How the UAE supports startup companies

Ambitious and enterprising people all over the world are being attracted by the entrepreneurship culture in Dubai as well as by its startups ecosystem that was developed both by the government and by the private sector.Set forth below are just a few steps allowing one to call the UAE an international innovations and entrepreneurship center rightfully.

The Scale2Dubai Program

Scale2Dubai is a specialized global entrepreneurship program allowing startup companies and the companies with a proven record of accomplishment to expand their operations to Dubai and gain access to new markets. Currently, the Program is accepting applications. Following the process of evaluation and obtaining a conclusion by the group of experts, closer to the end of Expo-2020 Dubai, the first two groups of the successful candidates will be announced in March 2022. The first group consisting of 80-100 companies will be able to be transferred to its workplace in District 2020 by October 2022.

Hamdan Innovation Incubator (Hi2)

The Hamdan Innovation Incubator (Hi2) shall ensure a complete environment supportive of innovative entrepreneurship projects. Now, HI2 has a portfolio of 600 innovative startup companies and it succeeded in attracting over 200 innovative projects.

An important milestone for the HI2 it Innovation Attraction Program that allows ground breakers from all over the world to test their innovations in specially allotted spot places in Dubai, thus ensuring a direct contact between the local industry and the future business managers who would show the methods of improving the performance and effectiveness.

Business incubators and accelerators

The Dubai SME (representing the Dubai Small and Medium Businesses) has launched the Program for Certifying Business Incubators and Accelerators in Dubai. The Program is intended to regulate the business incubators and accelerators that invest in the forth-generation technologies in an emirate as well as to ensure their provision of the best tools to young entrepreneurs from all over the world to implement their creative projects.

The incubators and accelerators are set up in various commercial districts, free zones and specialized industrial clusters as well as in Dubai schools and universities.

The certified incubators and accelerators will also become a part of the Dubai Business Incubator Network (DBIN) that provides various services and membership packages, holds workshops and training courses. Aside from that, it provides places at optimum prices for joint work to the entrepreneurs in addition to the services that are required by the new projects at various stages of their life cycle.

Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy

The Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy – www.dea.ae – is an educational division of the Dubai Small and Medium Businesses organization that expands the possibilities of entrepreneurs and provides the entrepreneurs and startup companies with the required knowledge and skills to be successful.

The Academy offers academic programs, trainings and workshops on various subjects bearing upon the launch and growth of startup companies, including project management, operations and business development.

Why is it profitable to launch a startup company in the UAE?

• The UAE is a world-renowned technological hub.
• The UAE has especially attractive financial opportunities and a powerful infrastructure, not to mention an extensive government support provided to entrepreneurs.
• According to the Global Innovation Index, the UAE in the Arab world is the environment number one for innovations. An example of the innovations culture are the new research institutes and technical centers established to promote research, creativity and innovation, such as Masdar City in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Science Park in Dubai.
• The UAE offers exceptional encouragement to startup companies. It is amazing that 95% of all enterprises in the UAE are startup companies and SMEs, which fact differentiates the Emirates from other places that are attractive to startup companies.
• The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development that is a non-profit Development Agency helps disseminate the freelance culture encouraging innovations and the establishment of SMEs.
• The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) is implementing a new package of government reforms aiming to encourage the competitive strength and the achievement of a sustainable economic development of Dubai.
• The most important advantages of the UAE to entrepreneurs and investors is a well-developed infrastructure, a robust bank system and a stable political system.
• Security and high standards of the living environment are the important attributes for one to choose setting up a startup company in the UAE.
• The UAE remains a very safe and stable place for living one’s life in. In the recent years, there thave been some efforts made to turn the UAE into a more attractive place for the foreigners to live in.
• A startup company in the UAE enjoys the advantage of there being no taxes to pay.
• State duties have been frozen for the next three years in Dubai.
• The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) is implementing a new package of government reforms that includes proposals for distribution of government tenders to SMEs, the program for supporting the local industry and procurement as well as the encouragement to attract the leading business incubators and accelerators in the world.