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The UAE is not just following the global tech trend, it’s helping shape it. In 2025, UAE startups raised $2 billion across 218 deals, and, in the first quarter alone, tech funding jumped 194% from the previous quarter, reaching $872 million. Today, the country is home to over 52,700 startups and 12 unicorns, ranking 21st globally.
Whether you are an investor looking for the next big idea, a founder measuring your growth, or someone exploring where tech jobs are heading, these are the top tech startups in the UAE you should keep an eye on in 2026.
These companies show how exciting the UAE’s tech scene is right now. You will see everything from renewable energy leaders and blockchain innovators to fintech pioneers and Arabic-language education platforms.
You will also notice several unicorn tech startups in the UAE, to highlight how quickly companies here can scale to global valuations.
We put this list together using data from Failory’s UAE startup database, Tracxn’s funding reports, Wamda’s annual investment numbers, and also with the help of the information straight from the companies themselves.
Masdar, also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is one of the UAE’s leading clean energy companies and one of the fastest-growing renewable energy firms in the world. Since it started in 2006, Masdar has helped drive the energy transition in more than 40 countries. It works on large solar, wind, geothermal, waste-to-energy, and battery storage projects.
The company is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi’s energy group: ADNOC, Mubadala Investment Company, and TAQA. In 2026, Masdar is continuing to grow, signing new power deals in Malaysia, Angola, and other countries. Its scale and global impact make it one of the top tech startups in the UAE in the clean energy space. It plays a key role in helping the UAE reach its Net Zero by 2050 goals.
Tokinvest is a platform that turns real-world assets into digital tokens. This means you can own fractions of property, commodities, racehorses, or investment funds, making it easier for investors around the world to get involved.
This tech startup began in 2024 and quickly made a name for itself by getting the first full multi-asset license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). This puts Tokinvest at the forefront of regulated Web3 investing. In September 2025, the company raised $3.2M in a pre-seed round from Exponential Science, Triliv Holdings, and others. That same month, it sold out its first tokenized racehorse asset.
With tokenized real-world assets expected to reach a $16 trillion market by 2030, Tokinvest is building a platform to make this future accessible to everyone.
Andalusia Labs is a research lab creating what it calls “internet-native economic infrastructure.” In other words, it builds the core tools for the next generation of open digital economies. The company started as RiskHarbor but shifted its focus to become a leader in risk management for digital assets. Its products include Karak, a Layer 2 blockchain, Subsea, a risk marketplace, and Watchtower, an institutional security platform.
In December 2023, this tech startup raised $48M in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Just ten months later, it reached a $1 billion valuation, becoming one of the fastest unicorns ever.
Its innovation and fast growth make it one of the best tech startups in the United Arab Emirates, setting a standard for others in the blockchain and fintech space. Its base in Abu Dhabi Global Market shows that Abu Dhabi is becoming a key hub for the global Web3 economy.
PRYPCO Since then, PRYPCO has helped facilitate over $2.73 billion in mortgages and introduced tokenized real estate through PRYPCO Blocks and PRYPCO Mint. In September 2025, General Catalyst led its Pre-Series A funding, marking the firm’s first PropTech investment in the Middle East. PRYPCO also became the first platform worldwide to partner with the Dubai Land Department to tokenize real property title deeds.
Qashio is one of the best Dubai-based fintech startups that helps companies manage spending. It allows businesses to control expenses, issue corporate cards, and automate financial workflows across countries. Founded in 2021 by Armin Moradi and Jonathan Lau, Qashio now operates in 22 countries. The company has seen over 800% revenue growth year after year for three years and reached profitability with $1.2M+ in earnings in Q1 2025.
One thing that sets Qashio apart is its B2B loyalty program, the largest in the MENA region. Businesses can earn airline miles and hotel points from partners like Emirates, Air France, KLM, and Jumeirah One. Take into consideration that rewards are not usually available with standard corporate cards. In May 2025, Qashio raised $19.8M in a funding round led by Rocketship VC.
Vista Global is a Dubai-based business aviation group that is changing how people access private jets. The company uses a tech-driven, asset-light model to make flying easier and more flexible. Its portfolio includes VistaJet, which offers guaranteed global flight coverage, XO, the largest on-demand private aviation marketplace, and its own aviation technology solutions.
In March 2025, Vista Global raised $600M in a private equity round led by RRJ Capital. This was the largest single UAE tech funding round in Q1 2025 and shows the company’s plans to keep expanding worldwide. Vista’s goal is to make business aviation more accessible, efficient, and technology-enabled than any other provider.
Qureos is another leading Dubai-based tech startup that uses AI to help people grow their careers. Its goal is to accelerate 100 million careers by connecting talent with mentors, real projects, and job opportunities. The company started in 2021, founded by Alexander Epure, Mehrad Yaghmai, and Usama Nini. It began as a mentorship platform and later expanded into a full AI-powered recruitment suite.
Qureos’s AI tool, Iris, works like an automated hiring assistant. It posts jobs, finds candidates, screens them, and reaches out, helping companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia hire faster and at lower cost. In February 2026, Qureos raised $5M in a Seed round from Salica Investments, Oraseya Capital, and Sunny Side Venture Partners.
Astra Tech is one of the UAE’s most ambitious consumer tech startups. It is best known for BOTIM, the region’s first “Ultra App” that brings together voice and video calls, messaging, payments, shopping, home services, government services, and financial products all in one app.
Since its launch in 2022, Astra Tech has grown to over 150 million users across 155 countries, with 25 million monthly active users. In December 2024, its lending branch, Quantix, secured $500M in asset-backed financing from Citi, the largest ever for a UAE fintech. This came after it received a Finance Company License from the UAE Central Bank in July 2024. Astra Tech’s super app approach makes it easy to serve the UAE’s large expat population and the MENA region’s underbanked communities.
Dataiku is a global enterprise AI platform that helps organizations build, manage, and use AI across their entire business. From analytics to deploying models to running autonomous AI agents, Dataiku gives companies the tools they need to make AI work at scale.
The tech startup started in Paris in 2013 and now has its global headquarters in New York, with an active office in Dubai serving the MENA region. Dataiku works with over 700 enterprise customers worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies and major UAE firms. With $1.04B in funding and a $3.7B valuation, it is one of the best-funded enterprise AI companies globally. In 2025, it earned the AWS Agentic AI Specialization, one of the first companies in the world to do so, showing its leadership in enterprise AI.
Almentor is a UAE-based e-learning platform focused on Arabic-language content for professional growth and self-improvement. It aims to serve over 400 million Arabic speakers worldwide who have had limited access to high-quality online learning.
The platform launched in 2016 and went live in January 2018. Since then, Almentor has built the largest Arabic continuous learning video library in the world, offering over 1,000 courses from more than 950 mentors.
These courses are available through both B2C subscriptions and B2B corporate packages. In March 2023, the company raised $10M in a Pre-Series C round led by e&capital, the VC arm of Emirates Telecom Group. Almentor has also partnered with major institutions like CIB Egypt (in collaboration with Visa) and HBMSU.
To make our list of the 10 best UAE tech startups, we did not just pick companies that raised the most money. Instead, we looked at startups that are building real technology to solve real problems. For us, innovation only matters if it has a clear impact in the real world.
We also looked at recent funding activity. We gave more weight to companies that raised strong rounds in 2025 or 2026, since this shows current investor confidence, not just past success. At the same time, we considered how fast these companies are growing. This includes things like user growth, revenue, expansion into new markets, and how quickly their teams are scaling.
Every company on this list is either based in the UAE or has a strong presence in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. We also made sure to include startups from different industries. You will see a mix of CleanTech, fintech, PropTech, Web3, EdTech, AI, HRTech, and aviation. This reflects how diverse and active the UAE’s tech scene really is.
Finally, we paid extra attention to companies with global plans. Many UAE startups are not just building for one market. They are growing across borders from day one, and that matters. This is what makes many of the best tech startups in the United Arab Emirates stand out on a global level.
We used data from sources like Failory, Tracxn, Wamda, PitchBook, and official company updates to put this list together.
Hiring fast is one of the biggest challenges for growing startups. A funding round closes, plans speed up, and suddenly you need key hires right away. The problem is that traditional hiring takes months, which does not match the pace of today’s UAE tech scene.
Given the current geopolitical tensions between Iran and the USA, the impact on the UAE and its neighboring regions is becoming more noticeable. Businesses in the region are facing uncertainty, making it harder to rely solely on local talent or operations.
In this environment, companies in the UAE can benefit from looking beyond the region. Armenia, which is close to the Middle East, has become an attractive option. Whether you need developers, engineers, or a full tech team, hiring from Armenia through staff augmentation or tech recruitment can help you scale without delays. The country has a stable geopolitical environment, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to expand quickly, even when surrounding regions are unstable.
If you need to scale your team quickly, consider our IT staff augmentation services. We can help you bring in experienced developers and full teams and have them working on your project within 1 to 2 weeks. It is a simple way to build a team fast without slowing things down.
On the other hand, if you are looking to hire full-time employees, we can support that too. Our tech recruitment services help you find the right people quickly, without long or complicated hiring processes. Whether you’re hiring locally or considering talent from Armenia, we’re here to help you grow your team in the most efficient way.
The key is choosing the approach that matches your timeline and hiring goals. If you need to hire fast, get in touch with us, and let’s build your team without delays.
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Hamlet Mirzoyan
Tech & iGaming Recruitment Expert, CEO of SaviorHire
Hamlet Mirzoyan
Tech & iGaming Recruitment Expert, CEO of SaviorHire
Hamlet Mirzoyan helps companies in the tech industry build strong and high-performing teams. With over a decade of experience in technical recruitment, he shares insights on hiring trends, talent strategies, and industry updates through the SaviorHire blog.
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