The UAE is firmly on the unicorn map. It has been the birthplace of ride-hailing and delivery app Careem, the food & beverage ecosystem Kitopi, and agritech company Pure Harvest. All of them are unicorns – and there are several others as well. But what’s so notable, aside from their obvious success, is that these companies helped shift the narrative around what’s possible in the region.
It’s important, though, not to look back and just celebrate these achievements – it should be about learning from the past and then figuring out how to replicate that success. In other words, rather than just thinking about specific companies, the focus should be on creating the most fertile environment. So how can unicorn thinking become a default setting in the UAE, and what is the nation doing to ensure the next generation of billion-dollar companies are built right here?
So, in this article, I’ll outline the current status of unicorns in the UAE as well as steps to build an even more robust ecosystem for the future. But let’s start with a clearer understanding of what exactly a unicorn is and the current numbers we’re seeing globally and within the UAE.
Defining the unicorn
Defining a unicorn should be fairly straightforward, but it’s become somewhat complicated. The term started with Cowboy Ventures’ founder, Aileen Lee, who created the phrase about US-based companies valued at over $1bn while less than ten years old. At the time of her coining the term, fewer than 40 businesses had fitted the bill.
But as time moved on, the term broadened its meaning. Today, a unicorn can be anywhere in the world, and it’s estimated that there were 1,200 unicorns as of December 2024. The problem is that it’s often difficult to get exact information on the actual timeframe of a startup reaching the magic $1bn valuation. Some well-known companies are reported to have reached unicorn status anywhere between one month and several years, depending on the source.
UAE unicorns
Today, it’s generally agreed that the UAE is home to eleven unicorns, a remarkable feat for a nation of its size. Highlights include Abu Dhabi-based AI powerhouse G42, founded in 2018 and raised over $2.3bn to date; Dubizzle Group, which became a unicorn in 2020 and operates classified portals across emerging markets; and Andalusia Labs, a 2023 entrant to the unicorn club which focuses on digital asset protection.
These are just a few that have hit the $1bn mark. The landscape that allowed these unicorns to emerge didn’t just arrive by chance. As with everything in the UAE, it’s the result of a deliberate national strategy and long-term vision. Over the past two decades, the UAE has built an infrastructure where innovation thrives, led by government initiatives like the UAE Centennial 2071, the Dubai Future Foundation, and the world-famous free zones, which have become such fertile ground for entrepreneurship.
The UAE boasts access to capital, a growing network of accelerators and incubators, and a strong emphasis on talent attraction and retention, all of which have contributed to making the UAE a regional hub and a global launchpad for businesses with unicorn potential.
So, the work put in far from the public and private sectors has brought us this far. The question is how can this be turbo-charged for the future. Can we go from 11 unicorns to double that number? Triple? In 2022, the government targeted the creation of 20 unicorns by 2031 and announced a $272m private equity fund to support UAE startups and SMEs. If this is to be achieved or even surpassed, it will all come down to the ecosystem that enables businesses to grow at speed.
What does it take to build an ecosystem for future UAE unicorns?
Unicorns don’t usually emerge from ordinary business goals. They need founders who think big and outside the box. They also need to be bold and move fast. The UAE encourages and enables this kind of scale-up mindset at every level – and it starts with the government. In many countries, there is a disconnect between startups and policymakers. Still, for the UAE, it is understood that there is a true competitive edge in making innovation a national priority and then backing it up with action. Government authorities regularly engage with founders and co-design frameworks. As the country continues to diversify away from reliance on oil, startups and SMEs – and eventually unicorns – can play a significant role in contributing to the growing non-oil GDP.
This support system for entrepreneurs extends to a range of initiatives, including the SkillUp academy programme to equip Emiratis with the entrepreneurial skills needed to thrive in today’s economy and the StartUp programme, which helps aspiring entrepreneurs both within the UAE and abroad. For established businesses, the ScaleUp programme offers support to fast-growing, high-revenue companies. In addition, UAE-based universities have also become a hotbed of innovation thanks to both local institutions and foreign branches of UK and US-based universities.
There are also several startup support programmes, including incubators such as MBZ Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center, Area 2071, and Hub71, as well as accelerators including GrowValley, FasterCapital, In5, and Startupbootcamp Smart City Dubai.
The free zones also play a critical role in creating an ecosystem where startups can easily grow. They offer flexible company setup, full foreign ownership, a favourable tax regime, and access to global networks. Meanwhile, the UAE’s digital infrastructure, advanced logistics, and government services help remove red tape so founders can move quickly, spend more time on their business, and deal less with admin.
Moving at a startup pace
We’ve already proven that unicorns can be built in the UAE. But to make it more common, we need to continue doubling down on what’s working: enabling access to capital, easing market entry, and strengthening a culture that rewards risk-taking. The UAE’s continued investment in AI, fintech, green tech, and advanced industries and its strong commitment to becoming a global hub for innovation means the possibility of new unicorns is only getting stronger.
The objective should not just focus on individual companies but also continue to create an ecosystem where incredible growth can happen at this pace. In this environment, the chances of more unicorns emerging only increase as the UAE stamps its identity even more firmly on the world business map.
