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Asia · Country profile

United Arab Emirates

Asia · Pop. 10.9M · #23 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.

$79.1B+60%
Combined startup EV
$3.9B
VC invested (last 12mo)
1,553
Tracked startups
#15/ 67
Unicorns per 1M people · world rank
🦄 Unicorns
21
21 live · +6 new in 2025 (incl. 1 new decacorns)
💎 Decacorns
1
$10B+ tier
🐎 Thoroughbreds
13
Top 1% growth · $500M+

Enterprise value · 2015–2025

United Arab Emirates grew 31.7× since 2015

Combined enterprise value of every tracked startup headquartered in United Arab Emirates that's still operating today — public and private companies combined, totalled by founding-year cohort.

0 $20B $40B $60B $80B United Arab Emirates · $77.7B 2015 2018 2021 2024 2025

Adjacent ecosystems by EV

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 $65.4B
2 Abu Dhabi $12.7B
By 5-yr EV growth
1 Abu Dhabi 94×
2 Dubai

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
347
Seed
339
Series A
161
Series B
92
Series C
50
Unicorn
20
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.

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 20
Deribit5ireNetwork InternationalTelegramVini CosmeticProperty FinderDubizzle GroupG42OptasiaCareemXPANCEOBrahma AISwvlAlephAdvanced Digital Gaming TechnologyTalabatKitopiSouqYallaAndalusia Labs
Thoroughbreds+ $100M+ revenue 12
Network InternationalYallaG42OptasiaTalabatTelegramDeribitDubizzle GroupKitopiProperty FinderPaackAleph

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
89
Total alumni-founded companies
70
Of which startups (<$15M raised)
15
Breakouts ($15M-100M)
4
Scaleups ($100M+)

Vs. similarly-sized ecosystems

How United Arab Emirates stacks up

Peers chosen from the same Asia cluster within ±70% of United Arab Emirates's combined EV. The scatter plots growth × current size for the wider continent — outliers in the upper-right are ecosystems compounding fastest.

Combined enterprise value
$255B
$186B
United Arab Emirates
$79.1B
$64.8B
$59.4B
$55.7B
$34.3B
$33.6B
EV growth (5-yr ×) vs current EV
peer median 9.0× 3.2× 172.9× 342.6× $12.3B $267B $5.8T EV growth (5yr ×) Combined enterprise value (log) China India Israel South Korea Singapore Japan United Arab Emirates

Top overview

Asia ecosystems — combined view

Top ecosystems in Asia ranked by combined EV. United Arab Emirates's row is highlighted.

# Ecosystem Combined EV 5-yr EV growth Unicorns VC invested Tracked startups
1 China $5.8T 3.2× 479 $33.4B 24.5K
2 India $884B 7.1× 125 $13.9B 13.3K
3 Israel $600B 5.6× 128 $10.7B 4,762
4 South Korea $439B 15.6× 41 $8.2B 7,931
5 Singapore $359B 9.6× 38 $3.3B 3,900
6 Japan $255B 6.4× 19 $4.3B 7,794
7 Hong Kong $186B 13.0× 21 $3.6B 1,222
8 United Arab Emirates $79.1B 10.6× 21 $3.9B 1,553
9 Indonesia $64.8B 5.0× 12 $485.3M 1,208
10 Taiwan $59.4B 7.9× 5 $209.1M 621
11 Türkiye $55.7B 20.7× 8 $714.3M 2,031
12 Vietnam $34.3B 15.3× 4 $461.5M 616

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 · #37 globally
Top patenting hubs
1 Abu Dhabi 751
2 Dubai 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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