Dubai: All-in-one platform launched to provide financing, licensing, co-working spaces for startups

Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy on Monday signed partnerships with more public and private sector entities to provide one-stop solutions to startups within and outside the UAE through the new digital platform “Business in Dubai”.

Ahmed Bin Byat, vice-chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, said that the partners are mainly governmental services providers who have specifically designed a suite of services for digital companies, which will not just be cost-effective but more efficient from a time perspective.

The online platform will provide exclusive discounts and offers for banking products, co-working spaces, licensing and cloud services, recruitment and communication services and business incubators and accelerators.

The Chamber announced the plan to launch the platform in June 2023. Initially, it signed partnerships with telecom firm e& (Etisalat), Dubai CommerCity, Telr and Safexpay. The chamber has succeeded in attracting 69 digital start-ups to the emirate during the first half of 2023.

The new partners are Letswork, in5, Dubai World Trade Centre (One Central), du, Mashreq, Dubai Islamic Bank, and the Commercial Bank of Dubai.

Bin Byat said the ‘Business in Dubai’ platform is aligned with the strategic objective of attracting 300 digital start-ups by 2024.

With Dubai aiming to be a hub for digital companies, the new platform will also help meet companies’ requirements such as hosting, broadband services, and desk space among others. This includes companies relocating to Dubai and those who want to transform themselves into digital companies.

While speaking on the sidelines of the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the services providers, he added that companies working in the realm of 20-odd segments such as AI, cyberspace, app development and others, could be part of this platform as part of Dubai’s D33 strategy is really focused on these type companies who are mobile and scale very fast.

He elaborated that partner banks will have dedicated departments to deal with such companies to meet their requirements such as auto loan for loans for their businesses.

“Dubai has been attracting a lot of companies in the last few years and positioning to be a regional hub for these companies. Today, around 15 per cent of companies in Dubai are digital or digital-related companies and we wanted to double this number. Dubai is also becoming very attractive for such talents because this business requires specific types of talent from around the world.”

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