Business Extra: What start-ups need to know about coming to the UAE



In 2019, Hub71 invited start-ups to move to Abu Dhabi, promising founders free housing, office space and health insurance for the first year, access to investors and one of the most dynamic and connected regions in the world.

Four years later, Abu Dhabi’s start-up ecosystem is among the fastest-growing in the world, according to a new ranking from Startup Genome.

Amer Aidi, head of marketing and operations at Hub71, joins host Kelsey Warner this week to talk about what founders can expect if they move to the UAE and how the community – and the start-up scene in general – has changed in just four years.

In this episode:

Hosting Sam Altman and creating a community (0m 33s)

Putting Abu Dhabi on the startup map (4m 26s)

Measuring success at Hub71 and the fight for talent (9m 03s)

Navigating the current marketplace and being sector agnostic (13m 56s)

Read more

Silicon Valley remains top place for start-ups but Mena cities on the rise

Funding for start-ups at Abu Dhabi's Hub71 hit $1.22bn at the end of 2022

Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 unveils new ecosystem to support Web3 start-ups

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Updated: June 21, 2023, 7:48 AM

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