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United Arab Emirates

Asia · Pop. 10.9M · #24 startup ecosystem by EV

A public taster of the full United Arab Emirates ecosystem on Dealroom — request a demo for live deal flow, founder pedigrees, AI-talent maps, and the full cap table for every company below.

🦄 New unicorns by year
5
Annual $1B+ outcomes, unsmoothed
🐎 Cumulative thoroughbreds
12
Company revenue history, 2016-2025
Enterprise value
$76.4B
Actual EV series, 2015-2025

Largest rounds

Largest funding rounds in United Arab Emirates

A live treemap of $100M+ rounds from the Dealroom API. Each cell is one round into a United Arab Emirates-headquartered company, grouped by Dealroom sector.

Largest rounds in United Arab Emirates - 2026

Every $100M+ VC round into United Arab Emirates-headquartered companies in 2026, grouped by Dealroom sector.
- rounds · - raised
Live from Dealroom API Open full VC dashboard

Startup hubs

Inside United Arab Emirates: top 2 startup hubs

Sub-national ecosystems ranked by combined enterprise value, paired with their 5-year growth multiplier.

By enterprise value
1 Dubai $64.4B
2 Abu Dhabi $11B
By 5-yr EV growth
1 Abu Dhabi 81×
2 Dubai 8.8×

Startup funnel

United Arab Emirates's power-law funnel

From the first cheque written to a $10B+ outcome. Each arrow shows what fraction of companies at one stage graduate to the next, tracked by founding cohort.

Pre-Seed
349
Seed
344
Series A
162
Series B
94
Series C
50
Unicorn
21
Decacorn
1

* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.

VC investment

How much venture capital flows into United Arab Emirates

VC investment into United Arab Emirates-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage. Live from the Dealroom Next Gen API.

Notable companies

Top private companies in United Arab Emirates

Up to 20 names per tier from Dealroom's tracked dataset. Decacorns are valued $10B+, unicorns $1B+, thoroughbreds have crossed $100M in revenue.

Decacorns $10B+ valuation 1
noon
Unicorns $1B+ valuation 21
XPANCEODeribitCareemOptasiaYallaVini CosmeticSwvlNetwork InternationalTalabatG42KitopiDubizzle Group5ireAlephAdvanced Digital Gaming TechnologyTelegramProperty FinderSouqBrahma AIAlef Education+1 more
Thoroughbreds+ $100M+ revenue 12
Network InternationalYallaOptasiaG42TalabatTelegramDeribitDubizzle GroupKitopiProperty FinderAlephPaack

Academia

United Arab Emirates's academic flywheel

Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to United Arab Emirates.

University-linked startup formation
37
University spinouts
88
Total alumni-founded companies
69
Of which startups (<$15M raised)
15
Breakouts ($15M-100M)
4
Scaleups ($100M+)

Location comparison

How United Arab Emirates stacks up

Compare United Arab Emirates with similarly sized ecosystems in Asia — switch between combined EV, 5-year EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.

$233B
$179B
United Arab Emirates
$76.4B
$64.8B
$61.3B
$52.6B
$34.3B
$33.9B

Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.

Patent intelligence

United Arab Emirates startup IP portfolio: 890 patent families

Granted patent families assigned to startups headquartered in United Arab Emirates. Aggregated across the country's hub-level filings — Bay Area, Boston, etc. roll up under the United States row, the same way Tokyo and Osaka roll up under Japan.

Granted patent families
890
Filed by tracked startups headquartered in the country.
81.8 patents per million residents · #35 globally
Top patenting hubs
1 Abu Dhabi Region 751
2 Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman Metropolitan Area 139

Premium analytics

What we don't show on this page (yet)

Sector breakdowns, founder origins, AI-talent leaderboards and live deal flow are gated to logged-in Dealroom users. Book a demo to access the full United Arab Emirates dataset — or see a sample on the Dealroom app.

Sector breakdown
Where United Arab Emirates's unicorns concentrate
Fintech
AI / Enterprise SW
Health Tech
Biotech
Cybersecurity
Consumer
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Capital autonomy
United Arab Emirates's domestic vs foreign capital mix
% domestic VC by stage
Cross-border lead investors
Sovereign-fund participation
Foreign-LP exposure
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Recent momentum
United Arab Emirates's VC investment trajectory by stage
2024 vs 2025 by stage
Round-size trends
Stage-conversion deltas
Quarterly velocity
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Founder origins
Where United Arab Emirates's startup founders come from
By country of origin
Per capita
Top universities
Top alumni-factory companies
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AI talent
Top employers of AI talent in United Arab Emirates
Core AI roles
Frontier AI roles
YoY hiring growth
Senior + lead engineers
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Deal flow
Live deal flow & funding rounds in United Arab Emirates
New rounds last 30 days
Stage breakdown
Active investors
Round-size trends
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Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.