The United Arab Emirates is the Middle East's most active startup hub, with tens of thousands of companies clustered in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In 2026, Abu Dhabi entered the global top 50 startup ecosystems for the first time, valued at $73.4 billion.
UAE founders raised around $2 billion across 218 deals in 2025, the largest share of any market in the region. The strongest sectors are fintech, AI, proptech, e-commerce, Web3, and logistics.
A deep support layer underpins this growth. Abu Dhabi's Hub71, whose startups have raised more than $2.7 billion, sits alongside DIFC FinTech Hive, in5, and startAD, and events like GITEX and Expand North Star connect founders to global capital.
Policy helps too. The Dubai Economic Agenda D33, the Golden Visa, the ADGM framework, and VARA all lower friction for founders. Add sovereign capital from Mubadala and ADQ, talent from more than 200 nationalities, and a location between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the UAE increasingly reads as a primary base rather than an alternative one.
1. Zinit
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Anton Buzdalin, Andrey Chernogorov
Zinit is an AI-native procurement and sourcing platform that automates supplier discovery, RFP creation, and multi round negotiations without complex integrations. Its procurement-as-a-service model connects buyers to a network of more than 100,000 suppliers and can cut sourcing cycle times by up to 80 percent, with early clients including Bacardi India, UFLEX, and United Colors of Benetton.
The company raised an $8 million seed round at a $48 million valuation, led by AltaIR Capital, with participation from DVC. Zinit is investing the funds into more autonomous sourcing capabilities and expansion across India, the United States, and Latin America.
2. WheelsOn
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Nikolay Melnichuk, Adlet Shagirov, Maxim Olivson
WheelsOn is a deposit-free, mobile-first car rental platform that lets residents, businesses, and tourists book vehicles without security deposits, hidden fees, or paperwork. Unlike aggregator apps, it owns and operates its entire fleet, using proprietary technology for transparent pricing, AI driven dynamic pricing, and upcoming features such as digital car keys for contactless pickup.
WheelsOn closed a $12.5 million round that combined $2.2 million in equity from MENA focused investors, including partners of Xploration Capital, $6.5 million for fleet expansion, and $4 million in bank financing, valuing the two year old company at close to $30 million. The capital is going toward growing its fleet, accelerating product development, and expanding from the UAE into other Gulf markets.
3. Huspy
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 200+
Founders: Jad Antoun, Khalid Ashmawy
Huspy is a home-buying platform that gives real estate agents and mortgage brokers the technology, infrastructure, and commissions to close deals faster, while offering buyers seamless access to mortgages and properties. Running a network based model across the UAE and Spain, the company facilitates more than $7 billion in annual transactions and operates the largest mortgage unit in the UAE, handling over a quarter of all residential home financing in Dubai.
Huspy raised a $59 million Series B led by Balderton Capital, with Peak XV and others joining, taking total funding to roughly $96 million. The capital supports expansion across Europe and the Middle East, including new Spanish cities and an entry into Saudi Arabia.
4. Sarwa
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Mark Chahwan, Nadine Mezher, Jad Sayegh
Sarwa is a personal finance and automated investing platform that lets users build customized portfolios, trade stocks and ETFs, access cryptocurrencies, and earn yield on savings, all from a single app. Built for a region that was long told retail investing would not work, the company has grown into one of the UAE's best known homegrown fintechs.
In May 2026, Sarwa reached $1 billion in client assets, a first for a homegrown UAE fintech, around the same time it closed a Series B round. Backers across its roughly $25 million in total funding include Mubadala and 500 Global, and the company continues to expand its product suite and regional footprint.
5. Utexo
Year Founded: 2025
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Chris Hutchinson, Viktor Ihnatiuk
Utexo develops enterprise grade infrastructure that lets financial institutions, digital wallets, and exchanges process USDT stablecoin payments directly on the Bitcoin network. By leaning on layer-2 protocols such as Lightning and RGB, the platform aims to make stablecoin transactions faster, more private, and cheaper for global payment providers.
Utexo closed a $7.5 million seed round led by Tether, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Portal Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, and Fulgur Ventures. The funding is earmarked for expanding its technology and simplifying integration for institutions and payment providers.
6. Revibe
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Hamza Iraqui, Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Revibe is a marketplace for refurbished electronics built around trust and sustainability. Every device sold goes through a 50 point inspection and ships with a one year warranty, and rather than holding stock, the company runs a technology enabled marketplace where approved sellers are continuously scored on quality, positioning refurbished phones and laptops as a credible alternative to new hardware.
Revibe raised $17 million in a round led by Partech, with e& capital, Burda Principal Investments, and EQNX joining, following a $7 million Series A in 2024. With Egypt as its operational engine and Dubai as its hub, the company is accelerating expansion across the Gulf, South Africa, and other emerging markets.
7. Flow48
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Idriss Al Rifai
Flow48 provides revenue-based financing to small and medium enterprises, transforming a business's future revenues and invoices into upfront capital of up to $20 million under flexible terms. Its fully digital platform uses AI driven risk assessment to disburse funds within 24 to 48 hours of onboarding, addressing a segment that traditional lenders often overlook.
The company raised a $69 million Series A combining debt and equity, led by Breega, with 212, Speedinvest, Daphni, Endeavor Catalyst, and Plus VC participating. The round builds on a $25 million pre-Series A from 2023 and supports expansion across the UAE, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
8. PRYPCO
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Amira Sajwani
PRYPCO is a real estate technology platform that brings fractional investment, tokenized property, mortgages, and Golden Visa services into a single app, with entry points as low as AED 500. Through products such as PRYPCO Blocks and the blockchain backed PRYPCO Mint, it aims to make Dubai property ownership and investment accessible to a far broader pool of buyers.
The company has raised $10 million across two rounds, most recently a seed round in September 2025, backed by General Catalyst, Shorooq Partners, and Apparel Group. PRYPCO has expanded quickly through partnerships and new market access, including opening its investment products to residents of additional countries.
9. Alaan
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 200+
Founders: Parthi Duraisamy, Karun Kurien
Alaan is the Middle East's leading AI-powered corporate spend management platform, offering smart corporate cards alongside tools to automate expense tracking, reconciliation, VAT extraction, and supplier payments. The platform integrates with ERP systems such as QuickBooks and NetSuite, serves more than 3,000 customers including G42, Careem, and Lulu Group, and is profitable.
Alaan raised a $48 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners, one of the largest Series A rounds in MENA, with Y Combinator, 468 Capital, and Pioneer Fund participating. The company is using the capital to deepen its AI driven finance suite and expand across the GCC, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
10. Tokinvest
Year Founded: 2024
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Scott Thiel, Matthew Blom
Tokinvest runs a marketplace that turns real world assets into digital tokens, letting investors own fractions of property, commodities, funds, and other traditionally private assets. The company secured the first full multi-asset license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), positioning it at the front of regulated tokenization in the emirate.
Tokinvest raised $3.2 million in a pre-seed round led by Exponential Science alongside Triliv Holdings and other backers, bringing total funding to around $3.7 million. The company has already sold out its first tokenized asset and is building toward a tokenized real world asset market projected to reach into the trillions by 2030.
11. RemotePass
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Kamal Reggad, Karim Nadi
RemotePass is a global employment, payroll, and spend platform that lets companies hire, pay, and support employees and contractors across more than 150 countries without setting up local entities. It combines Employer of Record services, contractor management, and compliance with an embedded fintech layer that gives workers USD accounts, global cards, and health insurance, and its clients include Logitech, Tata Group, Careem, and InDrive.
The company raised a $17.4 million Series B led by EBRD Venture Capital, with 500 Global joining alongside existing investors. RemotePass, which reached profitability in early 2025, will use the funding to expand across Europe and the United States and deepen its AI and compliance capabilities.
12. qeen.ai
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Morteza Ibrahimi, Ahmad Khwileh, Dina Alsamhan
qeen.ai provides agentic AI for e-commerce, building domain expert agents that autonomously handle content creation, marketing, and conversational sales for online merchants. Founded by former Google and DeepMind colleagues, its proprietary technology learns from consumer behavior in real time, and since launch it has served more than 15 million users and generated over one million product descriptions, with clients including 6th Street and Jumia.
The startup raised $10 million in seed funding led by Prosus Ventures, one of the largest seed rounds in the region, with Wamda Capital, 10x Founders, and Dara Holdings also taking part. The round brought total funding to roughly $12 million, which qeen.ai is using to expand its platform and scale its team across the UAE and Jordan.
13. Stake
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Manar Mahmassani, Ricardo Brizido, Rami Tabbara
Stake is a digital real estate investment platform that lets investors buy fractional shares in income generating properties from as little as USD 136, then collect rental income and any appreciation directly to their wallets. The company handles everything from sourcing and acquisition to property management, and has extended its model with StakeOne for full property ownership.
Stake raised an oversubscribed $31 million Series B in February 2026, bringing total funding to roughly $58 million from investors including Middle East Venture Partners and Mubadala. The capital is funding expansion across Saudi Arabia and the United States as the platform broadens access to regional real estate.
14. Yozo.ai
Year Founded: 2025
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 1-50
Founders: Salma AlBarkouky, Abdallah Moheb El-Din, Taha Salah, Hossam Ali, Zeiad Haridy
Yozo.ai builds an AI-native revenue engine for e-commerce merchants. Its AI growth agent autonomously runs retention and conversion marketing across email, WhatsApp, and SMS, helping small and mid sized online stores automate the kind of growth work that usually requires a dedicated team or agency.
The company raised $1.7 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Access Bridge Ventures and Disruptech Ventures, with participation from Arzan VC, Oraseya Capital, Plus VC, and others. Yozo plans to use the capital for product development and to expand beyond the MENA region.
15. Ziina
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Size: 51-200
Founders: Faisal Toukan, Sarah Toukan, Andrew Gold
Ziina is a financial platform for consumers and small businesses that began as a peer-to-peer payments app and grew into a full payments suite, including payment links, a checkout gateway for Shopify and WooCommerce, QR and POS acceptance, and Tap to Pay. It was the first venture backed startup to secure a Stored Value Facility license from the Central Bank of the UAE, and it now serves tens of thousands of customers.
The company raised a $22 million Series A led by Altos Ventures, with Y Combinator, Fintech Collective, Avenir Growth, FJ Labs, and MEVP participating, taking total funding above $30 million. Ziina is using the round to evolve from a payments app into an end to end financial services provider for the region's SMEs.
FAQs
What makes the UAE an attractive location for startups?
The UAE combines a business friendly setup with deep capital, talent, and global connectivity.
- Free zones offer 100 percent foreign ownership and low or zero corporate tax, with company formation in as little as two weeks.
- Long term Golden Visas help founders and teams relocate and settle.
- Sovereign investors such as Mubadala and ADQ, plus a maturing venture capital community, supply active funding.
- Government programs like Hub71 and the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 provide support and incentives.
- A location between Europe, Asia, and Africa lets startups build for regional and global markets from day one.
What are the strongest industry sectors for startups in the UAE?
Fintech leads the ecosystem, followed by proptech, AI, and a widening set of emerging verticals.
- Fintech spans payments, spend management, lending, and wealth technology.
- Proptech is fueled by Dubai's highly active real estate market.
- Artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and healthtech continue to attract strong investment.
- Web3 and digital assets have grown under Dubai's VARA regime and Abu Dhabi's ADGM framework.
- Climate technology and logistics align with national priorities such as Net Zero 2050.
How many startups are there in the UAE?
The UAE is home to tens of thousands of companies, with several thousand classified as actively funded startups.
- Figures vary by source and methodology, but the funded startup base runs into the thousands.
- Activity is overwhelmingly concentrated in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
- Dubai alone is frequently cited as having more than 3,500 active startups.
- Sharjah hosts a smaller but growing deep tech and manufacturing scene.
- Dubai has accounted for the large majority of UAE tech funding in recent quarters.
How fast is the UAE startup industry growing?
The UAE is growing quickly and consistently leads the MENA region in venture funding.
- Startups raised around $2 billion across 218 deals in 2025.
- The country continues to attract the largest share of regional capital into 2026.
- Abu Dhabi entered the global top 50 startup ecosystems for the first time in 2026.
- Growth is driven by international investor interest, sovereign backed initiatives, and an AI driven economic agenda.
- Deal flow can still vary quarter to quarter with global conditions.
