Today's Edition
Khaled Al Khawaldeh (Abu Dhabi)
The year 2025 is shaping up to be another stellar year for startups within the Abu Dhabi ecosystem, according to industry insiders speaking at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Business Week on Wednesday.
According to Ahmed Ali AlAwan, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Incubator Hub71 and Vijay Tirathrai, the Managing Director of global venture firm TechStarters, the UAE capital's ecosystem is reaching a stage of maturity as it emerges as a destination for startups globally.
"Abu Dhabi has done very well in the past five years. It has created the infrastructure that allows the market participants to come together; talent will flow down the stream and follow suit," Tirathrai said on Wednesday.
"People actually want to be seen in Abu Dhabi. Five years ago they would register the company in the USA and set up a presence here, today many come to register in ADGM. This is a big change," he added.
Tirathrai believed Abu Dhabi was perfectly placed to fulfil all the major needs of a startup, which included the technology and infrastructure to build platforms, talent attraction as well as access to capital and consumer markets.
According to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network, the emirate's ecosystem value surged by 28% annually, reaching $4.2 billion between July 2021 and December 2023, driven by growing activity at Hub71, Abu Dhabi's global technology hub.
The GSER ranks Abu Dhabi in the 61-70 global group and highlighted significant achievements in early-stage funding ($284 million) and total venture capital funding ($1.06 billion) over recent years. Regionally, Abu Dhabi ranks second in ecosystem performance, fifth in funding, and fifth in talent and experience.
"We see a lot of opportunities in health, fintech is still exciting and even in space, which will open up new opportunities in the coming years," he said.
In the same vein, AlAwan noted that Abu Dhabi is always exploring new ways to capture a competitive advantage.
Hub71 has emerged as the largest startup incubator in Abu Dhabi.
"I believe we have a comparative advantage that Abu Dhabi and a few other places have… which is the ability to get connected to not only the community but also to regulators," he said.
AlAwan added that coupled with initiatives like the golden visa programme, which he believed streamlined talent acquisition, and the UAE's place as an economic hub, the right conditions were being created for startups venturing into the region.
