From developing new combinations for online payments to tackling food security and climate change, Abu Dhabi has become the region’s most fertile hothouse for tech startups.
A new report by San Francisco-based Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network confirms the phenomenon evident in the near-daily product and funding announcements from startups in the UAE capital.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report has identified Abu Dhabi as the fastest growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa region, registering a growth rate of 28% between July 2021 and December 2023.
The Silicon Valley data tracker also profiles key players in Abu Dhabi that are nurturing the startup hotbed, including Mubadala, ADQ, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIO) and startAD, the Abu Dhabi Economic Development Authority.
According to the report, collaboration with sovereign wealth funds and other UAE institutions has enabled startups from around the world to have a soft landing in Abu Dhabi and access to capital and commercial opportunities. As a result, Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 community now includes more than 315 startups, who have raised a total of $1.5 billion.
GSER analyses data from more than 4.5 million companies across more than 300 entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems. Abu Dhabi’s ranking rose 15 places compared to the previous year, based on total early-stage funding of $284 million and total venture capital funding of $1.06 billion from 2019 to 2023.
