship.

The campaign is supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism in cooperation with the media office of the UAE government, with the participation of the Emirates Business Council and more than 50 governmental and private agencies, incubators, business parking and academic institutions.

The saying of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, “The UAE is the land of opportunities and the ideal destination for companies and promising ideas”, a clear compass for aspiring pioneers and investors looking for global from the land of the Emirates, which through its successful investment environment was able to convert dreams into reality and transfer simple creative ideas to the global space and enter the billionaires club.

His Highness’s saying on the occasion of the UAE ranked tenth globally as the largest destination for foreign direct investment flows in the world, as the country recorded an unprecedented level in foreign direct investment flows received at a value of 167.6 billion dirhams (45.6 billion dollars) in 2024, according to the Global Investment Report 2025 for the United Nations Trade and Development Conference (UNCTAD).

The investment system in the UAE has become a global model to be followed thanks to its stability, transparency, commercial openness to the state and ease of practicing business in it, and opening new horizons for international companies seeking innovation and expansion in the future markets.

The effects of this global confidence for entrepreneurs and investors also appeared in the exceptional environment in the UAE, as today it is an incubating environment for the growth of the business of billionaire companies (UNCRAN), as it showed a statistic at the beginning of this year that was launched during the activities of the World Summit of Governments 2025 that the UAE ranked 17 globally in embracing the billionaire companies; On the UAE market is operating in the UAE market, 11 UNCORN, which is estimated at more than one billion dollars.

Including 5 startups that were launched from the UAE to the “UNCREN” club, which is the company “Taby” worth $ 3.3 billion, “Vista Global” worth $ 2.5 billion, “Kitobi” worth $ 1.55 billion, “Andalusia Bus” with a value of one billion dollars, and “Dubizzle” with a value of one billion dollars.

The success stories of the companies that started and raised in the UAE were varied and then they soon embraced the global space, including the company “Karim”, which is one of the successful experiences that demonstrate the ability of the encouraging investment environment in the UAE to make success and turn leading ideas into successful global models.

Magnus Olson, the founding partner of “Karim” company, arrived in the UAE in 2006, and in 2011 the establishment of a company in the form of a comprehensive application that provides transportation services, requesting food, payment and so on.

Olson and his team sought to create a distinguished international level in the UAE and the Gulf region, and the company initiated by granting its employees options for owning its shares, in a move targeting the promotion of ownership culture, and the success of “Karim” reached its climax, when the international company “Uber” acquired it for $ 3.1 billion in 2019, which constituted a milestone in the scene of emerging companies in the region.

One of the stories of success is also the “Dubaiz” company, which was established in the UAE in 2005, and since its inception it has become the first platform for users to buy and sell anything in their community.

In 2020, the Emerants Markets Group Group, which owns the Dubai -based “Bewits” platform, and the “OLX” group that owns the “Dubizzle” platform, announced the merging of their operations in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, to create a billionaire company, its market value reaches 3.6 billion dirhams.

Among the successful companies is the “Yalla Group Limited”, which is the first technology company “Unicorn” that is based in the UAE to be included in the New York Stock Exchange, and is one of the largest social media and electronic games in the Middle East and North Africa region, and it announced last August to achieve revenues during the second quarter of this year that exceeded the 310.7 million dirhams barrier “84.6 million dollars” with a growth rate of 4.1 % The company’s continuous success in achieving its strategic goals and developing its operations reflects.

Also among the leading experiences is the “Kitobi” company operating in the field of cloud kitchens, which was established in Dubai in January 2018, and within a few years it was able to prove its presence and provided the world as a innovation that was launched from Dubai and the UAE, and entered into a partnership with more than 200 restaurants to help expand the scope of its delivery, as it is based on finding a solution to a challenge facing the restaurant and cafes sector, which is the increasing demand for the delivery service for homes, And that is by building partnerships with restaurants, to help them expand their spread, by cooking on their behalf in modern Kitopi kitchens.

The UAE was also able to attract many major companies to its investment environment. In 2025, a number of major companies announced the establishment of new headquarters in the UAE, or the completion of the process of transferring their headquarters, including Paypal.PayPal“Which was opened in April 2025, its regional headquarters in Dubai, to be its first in the Middle East and Africa, to serve more than 80 markets in the region, and the global communication company Fion Company listed in Nasdak at the end of last year that transported its global headquarters to Dubai to become one of the largest international companies that are based in Dubai headquarters, and“ Partners Group ”for international companies operating in the field of private financial investment markets that opened a regional office in it in Abu Dhabi in June 2025, “Bitcoin.com”, which Dubai Center for Multiple Commodities announced that it joined the Crypto Center of the Dubai Multiple Commodities Center, and the American “Fortis Investment Group”, which announced in May 2025 the establishment of an office in Abu Dhabi to enhance its investment activity.

The UAE’s attractiveness is not limited to the newly announced companies.

There is no doubt that this demand from entrepreneurs to invest in the UAE came to what is characterized by the state with an ideal environment for small and medium -sized companies for growth and development in light of its distinctive incentives that it can ultimately enable to expand and achieve sustainable growth, this also supports adopting artificial intelligence and digital tools in innovation and entrepreneurship, which creates new opportunities to accelerate small and medium enterprises, as the UAE has been keen on on The development of many strategies and initiatives concerned with digital tools, and provided technological and digital infrastructure that strengthened its position as a leading global destination for artificial intelligence and innovation.

Added to this is the superior flexibility of economic policies in the country, as well as the advanced infrastructure and legislation supporting investment, which strengthened the confidence of international companies wishing to expand the region.

For decades, the country launched many supportive initiatives for startups and medium companies, most notably the establishment of Dubai Internet City in 1999, to be a free economic zone and a strategic base for technology companies targeting emerging markets, and after more than two decades of growth and development, a starting point for many global “UNCRIN” companies.