The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) and the National Agriculture Center have concluded Agriboost 2026 – a comprehensive training and hands-on program to empower agritech startups, develop innovative solutions to support the sustainability of agriculture, and reinforce food security ecosystems in the UAE.

The closing ceremony took place as part of the Emirates Agriculture Conference & Exhibition 2026, organised by the National Agriculture Center, and featured live demonstrations in which the five winning startups presented their business models and technological solutions. The event was attended by H.E. Eng. Amal Abdulrahim, Assistant Undersecretary for the Support Services Sector at the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), H.E. Sultan Al Shamsi, Director of the National Agriculture Center, and H.E. Sara Abdelaziz Al Nuaimi, CEO of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa).

H.E. Sultan Al Shamsi, Director of National Agriculture Center said: “Agricultural entrepreneurship is our goal, and the Agriboost program received more than 100 applications. Following a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation process, a distinguished group rose to the top, presenting practical and innovative solutions that are scalable and applicable, and that directly contribute to advancing the agricultural sector and enabling its sustainable future. This comes in line with the National Agriculture Center’s commitment to adopting smart solutions and raising awareness, as it continues to support startups across diverse fields and create broader opportunities for innovation and growth.”

H.E Sara Abdelaziz Al Nuaimi, CEO of Sheraa: “Agriculture sits at the heart of how nations plan for the future, shaped by priorities such as sustainability, food security, and economic resilience, and enabled by the effective use of technology. Through Agriboost, we saw five startups apply this in practice, developing solutions tailored to the UAE’s environment and long-term needs. This reflects the kind of innovation Sheraa is committed to enabling: ideas that move with clarity from concept into application, contributing to a more resilient agricultural sector.”

During the Demo Day pitches, CropGuard presented its integrated approach to protecting high-value crops through soil sensing, smart precision irrigation, and an adaptive shading system, a unified platform purpose-built for harsh, arid climates where precision directly determines crop survival and profitability. Hareth demonstrated how intelligent, IoT-driven solutions can address the UAE’s water scarcity challenges in agriculture by optimizing irrigation, reducing resource waste, combating soil salinity, and enabling farmers to make data-driven decisions that improve yields while supporting national food security goals. Agrotunes introduced its AI-powered platform for intelligent farming within the built environment, integrating crop planning, environmental control, and harvest forecasting, while connecting farms to buyers, consumers, and new revenue streams through its community layer.

INNOFarms.AI showcased its enterprise AI and robotics platform that connects farms, supply chains, and food enterprises through a unified intelligence layer, delivering real-time traceability, supply risk visibility, and farm automation across the agrifood system, including through a chat-based interface for on-the-ground decision-making. Madiya Farms presented its vertically integrated platform combining standardized greenhouse infrastructure, AI-driven farm management, and an integrated supply chain, positioning itself as a national operating system for scalable, investment-accessible food production in the UAE.

Madiya Farms secured first place in the pitch ranking, followed by Hareth in second, CropGuard in third, Agrotunes in fourth, and InnoFarms.ai in fifth. The rankings reflected the overall strength and progression of the cohort.

The rankings were announced during the Agriboost Demo Day, where founders pitched their startups to a curated judging panel, including Abeer Al Ameeri, Director of Ecosystem Development at Sheraa; Kamal Rasool, Chief Technology Officer at RDI; and H.E. Hamad Al Hamed, CEO of Gracia, in the presence of investors, partners, and sector stakeholders. The session captured the evolution of each startup, highlighting the strength of their solutions and their readiness to engage with real market opportunities, supported by ongoing mentorship and strategic guidance throughout the program.

Agriboost represents an intensive, application-driven program delivered over six weeks, beginning with a foundational bootcamp focused on agile methodologies and product development, followed by a hands-on incubation phase where startups refined their strategies, tested their solutions in real market environments, and engaged directly with customers. This journey culminated in the Demo Day, reflecting the program’s outcomes and its ability to translate ideas into viable, real-world solutions.

Through its programmes and initiatives, the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) continues to build an integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports the growth of startups across priority sectors, with a particular focus on productive industries such as agriculture. This approach contributes to transforming innovation into sustainable economic value and strengthening the long-term competitiveness of the national economy.

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Udora, the global gifting marketplace formerly known as Flowwow, has closed a $10 million private round and relaunched under a new brand. The round will go toward market expansion, with the Saudi Arabia launch scheduled for Q3 2026, including product catalogue expansion, deep localisation, technology, and AI-powered personalisation.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Dubai, the platform connects customers with local florists, confectioners, and artisan makers across 50+ markets and 1,500+ cities. With a 6% share of the UAE online gifting market and $3.32 million in GMV in 2025 alone, the platform is ready to take the same model across the GCC. The raise and rebranding are part of the same move to accelerate the platform’s global rollout while going deeper into each local market it serves.

The model scales across the country, reaching sellers in big cities, smaller ones, and regional markets. In the UAE alone, the seller network grew 66.5% in 2025, and all orders on the platform are fulfilled exclusively by local SMEs.

The platform gives SMEs the digital infrastructure to reach customers online that they couldn’t access on their own. Udora handles orders, marketing tools, and access to a paying, repeat audience through a single, tech-ready platform, without the overhead of building it in-house.

The company sees this as both a business model and a contribution to the GCC’s broader push to bring independent local businesses into the digital economy. This aligns directly with the UAE government’s strategy to grow the digital economy’s share of GDP to 19.4% by 2031, with SME digitalisation as one of its key drivers.

“More than a decade ago, we started with a simple idea: help people reach their loved ones, no matter the distance. That idea grew into 50+ markets without borders. Now we’re ready to go deeper, to build the end-to-end gifting experience – to do for gifting what Airbnb did for hospitality. But in the GCC, where gifting carries real cultural weight, technology is only part of the story. The real value has always been in local hands: florists, confectioners, artisans, and creators who care and know their communities – that’s where our mission hasn’t changed. Udora will help people across the region stay close and express care through meaningful gestures as long as people love each other,” said Slava Bogdan, CEO & Founder of Udora.

As general marketplaces scale, niche platforms with category depth are capturing their segments, driven by demand for local knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and same-day delivery. Udora has been building these since 2014, and the platform’s current scale reflects this: 150,000+ products across 25+ categories, with verified seller networks in every market it operates in.

Udora tailors its product assortment to local tastes, cultural context, and price expectations in each market it enters. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, this means expanding the premium segment with high-demand, high-AOV categories: perfumes, premium chocolate, and confectionery, alongside curated gift bundles suited to the region’s gifting occasions.

The company is building toward one thing: a complete gifting experience tailored to local demand and occasion. The platform already offers personalised recommendations, AI-assisted gift discovery, and automated customer support.

The roadmap includes gift subscriptions, wishlists, and deeper personalisation tools, including a product catalogue tailored to each customer’s browsing and purchase history. Corporate gifting tools round out the updated feature set for business buyers.

Last year, Udora processed orders up to 123% YoY, with gross merchandise value reaching $9.84 million (+129%) globally. In the UAE, the platform’s most established market, GMV reached $3.32 million (+95%), driven by 41,500 orders (+89%). The UAE seller network expanded to 398 active shops, with 61.3% of orders placed by returning customers. While customer satisfaction held at 92.4% positive reviews, well above the 80-85% benchmark for e-commerce platforms.

With the relaunch and new investment in place, Udora projects 100% growth across active markets in 2026. This puts the company’s growth rate at roughly twice the projected pace of the UAE online gifting market, which is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.9% through 2029.

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The Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SPARK) set in motion a unique initiative that seeks to boost the empowerment of Emirati talent and enhance their role in driving innovation and shaping the future.

The initiative was implemented through an interactive encounter between SPARK’s leadership and a group of young Emirati employees drawn from various departments, as part of an institutional approach to fostering a culture of dialogue and openness, and strengthening direct communication channels with the Emirati workforce.

The move is designed to support a stimulating work environment that nurtures creativity and invests in young talent, in line with the United Arab Emirates’ directives to advance Emiratization and build a competitive knowledge-based economy.

During the meeting, Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of the SRTI Park, had a face-to-face interaction with Emirati employees, listening to their ideas and aspirations, and reviewing their professional experiences as well as their proposals aimed at enhancing the work environment and strengthening the innovation ecosystem within SPARK.

The meeting also featured a series of presentations by Emirati employees from various departments, highlighting current workflows, future plans, and development visions grounded in innovative ideas and creative proposals. These presentations offered suggestions to enhance institutional performance and strengthen integration across departments, reflecting high levels of competency and drive among the Emirati employees.

Al Mahmoudi emphasized that empowering Emirati talent remained a key priority of SPARK, noting that the next phase requires greater engagement of youth in decision-making, as well as providing a supportive environment that would enable them to transform their ideas into practical initiatives.

He added that the Park is doubling down on its efforts to attract and nurture Emirati talent through training and professional development opportunities, and by involving them in innovation and research projects, enhancing their readiness to lead future sectors.

The meeting witnessed open discussions that reflected positive engagement from participants, who presented ideas and perspectives on developing the work ecosystem, reaffirming their commitment to contributing effectively to SPARK’s objectives and translating its strategic vision into tangible outcomes.

SPARK’s new initiative aligns with the vision adopted by the Emirate of Sharjah and the United Arab Emirates in general to place people at the heart of development strategies and underlines a commitment to empowering youth as a national imperative for sustainable growth. It also embodies SPARK’s integrated approach to supporting Emiratization by engaging Emirati talent in dialogue and decision-making, and by fostering an enabling environment for creativity—strengthening their role as key partners in building a knowledge- and innovation-driven future, capable of taking responsibility and leading the next phase.

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Athar+, Abu Dhabi’s first purpose-driven hub dedicated to accelerating social impact, announced 15 social enterprises as the winners of the ‘Impact Makers Challenge | AED 1 Million Grant’. The initiative, held as part of the Abu Dhabi Global Entrepreneurship Festival 2026, aims to accelerate the growth of social enterprises and high-impact ventures, reinforcing Athar+ ’s commitment to fostering an inclusive and impact-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The announcement took place during the Abu Dhabi Global Entrepreneurship Festival 2026, a flagship platform that brought together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and innovators from around the world to explore opportunities for collaboration and sustainable growth.

The initiative was designed to identify and support ventures that are addressing pressing social priorities through innovative, scalable solutions. Through this initiative, participants went through a pitching stage for shortlisted participants following evaluation rounds led by Athar+, an initiative of the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma’an, and supported by Majra – the National CSR Fund.

In collaboration with the Emirates Youth Council for Entrepreneurship, this initiative was organised to empower youth social entrepreneurs, enable them to benefit from shared experiences, inspire the next generation, and strengthen the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

His Excellency Salem AlShamsi, Executive Director of Social Incubation and Contracting at the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma’an, said, “We believe that the growth of social enterprises is key to driving community development. Through Athar+, we are enabling purpose-driven entrepreneurs to scale solutions that directly addresses community priorities and aligned with Abu Dhabi’s social priorities. By providing tools and initiatives such as this grant, we are ensuring that innovation has a tangible, lasting impact on the community of Abu Dhabi.”

The winners were evaluated and selected based on criteria including innovation, scalability, sustainability, and measurable social impact.

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CNTXT AI today announced the launch of Munsit Emirati TTS, a text-to-speech model designed to generate real-time, human-like Emirati Arabic for enterprise and consumer applications. The release comes as voice technology continues to evolve rapidly worldwide, with recent launches from companies such as Google, OpenAI, and ElevenLabs pushing improvements in how AI generated speech sounds and performs. Yet despite this progress, many systems still struggle to reflect how language is actually spoken across regions.

Munsit Emirati TTS is built to address that gap. It enables systems to respond in spoken Emirati Arabic instantly, with a level of fluency and tone that feels natural to the listener. Whether it is a customer calling a bank, interacting with a government service, or speaking to a digital assistant, the experience is designed to feel closer to a real conversation than a scripted response.

At its core, the technology allows machines to convert written information into natural speech in real time. In practical terms, this enables digital platforms, call centers, and AI assistants to communicate directly with users, respond to requests, and guide interactions without requiring a human agent.

The model is designed with enterprise use in mind, allowing organizations to integrate voice capabilities into their operations. This includes sectors such as banking, government services, telecom, and digital platforms, where large volumes of voice interactions need to be handled efficiently and consistently.

In practical terms, this allows banks to automate customer calls while maintaining clarity and compliance, government entities to communicate with citizens at scale, and customer support teams to handle higher volumes of interactions without increasing operational overhead.

In blind testing with Emirati and Arabic-speaking listeners, 93 per cent of participants preferred Munsit Emirati over leading global models in naturalness, emotional expression, and dialect fidelity, placing it among the most advanced Arabic voice systems available today.

Beyond user experience, the impact is also operational. Organizations deploying AI driven voice systems have reported cost reductions of up to 20 to 40 percent, alongside improvements in response times and service efficiency, particularly in high volume environments such as contact centers.

The launch reflects a broader shift across the UAE and the wider region, where organizations are moving away from English-first or neutral voice systems toward solutions that better reflect local identity. For years, many voice-based services relied on imported models, creating a gap precisely where communication matters most. Native Emirati voice AI begins to close that gap, allowing institutions to speak to people in a way that feels more familiar and aligned with the communities they serve.

“Voice is no longer just an interface, it is becoming part of how services express identity,” said Mohammad Abu Sheikh, Founder and CEO of CNTXT AI. “For a long time, the region relied on systems that did not fully reflect how people communicate. This changes that. We are building technology that speaks the language the way it is actually used, and that has a direct impact on trust, engagement, and how services are experienced.”

“Most voice systems were never designed for Arabic, and certainly not for Emirati,” said Shameed Sait, AI Director at CNTXT AI. “What we have built goes beyond generating speech. It reflects how people actually speak, the rhythm, the tone, and the cultural context behind it. The real breakthrough is making that work reliably in real-world environments and at scale.”

As voice becomes a more central interface across customer service, digital platforms, and public services, expectations are shifting. Performance alone is no longer enough. How technology sounds, and how it is experienced, is becoming just as important.

With Munsit Emirati TTS, CNTXT AI is contributing to this shift, enabling organizations to move beyond generic voice systems and deliver experiences that are both efficient and relevant to the markets they serve.

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Falcons of Majlis, the UAE’s first trust-led startup investment platform produced by NKN Media and mentored by Bollywood icon and entrepreneur Suneil Shetty, today announces its four principal investors. These are leaders who are actively shaping and strengthening the UAE’s startup ecosystem at a critical global moment.

With over 5,600 startups operating across the UAE, the nation continues to strengthen its position as a global hub for innovation despite geopolitical shifts. With strategic growth, strong investor confidence, and a future-focused vision, the UAE continues to lead as a destination for opportunities, stability, long-term progress and investor confidence worldwide, holding UAE’s response clear and moving ahead. Platforms like Falcons of Majlis are not just reflecting this growth. They are accelerating it.

This is not the UAE reacting to global uncertainty. This is the UAE leading through it.

THE INVESTORS

Maqsood Mohammed
Founder and Chairman
AFM Holding
A self-made entrepreneur with ventures spanning AI, energy, e-commerce, and media, Mr. Maqsood backs today’s founders by creating the same open doors that once defined his own journey.

“I started with nothing and built everything through resilience and the right people. The UAE gave me that stage. Falcons of Majlis gives today’s founders what no one gave me: the open door. Never give up isn’t a slogan. It’s how this country was built.”

Dr. Dhiraj Kantilal Jain
Founder and Chairman
1XL Holdings
A venture studio leader on a mission to scale 100+ businesses, Dr. Jain brings a systems-driven approach to transforming UAE startup ideas into structured, scalable enterprises.

“Build with intent, not for attention. The UAE doesn’t celebrate noise; it rewards foundations. Falcons of Majlis is the first platform I’ve seen that filters for exactly that.”

Rakesh Mirchandani
Co-Founder and CEO, RNR International Real Estate | Co-Founder and Managing Partner
RRS International Development

With billions in transactions and a global investor network, Rakesh connects startups to capital and positions the UAE as a launchpad for founders looking to scale beyond borders.

Sanjay Dhawan
Founder and CEO, Habitat Real Estate | Co-Founder and Managing Partner
RRS International Development

With over three decades of experience across global markets, Sanjay brings strategic depth and execution strength, backing ventures that convert opportunity into lasting value.

“Dubai doesn’t wait for clarity; it creates it. This city has always turned uncertainty into advantage, and the founders coming through Falcons of Majlis are the next proof of that.”

Rakesh and Sanjay share a common belief:
“We strongly believe the UAE is a land of opportunity where dreams transform into reality, inspired by visionary leadership that continues to shape its growth.”

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Following a highly competitive national final in Dubai, Dev Bhoda and Joshua Koshy have been selected to represent the UAE at the Red Bull Basement World Final in San Francisco, standing out among some of the emirate’s most promising young innovators.

When the Red Bull Basement programme invited students and first-time founders from across the UAE to submit their next-generation ideas in this renowned annual competition, hundreds of teams responded, reflecting the country’s rapidly growing reputation as a global hub for innovation, entrepreneurship and AI-driven technologies. After a rigorous selection process, the top 8 finalists were invited to present their concepts at a live national final in The Gate DIFC, where innovation took centre stage in a truly unique format.

Fierce Competition
Hundreds of submissions were narrowed down to a select group of standout finalists, each presenting innovative solutions to real-world challenges, from AI-powered platforms to sustainability-driven technologies. Every entry showcased the depth of talent and entrepreneurial ambition emerging across the UAE.

UAE Finalists 2026

• SightSpec AI (Karim Rashad): Utilizes Vision Language Models (VLMs) to automate visual defect detection within software requirement specifications for autonomous vehicles.
• AeroAqua Dynamics (Ahmed Mohamed): Features an AI-driven kinetic building facade that significantly reduces cooling costs while simultaneously harvesting fresh water from atmospheric humidity.
• Oasis (Stanislav Merkulov): An AI-powered agricultural system designed to enable sustainable food production in desert environments by optimizing irrigation and plant survival rates.
• Pulse AI (Ghaeth Mousto): A comprehensive AI platform for construction operations that automates document workflows and analyzes tenders to improve transparency throughout the project lifecycle.
• SVPIENS (Charis Jain): A wearable EMG-based performance system that tracks real-time muscle activation to help athletes optimize their training and prevent injuries.
• AXON (Astha Chauhan): Combines Quantum-inspired orchestration with upcycled energy storage to reduce AI operational costs by 40% and carbon emissions by 90%.
• Vantage Vision Halo (Dev Bhodia and Jushua Koshy): An assistive-navigation headband that utilizes spatial awareness and obstacle detection to help visually impaired users navigate complex environments independently.
• SpeakForge (Mariam Mahmoud): An AI-powered speaking trainer that provides real-time feedback on clarity, structure, and confidence to help users improve their presentation skills in a single session.

After careful deliberation, the national judging panel selected Dev Bhodia and Jushua Koshy for their idea, Vantage Vision Halo, recognising its innovation, scalability and potential real-world impact.

Bhodia and Koshy said, “We’re honestly overwhelmed – coming through from a simple university idea to winning Red Bull Basement UAE feels surreal, but also like real validation that our product can make a difference in today’s market. The mentorship, being selected from hundreds of applicants, and meeting so many inspiring people who shared their journeys has helped us sharpen our vision and believe even more in what we’re building. To other young entrepreneurs, if you have an idea you truly believe in, put it out there and apply – you never know where it might take you. Now we’re focused on learning even more, making the most of the support around us, and representing the UAE proudly on the global stage.”

This year’s judging panel included leading voices from across the UAE’s innovation, investment and technology ecosystem, including:

• Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni – CEO of AI at DET
• Ahmad Al Room Almheiri – CEO of SME at DET
• Mohammed Alblooshi – CEO of DIFC Innovation Hub
• Zaid Ghattas – General Manager METAP at AMD

Next stop: the world final in the USA
The UAE winners will now enter the global Development Phase, gaining access to advanced tools and resources from programme partners including Microsoft and AMD, alongside mentorship and a global network of innovators, to refine their idea into a functional product.

They will go on to represent the UAE at the Red Bull Basement World Final in the USA, joining teams from over 40 countries in an immersive global experience where they will present their ideas to an international panel of judges, investors and industry leaders.

Red Bull Basement, in collaboration with global partners Microsoft, AMD and Red Bull Ventures, and supported locally by DET, MONIIFY and DIFC Innovation Hub continues to provide a platform for the next generation of innovators, equipping them with the skills, exposure and support needed to build the businesses of tomorrow.

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DeepMinds, a leading Deeptech venture Builder, has officially launched DeepX, the first DeepTech Venture Building Summit in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), aimed at accelerating the transformation of homegrown advanced technologies into real economic value.

The inaugural DeepX Summit was held on April 25–26, 2026, at the Cultural Center of the Great Mosque in Algiers. Algeria is rapidly expanding its technology R&D and advanced technology sectors to diversify its economy. The country’s more than 150 research institutions coupled with its large technology talent pool make it an ideal environment for researchers, entrepreneurs and companies developing DeepTech.

The first edition of DeepX was organized under the patronage of:

• The Ministry of Startups and Micro Enterprises and Knowledge Economy
• The Ministry of Health
• The Ministry of Pharmaceutical Industry
• The Ministry of Vocational Education and Training

The launch was officially announced by Dr. Abdenour Haddou, Managing Partner and Chief AI Officer at DeepMinds, who emphasized the importance of moving beyond research into structured execution.

DeepX brings together top-tier scientists, AI experts, industry leaders, and venture builders to collaboratively transform scientific advancements into viable, scalable ventures aligned with real-world needs.

At the core of DeepX are five strategic clusters:

• Food Security
• Healthcare
• Cybersecurity
• Logistics & Smart Cities
• FinTech

Each cluster operates as a continuous engine of innovation, working beyond the summit to identify opportunities, develop strategic roadmaps, and drive venture creation in alignment with industry and national priorities.

The first edition of DeepX has attracted strong international participation, bringing together deep tech experts from the United States, Europe, Asia, and across Africa, alongside policymakers, researchers, founders, and investors.

This structured approach enables DeepX to contribute directly to technology transfer and localization, while strengthening the region’s ability to build and scale its own technological capabilities over time.

“DeepX reflects our commitment to transforming deep technology into tangible economic value through structured venture creation,” said Dr. Abdenour Haddou. “It is about building ventures that are viable, scalable, and impactful for our economies and societies.”

Amine Staali, Managing Partner and CEO of DeepMinds, added: “DeepX reflects our vision to position deep technology at the core of economic development. By connecting science, industry, and venture building, we are creating a platform that enables the emergence of impactful ventures and long-term technological capabilities for the region and beyond.”

A key outcome of the summit is the development of the Deep Tech Opportunities Map, identifying high-potential intersections between emerging technologies and industry needs. This serves as a strategic blueprint for venture creation, investment direction, and ecosystem collaboration.

During the summit, and as part of its execution roadmap, DeepMinds has also initiated strategic partnerships with key industry players, including SAIDAL, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturing group, and CAAT, a major national insurance company, supporting the development and deployment of ventures within priority sectors.

Positioned as an annual summit, DeepX will continue to expand its footprint, with the next edition announced for December 2026 in Djanet, southern Algeria. The upcoming edition will further strengthen the connection between deep technology, environment, and reflection, drawing inspiration from the unique landscape of the Tassili n’Ajjer region.

With its launch, DeepX sets the foundation for a new approach to deep technology, one that focuses on venture creation, economic viability, and long-term capability building, positioning the region as an active contributor to global innovation.

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Dubai Chambers recently hosted a legal workshop in partnership with Habib Al Mulla and Partners to address the vital issue of force majeure in UAE-governed contracts. The session, which attracted 375 participants from the business community, provided practical guidance on how to read, negotiate, and apply these crucial clauses to build resilience and manage risk effectively.

Held under the title ‘Force Majeure and Contractual Risk: Navigating Contract Obligations Under UAE Laws’, the workshop provided insights on how to correctly interpret and negotiate force majeure clauses, the legal consequences of invoking the doctrine incorrectly, and how recent amendments to the UAE Civil Transactions Law are reshaping the risk landscape for businesses across the emirates.

H.E. Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers, commented: “In an increasingly complex global environment, legal clarity is fundamental to business resilience. Our goal is to empower businesses with the strategic legal knowledge required to navigate uncertainty, manage risk effectively, and thrive amid evolving market conditions. By partnering with leading legal experts, we are proactively helping companies make informed decisions and build more robust contracts that enhance their long-term sustainability and competitive edge.”

Dr. Habib Al Mulla, Founder of Habib Al Mulla and Partners, stated: “Understanding when the law intervenes to rebalance contractual obligations, and when it does not, is critical to managing risk in the UAE. We see this distinction play out regularly in practice, where outcomes often turn on how clearly contracts are drafted and how well their risk allocation reflects the legal framework. A more informed approach in these areas helps businesses make better decisions, particularly in moments of uncertainty.”

Drawing on frontline experience in UAE commercial litigation and contract advisory, the discussions provided valuable guidance on successfully navigating one of the key practical issues in today’s business environment. The workshop highlighted that clearly drafted force majeure clauses are essential in reducing ambiguity, minimising potential disputes, and providing a predictable legal framework for business continuity.

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Comfi today announced it has raised $65 million in a Pre-Series A funding round consisting of both equity and debt. The equity round was led by Iliad Partners and joined by Yango Ventures and Raw Ventures, both making their first investment in the region. The round includes a credit facility from Partners for Growth and a mezzanine facility structured by Shorooq, with participation from a notable family office.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in the UAE, Comfi was established by Sanjar Samiev, Alisher Akbarov, Amal Abdullaev, and Denis Gavrilin, a founding team with experience spanning fintech product growth, scaling operations, and engineering, shaped by firsthand exposure in the financial services industry and experience with SME cash flow challenges.

SMEs across the region are trapped in a persistent cash-flow race: B2B payment cycles stretch for months, restricting businesses from collecting payments in a timely manner and accessing the working capital they need to survive and grow. Comfi breaks this cycle with a unique B2B Buy Now Pay Later product that allows SME suppliers to provide up to 90-day payment terms to customers while getting paid within 24 hours, helping SMEs build resilience and sustain growth in a changing economic environment, to succeed.

Sanjar Samiev, Co-founder and CEO of Comfi, commented, “We built Comfi from firsthand experience with how disruptive payment cycles can be to an SME’s operations. When you’re waiting over 60 days to get paid, you can’t invest in inventory, hire the right people, or take on new opportunities, you’re just surviving. We’re fixing that by combining embedded finance with AI-driven risk and underwriting to unlock capital instantly, without the friction of traditional lending. This Pre-Series A round gives us the resources to scale our products, strengthen our regional partnerships, and expand access to fast, reliable working capital across MENA.”

Christos Mastoras, Founder and Managing Partner of Iliad Partners, commented, “We invest in technology companies that strengthen and digitize the core infrastructure of the GCC economy. Comfi is doing exactly that, tackling one of the most fundamental pain points in the region: access to working capital for SMEs. By combining AI-driven underwriting with disciplined risk management, the team has built a scalable platform designed for real-economy impact. We have been consistently impressed by Sanjar and his co-founders’ clarity of vision, speed of execution, and disciplined approach. We are proud to lead this round as Comfi scales across MENA and beyond as a trusted financing partner to thousands of SMEs powering regional growth.”

Armineh Baghoomian, Managing Director, Head of EMEA, and Co-Head of Global Fintech at Partners for Growth, added, “We are pleased to deepen our partnership with Comfi as the company enters its next growth phase. Comfi’s strong model and innovative approach reflect the ambition, energy and hard work of Sanjar, Alisher, Amal and Denis, and we have been consistently impressed by the team’s execution. The business is a great fit with PFG’s structured credit strategy and our focus on backing high-growth, category-defining companies across the GCC.”

Joe Barron, Credit Principal at Shorooq, commented, “Across the GCC, SME liquidity constraints are not a demand problem – they are a structural financing problem. What stood out to us about Comfi is not just the growth, but its ability to execute and underwrite credit risk utilising its proprietary engine with real transaction data. From our perspective as credit investors, that creates a more resilient and scalable model than traditional working capital lending. We believe platforms like Comfi will become critical financial infrastructure for the region’s supply chains, and we’re excited to support the team as they institutionalize and expand this model across the GCC”

Comfi has processed over 15,000 invoices, works with 4,000+ finance leaders, and serves more than 1,000 clients, reflecting growing demand for fast, flexible SME capital solutions across the region.

The new funding will support Comfi’s next stage of growth, including scaling its underwriting and risk capabilities, expanding its product offering, and accelerating growth across key regional markets.

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Propeller announced the inaugural cohort of Kernel Camp, its annual deep-tech residency program based in Silicon Valley. Five startups from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt have arrived in the Bay Area to begin an intensive eight-week residency, bringing MENA founders into the heart of the global AI and infrastructure ecosystem.

Despite the depth of technical talent emerging from the MENA region, founders have historically lacked structured pathways into Silicon Valley’s networks of engineers, operators, and capital. Kernel Camp is designed to close that gap, not just by placing founders in the Bay Area, but by embedding them into the ecosystem through curated access to the communities and conversations shaping the global AI landscape.

The inaugural cohort brings together five companies operating at the frontier of AI infrastructure, developer tooling, and cybersecurity. These include OORB (Tunisia), a cloud robotics workspace for building and testing ROS projects in the browser; Techbible (Morocco), an AI Stack Manager that provides companies with full visibility into their SaaS and AI tool spend; Firstflow (Jordan), an onboarding and analytics layer for AI agents; Nexguards (Egypt), a personalized cyber attack simulation and security awareness platform; and Flowbrave (Morocco), an intelligent operations platform that transforms static processes into AI-guided workflows.

Zaid Farekh, Founder & Managing Partner at Propeller, said: “Kernel Camp is a statement of our belief in the extraordinary talent emerging from the MENA region. Seeing this cohort land in Silicon Valley is a milestone we’ve been building toward since the launch of Fund III. These founders are technically exceptional, and this environment will push them to build faster, think bigger, and connect with the networks that matter most at this stage of their journey.”

Hani Azzam, Partner at Propeller, added: “Founders don’t build alone. The Kernel Camp cohort isn’t just here to learn, they’re here to become part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. We’ve curated an environment where community, technical depth, and cross-border networks converge. These are the kinds of founders who will define MENA’s contribution to global deep-tech over the next decade.”

Kernel Camp was first announced in December 2025 as a core pillar of Propeller’s cross-border strategy following the launch of Fund III. The residency targets technically strong, demo-ready founders working full-time on companies showing early signs of traction. The program provides fully sponsored housing, curated workshops, weekly guest sessions, one-on-one office hours with world-class builders, and site visits to leading technology companies and venture firms across the Bay Area.

The startups will spend eight weeks embedded in Silicon Valley, culminating in a demo day for Propeller’s Bay Area community in May 2026.

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Alaris Security announced the launch of Startup Shield, a program offering VC-backed startups 50% off the Alaris Enterprise Platform for 12 months. The program is a direct response to a recent breach at a $10 billion AI recruiting startup, which exposed 4TB of sensitive data and affected more than 40,000 individuals.

The breach was not caused by a zero-day exploit or an advanced persistent threat that required nation-state resources to execute. It started with a compromised open-source package, moved through stolen VPN credentials, and ended with the complete exfiltration of candidate databases, video interviews, source code, and internal communications. The entire attack chain played out over four days. No internal system flagged it. The startup learned about the breach when the attackers posted the data publicly.

This pattern is not unique to one company. Fast-growing startups routinely collect sensitive data well before they have the security infrastructure to protect it. The gap between what a startup holds and what it can defend is where breaches happen.

What Startup Shield Includes
Qualifying startups receive the full Alaris Enterprise Platform at 50% off for 12 months. This is not a stripped-down tier or a limited trial. It is the same platform deployed by enterprise and defense organizations.

• Autonomous SOC: AI agents that triage, investigate, and respond to security alerts 24/7 with no tier-1 analyst headcount required.
• Endpoint Security: Real-time behavioral detection across all managed endpoints, with process tree visibility, credential access monitoring, and persistence detection.
• Detection Engineering: Detection-as-code rules maintained by AI agents, continuously tuned and updated as threats evolve. No manual rule management.
• Cloud Security: Sub-second detection across cloud environments with agentless or lightweight sensor deployment.
• Threat Hunting: Continuous AI-driven threat hunting across endpoint, network, identity, and cloud telemetry.
• Dedicated Onboarding: A Alaris security engineer assigned to each startup for the first 30 days to integrate existing tools and establish baselines.

Who Qualifies
Startup Shield is open to startups that meet all of the following criteria:

• VC-backed (Seed through Series C)
• Fewer than 1,000 employees

There is no revenue requirement. The 50% discount applies for the full 12-month term regardless of growth. Startups that grow beyond the eligibility criteria during the program continue to receive the discounted rate through the end of their term.

Why This Matters Now
The breach is part of a broader pattern. The TeamPCP supply chain campaign compromised five ecosystems (GitHub Actions, Docker Hub, PyPI, npm, and OpenVSX), affecting an estimated 500,000 machines across more than 1,000 SaaS environments. The Axios npm package, with 100 million weekly downloads, was compromised the same week by a separate North Korean threat actor.

Startups are disproportionately exposed to these attacks. They move fast, aggressively pull in dependencies, and typically lack dedicated security operations. Most cannot justify the cost of an enterprise security platform until after an incident forces their hand. Startup Shield closes that gap before the incident happens.

“That breach was preventable. Every stage of the attack chain produced detectable signals. But you can only detect what you’re monitoring. Most startups aren’t monitoring anything. We want to change that before the next headline,” said David Colombo, Founder & CEO, Alaris Security.

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Microsoft has officially revealed the three student-led startups advancing to the 2026 Imagine Cup World Championship, marking another milestone in the company’s global competition that empowers young innovators to build real-world solutions using AI.This year’s finalists stood out not only for what they created, but for the clarity, execution, and scalability of their solutions — a shift that reflects the evolving maturity of student entrepreneurship worldwide.

Across the semifinals, teams demonstrated a deep understanding of the problems they aim to solve and showcased how Microsoft AI strengthened their products. Judges noted that this year’s submissions moved beyond early experimentation, with founders building for real users and designing solutions ready to scale. From this highly competitive pool, three standout startups earned their place on the global stage.

The 2026 Imagine Cup World Finalists

CopyFlag (United Kingdom)
CopyFlag tackles one of the most pressing challenges of the generative AI era: protecting original creative work online. The startup has developed an Azure AI–powered platform that detects both direct copies and AI‑modified versions of digital designs across the internet, automatically initiating takedowns. With thousands of creators already testing the platform and tens of thousands of infringements identified, CopyFlag is redefining accessible IP protection for the creator economy.

Revora Health (United States)
Revora Health addresses the long-standing gaps in patient rehabilitation, where limited access and long wait times often hinder recovery. The team built a digital recovery marketplace supported by an Azure-powered AI agent that provides 24/7 triage and real-time movement feedback. Using computer vision and multimodal models, Revora enables patients to perform exercises correctly while receiving personalized guidance — bringing clinically informed recovery support directly into people’s homes.

SpoilSafe (United States)
SpoilSafe focuses on food safety and waste reduction, offering an AI-driven solution that helps consumers and businesses detect food spoilage more accurately. The team combines sensor data with machine learning to provide real-time insights into food freshness, aiming to reduce waste and improve public health outcomes. Their approach reflects the competition’s growing emphasis on sustainability and impact-driven innovation.

A New Era for the Imagine Cup
The 2026 finalists represent a new generation of student founders who are building with purpose, precision, and a clear path to scale. Their solutions span creator protection, healthcare innovation, and food safety — three areas undergoing rapid transformation through AI.

At the World Championship, one team will be named the 2026 Imagine Cup World Champion, receiving $100,000 USD, a mentorship session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and opportunities for deeper partnership with Microsoft for Startups to continue building and scaling what comes next.

The World Championship winners will be announced at Microsoft Build on June 2nd.

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As businesses across the UAE continue to navigate a period of regional uncertainty, founder communities are playing an increasingly important role in bringing entrepreneurs together. In response, the Female Founders Network (FFN), part of Founders Official, is opening access to its upcoming April Flagship Event, offering a limited number of complimentary places to ensure more founders can connect, share challenges, and access support during this time.

While operations across the country have largely stabilised, many founders and teams continue to navigate the underlying impact of uncertainty. For early-stage and growth businesses in particular, moments like these can influence decision-making, confidence and long-term planning.

“We felt it was important to create space for founders to come together right now,” said Nicki Bedford, Founder and CEO of Founders Official. “When the external environment feels uncertain, community becomes a critical part of how businesses stay steady and move forward.”

The initiative forms part of a broader effort by Founders Official to prioritise access and community during periods where founders may otherwise feel isolated or uncertain.

The upcoming Flagship Event, taking place on Wednesday, 22nd April at AXD Space in Al Quoz, will bring together entrepreneurs, operators and business leaders for a morning of discussion, connection and informal networking. The session will feature insights from Venetia Archer, Founder and CEO of Ruuby, alongside curated networking formats designed to encourage more meaningful conversations between attendees.

A limited number of complimentary places are available via application, with priority given to founders who would benefit from access to the community and support at this time.

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Above Security (Above), the AI-native agentic managed insider threat platform, emerged from stealth and announced $50 million in funding. The funding was led by Ballistic Ventures, Merlin Ventures, and Norwest, with participation from Jump Capital and QPV Ventures.

“We invest in companies that redefine categories, not incrementally improve them. Above Security is doing exactly that, and we are tremendously excited to partner with CEO Aviv Nahum and the Above team as they build the next generation of insider risk management.” Phil Venables, Partner, Ballistic Ventures

Above has been generating substantial revenue for six months, with several enterprises deploying the platform in minutes and without writing a single policy, rule, or configuration. The company was founded by Aviv Nahum, a veteran of Unit 81, and Amir Boldo, a veteran of Unit 49, both seasoned entrepreneurs with prior exits.

Insider threat has never been a solved problem. Despite decades of investment in DLP, UEBA, and behavior analytics, organizations still cannot reliably detect, investigate, or stop risk that originates from inside their own walls. Now the problem is about to get orders of magnitude harder. As AI agents gain access to enterprise systems and act autonomously on behalf of employees, the perimeter of who counts as an insider is expanding faster than any existing tool was built to handle.

Above’s platform uses a fleet of specialized AI investigators to continuously analyze behavior across identity, endpoint, SaaS, and AI environments. Rather than flagging anomalies or applying static data movement rules, the approach taken by DLP and UEBA tools, Above’s Arbiter engine determines intent by correlating behavioral signals the way a human investigator would. The result is a sharp reduction in false positives, the elimination of most manual investigation time, and an evidentiary timeline that security, legal, and HR teams can act on directly.

“Most insider incidents we see are negligence, not malicious activity, so Above’s coaching-first approach fits perfectly. Our biggest challenge was piecing together user activity across scattered systems. Above didn’t just detect threats—it delivered complete behavioral timelines and surfaced critical incidents within five days that we would have otherwise missed.” Matt Wilmot, CISO, Merlin Entertainments.

45% of breaches are attributed to non‑malicious human and system errors (IBM). This demonstrates that the majority of insider risk isn’t malicious or intentional. It is employees trying to work faster, inadvertently creating inappropriate access, accidental data exposure, and shadow AI and IT risk. Above addresses both the negligent and the deliberate, making the platform relevant to security, HR, and legal teams simultaneously.

“Today’s insider risk management requires constant investigation by humans. That model simply doesn’t scale, and AI agents extrapolate this by orders of magnitude,” said Aviv Nahum, Co-Founder and CEO. “AI agents are becoming insiders in everything but name. They have access, they take action, and they operate at machine speed, yet they’re largely invisible to existing insider risk programs.”

As AI systems take on more autonomous roles inside organizations, with access levels that grow by the day, Above argues they become de facto insiders with no corresponding oversight in existing security programs. The platform’s investigation model applies equally to human and machine actors, a design decision the founders describe as the defining requirement of the agentic era.

“The rapid adoption of AI over the last five years has introduced new risks that require dedicated solutions,” said Amir Boldo, Co-Founder and CPTO. “You can’t secure tomorrow’s organization if your definition of ‘insider’ stops at employees.”

“In a future where AI will operate most complex systems, humans will not disappear—they will level up. Those who supervise and manage automation will hold real power within organizations. But with that power also comes risk: human error or an insider threat can have a much faster and far deeper impact. Above is building a protection layer that empowers people, reduces mistakes, and prevents insider threats before they become incidents. In an AI-accelerated world, true resilience begins with people.” – Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures.

“Insider threats represent one of the most critical and under-addressed challenges in cybersecurity today, accounting for nearly 30% of all security incidents. Aviv, Amir and the Above Security team have built an innovative approach that transforms how organizations detect and prevent these threats through real-time behavioral analysis and user education. We’re excited to partner with Above Security as they revolutionize insider risk management for the modern enterprise.” – Dror Nahumi, General Partner, Norwest.

As one of the 35 selected top 5 companies for the 2026 CrowdStrike, AWS & NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator, Above has established integrations with CrowdStrike, and others across identity, endpoint, and SaaS environments. The platform targets organizations with 1,000 or more employees operating in SaaS-forward environments.

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palmtrees, a screenplay development incubator for writers from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Oceania, has partnered with NEON for its inaugural cohort. Writers from eligible regions apply with a treatment and the first 15 pages of a feature-length genre screenplay. Those selected by the incubator will develop their scripts through intensive one-on-one work with dedicated story analysts. Writers are compensated for their participation throughout the program. The program culminates in a three-week in-person residency.

The program is open to writers at every stage. palmtrees does not distinguish between first-time screenwriters and those with produced credits. Selection is based on the strength of the project and the clarity of the writer’s voice. There is no advantage to having prior credits and no disadvantage to not having them. Applications open March 31, 2026, at palmtrees.dev. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2026.

palmtrees was founded by Funa Maduka, who spent six years leading international original films at Netflix, where she built the company’s first international film slate and shepherded the acquisition and development of dozens of titles across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, among them Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, Houda Benyamina’s Divines, Jeremy Clapin’s I Lost My Body and Mati Diop’s Atlantics. A filmmaker in her own right, Funa is credited with directing and producing the first Nigerian film to world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

“Tom and his team have built something rare. NEON has done more to expand the definition of world cinema in the last five years than any company in the business. They take real creative bets and that instinct is the basis for our collaboration,” said Funa Maduka, founder and CEO of palmtrees.

“Some of the most vital voices in cinema today are emerging from places that have been historically underrepresented on the global stage. NEON is thrilled to partner with Funa and her team at Palmtrees to help identify and support this next generation of filmmakers,” said Tom Quinn, founder and CEO of NEON.

The incubator grew out of a conviction that some of the most compelling stories in the world are coming from regions that have historically lacked the infrastructure to develop them at the rigor the global market demands.

“The most seasoned screenwriters still fight writer’s block at 3 a.m. It is not a process that necessarily gets easier, but one that can remain exceptionally hard if you have never had attention. Sustained, serious, skilled attention. We built palmtrees to provide it. There are extraordinary writers in these regions. What they lack is not talent,” said Maduka.

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Ricoh announced the establishment of its new Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) fund, the RICOH Innovation Fund Ⅱ. Aiming to create new businesses, Ricoh will strengthen strategic investments in overseas startups through this Fund to help enhance the value of customers’ workplaces.

In November 2023, Ricoh established its first CVC fund, the RICOH Innovation Fund Ⅰ. To accelerate its transformation into a digital services company, Ricoh has advanced business development through partnerships and collaborations with external companies, particularly in areas where markets and technologies are rapidly evolving. As a result, Ricoh has invested in nine overseas startups to date, supporting their growth while delivering new value to customers.

Under the new fund, Ricoh will further expand its investments in overseas startups, in line with its current mid-term strategy, starting in fiscal 2026. Building on the investment and collaboration process established through the first fund, Ricoh will further strengthen collaboration between the invested startups and Ricoh’s overseas operations, accelerating the creation of new business opportunities and global growth.

Sanae Endo, Corporate Officer, Ricoh Company, Ltd., stated, “Building on the insights and achievements gained through our first fund, we have established the RICOH Innovation Fund II to seize new opportunities from a greater global perspective. By expanding our investments in overseas startups and accelerating collaboration across our local operations, we are committed to advancing the value of the workplace.”

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Ema Fulga, AI Search Optimisation Specialist & Founder of ‘decipher’, explains that SMEs can regain control in uncertain times by using Generative Engine Optimisation, structuring content for AI, earning external mentions, and strengthening local visibility to stay discoverable.

There is a common assumption that SMEs suffer most during periods of instability. And, of course, the pressures are real. Like limited cashflow, leaner teams, and smaller customer bases that can feel fragile when confidence is low. But all is not lost. In fact, SMEs can be extremely resilient during a downturn, arguably more so than larger organisations. That’s because they can usually move faster, adapt more easily, and make decisions without layers of bureaucracy slowing them down.

The truth is that UAE businesses of all sizes are grappling with a loss of control right now. As an SME founder, the most useful question you can ask yourself is not what’s happening out there, but what you can directly influence from within.

One of the most powerful answers to that question is your online content, which brings us to the topic of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), also known as AI Search Optimisation. GEO is the art of getting your brand recommended in AI-powered searches, where ChatGPT accounts for 20% of search-related traffic worldwide. Other AI tools like Claude and Perplexity have seen rapid adoption, with usage growing multiple times year-on-year.

Plus, the overall scale of AI search is larger than most people think. According to recent data, monthly AI sessions now represent 56% of total global search volume, and 34% in the United States alone. That is four to five times higher than earlier figures, which only tracked web-based data not accounting for mobile and app usage.

Where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) optimises for ranking signals, like keywords, backlinks, and page speed, GEO optimises for trustworthiness signals. These are the structural, factual, and contextual cues that AI models use to decide which sources are authoritative enough to recommend in a generated answer. The difference is significant for SMEs, because you can maximise GEO yourself without big advertising budgets.

Here are four practical steps to help your business maintain visibility and be discovered online in a challenging climate and beyond.

Structure your content so AI can extract answers rather than just read it
AI systems pull answers in chunks, which means your content needs to be broken into short, focused sections, each answering a single question in roughly 75–300 words. Each section should deliver standalone value.

A straightforward way to do this is to add an FAQ section to every main page on your site – your homepage, services page, and about page, at minimum. Make the questions specific to what your customers actually ask. Add FAQ schema mark-up so AI systems can interpret your content clearly, and keep FAQs prominent and up to date. This one small change delivers a disproportionate share of AI citation gains relative to the effort it takes.

Build content around questions, not topics
Think about your website’s navigation menu: Home, Services, About Us. That structure is fine for getting around, but when someone lands on one of those pages, the heading should not simply mirror the menu label.

For example, if you run an accounting firm, a GEO-optimised title for your services page might be: “What does an accounting firm actually do?” Because that’s what people ask and the page then answers it directly with a detailed description of your services and how it helps people. The same logic applies for any business. Run an audit with AI brand visibility tools like Spotlight (get-spotlight.com) or Searchable.com to understand which prompts people are using in your space, and build headers around them where appropriate.

Get your business mentioned beyond your own website
From an AI’s perspective, a business that exists only on its own website has not been validated by anyone else, and that is a problem for credibility. AI systems build trust from multiple independent sources, which means earning mentions and coverage elsewhere on the web matters, even when those mentions do not include a direct backlink.

For UAE SMEs, this means being listed on local business directories and industry association pages, securing coverage in top-tier regional media outlets, and publishing LinkedIn content that earns genuine engagement. Each of these touchpoints is a signal to AI systems that your business is real, active, and worth recommending.

Optimise your Google Business Profile
The future of search in the UAE is increasingly local, with consumers using location-specific queries in both English and Arabic. A fully optimised Google Business Profile is no longer optional. AI Overviews now draw heavily on local business data for location-intent searches, and many SMEs have profiles that are incomplete, unverified, or simply out of date.

This matters more than most founders realise. When someone searches “best accountant in Dubai” or “top logistics company in Abu Dhabi,” AI overviews rely heavily on Google’s own ecosystem to generate their answer. If your profile is not in order, you may not appear at all, regardless of how good your website content is.

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Lucky, a leading financial technology company in Egypt and the Middle East, today announced the successful closing of a $23 million Series B funding round, including a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by existing & new investors, including Disruptech Ventures, DPI Venture Capital via Nclude fund and new strategic participation from Suez Canal Bank and OneStop, chaired by the visionary Tech Investor Mohamed Farouk, who has also been appointed as the Chairman of the Board for Lucky App.

This milestone follows a period of significant-growth for the company. After achieving 3x annual growth in 2025 and marking profitability by the end of 2025, Lucky has solidified its position as a leader in consumer credit, aiming to play a significant role in Egypt’s transformation into a digital & financially inclusive economy inline with the Central Bank of Egypt’s vision.

The new capital will support Lucky’s next phase of growth, with a focus on scaling its credit offering, expanding into North Africa, and strengthening its infrastructure, licensing, and regulatory readiness as it moves toward becoming a neo-banking-ready platform.

Mohamed Farouk, who now chairs Lucky’s Board, emphasized the company’s strong growth and vision: “Lucky has demonstrated disciplined growth, strong product-market fit, and a clear vision for inclusive digital finance,” said Farouk. “This investment supports a platform that is well-positioned to be one of the leading players in the next phase of consumer credit and neo-banking in the region.”

“With Mohamed Farouk’s vision, Lucky is well positioned to advance inclusive digital finance,” commented Ayman Essawy, CEO of Lucky. “Financial access is the foundation of progress. This round allows us to scale responsibly, invest in infrastructure, and deepen our impact as regulators unlock digital onboarding and modern payment frameworks across Egypt and the region. Lucky removes complexity from credit and opens it up to more people, leveraging its advanced technology and AI capabilities. With a card that works anywhere and anytime, we help individuals move forward confidently.”

The investment also aligns with broader regulatory tailwinds shaping Egypt’s fintech landscape. Recent advances in digital onboarding, payments infrastructure, and the introduction of PSP licensing mark a turning point for fintech players with proven scale and compliance capabilities. Lucky has already begun work toward PSP licensing, positioning the company to expand its service stack and support more comprehensive digital financial services over time.

Since launch, Lucky has built partnerships across merchants and financial institutions, serving a rapidly growing user base across Egypt. The company plans to leverage this round to enter select North African markets while continuing to enhance its technology, risk infrastructure, and regulatory capabilities.

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Maison Safqa, a Saudi-based flash-sale platform for premium and luxury brands, has raised $620,000 in a pre-seed funding round with participation from 500 Global through the Sanabil MENA 500 Accelerator Fund, alongside Saudi and international business angels. Investors include retail and technology entrepreneurs and executives, among them the founder of Ventes Exclusives, one of Europe’s largest flash-sale platforms, now part of Veepee.

Founded in 2024 by Lea Mehaweg, Estelle Nasr, and Georgia Mehaweg, Maison Safqa is building a technology-enabled platform that helps premium and luxury brands monetize excess inventory while maintaining control over pricing, distribution, and brand positioning. Drawing inspiration from the most successful flash-sale companies abroad, the founders leveraged their professional experience and networks across Saudi Arabia and the GCC, along with knowledge in commercial development and e-commerce, to create a platform that connects high-intent, fashion-forward audiences with limited-time offers across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. At the core of the platform is a partner-centric approach, through which Maison Safqa already offers the brands the flexibility to choose between regular flash sales or invitation-only online sales.

Lea Mehaweg, Co-founder and CEO of Maison Safqa, commented: “The GCC luxury goods market generated $12.8 billion in revenue in 2025, yet brands still struggle to move excess inventory without diluting their image or compromising margins. Maison Safqa was built to address this challenge by providing a controlled environment where premium and luxury brands can unlock that value while reaching the right audience.”

Estelle Nasr, Co-founder and COO of Maison Safqa, said: “From the beginning, our focus has been to build a platform that delivers an effortless and intuitive experience for both brands and customers. For our brand partners, we manage everything end-to-end, from onboarding to delivery, so they can move inventory without the operational burden. At the same time, our technology allows brands to launch campaigns quickly while always offering a carefully selected assortment  for customers.”

Amal Dokhan, Managing Partner of Sanabil 500, commented: “We are pleased to support Maison Safqa as they bring an established e-commerce flash sale model to the region. The team has secured partnerships with leading retailers and brands and we look forward to supporting their next phase of growth.”

Since its launch in May 2025, Maison Safqa has built a portfolio of more than 50 premium fashion and lifestyle brands, spanning international and regional labels such as Aigner, Lanvin, Liu Jo, Chantelle, Flabelus, and Qormuz. In less than a year, the platform has grown gross sales by more than 20x and established corporate partnerships with leading Saudi institutions such as Red Sea Global, Diriyah, and Cenomi Real Estate.

Looking ahead, the company aims to become the leading flash sales platform in the region, surpassing $2.5 million in cumulative sales within the next 18 months while expanding its portfolio to more than 100 brands. Maison Safqa is also working to complement its online model with offline sales events across Riyadh and Jeddah and continues to invest in technology, including customer personalisation tools and automated seller onboarding tools.

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The Ministry of Finance in the UAE has named SAP as one of the pre-approved eInvoicing service providers under the country’s new electronic invoicing framework, becoming the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider to be included on the Ministry’s pre-approved list.

The recognition positions SAP to support organizations preparing for the UAE’s transition to structured electronic invoicing, which will begin with a pilot program and voluntary adoption stage starting in July 2026, followed by a phased mandatory implementation from 2027.

For SAP customers, pre-approval provides a pathway to managing eInvoicing compliance directly within their core ERP systems. SAP’s UAE-specific eInvoicing capabilities integrate with SAP ERP environments to support secure invoice generation, transmission, validation, and reporting as part of an end-to-end business process.

The Ministry of Finance’s pre-approval authorizes provider to offer eInvoicing services in the UAE, subject to receiving final accreditation within the Ministry’s implementation timeline. As organizations prepare for the upcoming rollout phases, SAP’s pre-approval allows customers to begin planning their compliance strategy while aligning invoicing processes with their broader digital finance architecture.

“The UAE continues to set a strong example in building modern digital infrastructure for business and finance,” said Marwan Zeineddine, Managing Director of SAP UAE. “As electronic invoicing becomes a regulatory requirement, organizations will need solutions that integrate compliance directly into their operational systems. SAP’s approach enables customers to manage invoices, reporting, and compliance as part of a unified ERP environment, helping them simplify processes while maintaining transparency and control.”

The UAE’s electronic invoicing framework introduces a structured digital model for invoice exchange between businesses, government entities, and tax authority. Under this model, invoices are transmitted through accredited service providers that securely connect suppliers, buyers, and the Federal Tax Authority, enabling invoice data to be validated and reported automatically.

Enterprises will be able to manage these requirements through the SAP Document and Reporting Compliance solution developed specifically for the UAE, which connects invoicing processes within SAP ERP systems to government-mandated eInvoicing ecosystem. By embedding compliance capabilities directly into enterprise workflows, organizations can reduce system fragmentation while strengthening security and data governance.

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Presight, a leading global AI company that designs and deploys intelligent systems for governments and critical infrastructure, today revealed it received 376 applications from 62 countries for Cohort II of its AI Accelerator Program.

Building on the success of its inaugural cohort, the Program has achieved a major milestone by more than tripling application volume and significantly expanding its geographic reach compared to the 120 applications from 17 countries in the first cohort.

The strong and increasingly diverse pipeline underscores the program’s rising profile as a platform for startups and innovators seeking to scale real-world AI solutions, while also highlighting a clear shift toward commercially viable, enterprise-focused innovation, with many applicants developing technologies across enterprise AI, automation, data analytics, and sector-specific use cases spanning fintech, healthtech, govtech, and beyond.

This appeal also reflects growing global demand for applied intelligence systems that can operate within real-world environments, reinforcing Presight’s role in identifying and scaling technologies designed for deployment across infrastructure, capital, and societal systems.

The majority of applications were received from applicants based in the Middle East (162), Asia Pacific (84), Europe (65) and North America (42). The top five countries represented by application volume included the United Arab Emirates (140), United States (37), India (26), United Kingdom (19), and South Korea (16).

Magzhan Kenesbai, Chief Growth Officer of Presight, said: “The tripling of applications for Cohort II reflects the success we have achieved with this Accelerator. We have AI innovators from around the world who want access to our program to replicate the achievements they saw from Cohort I and unlock the same commercial pathways. This places Presight in a privileged position to identify the very best world-leading, breakthrough technologies that operate within complex, regulated environments and have the greatest opportunity to scale across infrastructure, capital, and societal systems. The strength and diversity of this year’s applications reinforce the need for programs like ours that provide a platform to accelerate the adoption of AI in meaningful ways.”

The Presight AI Accelerator Program forms a core component of the company’s broader AI Innovation Ecosystem, which is designed to translate emerging technologies into operational capability at national and enterprise scale. Applications for Cohort II demonstrate strong alignment with this deployment-led approach, with a significant proportion focused on enterprise AI, agentic systems, data analytics, and process automation, alongside representation across healthcare, financial services, government and smart cities, and cybersecurity. A substantial segment of applicants already demonstrates commercial traction, including revenue generation, active clients, and capital raised, indicating a more mature and deployment-ready pipeline compared to the inaugural cohort.

This evolution also marks a clear progression from Cohort I, which established the foundation of the program by attracting high-potential startups across multiple sectors and selecting 10 companies to participate in a model focused on commercialization, integration, and scale.

Collectively, Cohort I represents a potential total contract value of $26m currently in discussion, alongside $1m in confirmed investment into NodeShift from the Presight-Shorooq Fund I. Beyond capital, the inaugural cohort has generated meaningful commercial traction across the portfolio: Vulcan has signed a contract with CPX to advance GenAI security across the G42 ecosystem; AlphaGeo has secured a signed contract with Khazna; NodeShift has signed a strategic agreement with Presight to commercialise sovereign AI infrastructure with major government clients; Zply has signed an MOU with Inception; and Ajari is being integrated into Presight’s broader portfolio of solutions. These commercial pathways reinforce the program’s commitment to long-term value creation.

Further momentum is building across cohort I, with several other engagements still progressing toward signature in the coming months. Elsewhere, Ajari and Cobi have secured access to Microsoft compute power through Presight’s partnership — directly accelerating product development and deployment readiness.

Turning attention towards Cohort II, the scale and maturity of the applications received now signal growing global recognition of the Accelerator as a platform for translating AI innovation into real-world intelligence systems.

The selection process for Cohort II is now underway and will follow a structured, multi-stage evaluation designed to assess both technical capability and readiness for deployment. This includes an initial review and qualification phase, followed by a first round of interviews, before progressing to a final shortlist of startups invited to participate in the final pitch stage. The final pitch event is scheduled to take place in early April, where shortlisted companies will present their solutions to a panel of judges. The program will culminate in the announcement of the final Cohort II in early May, with 10 final companies selected to join the accelerator.

Companies selected for Cohort II will gain access to Presight’s infrastructure, mentorship, and ecosystem, alongside opportunities to accelerate commercialization through facilitated engagement with enterprise and government stakeholders. The program is designed to ensure that innovation is developed with deployment in mind from the outset, enabling integration into complex, regulated environments where reliability, governance, and scalability are essential.

With the evaluation process now in motion, Presight continues to expand its global pipeline of technologies aligned to its applied intelligence strategy, reinforcing its position as the architect of intelligent systems designed for long-term performance, resilience, and scale.

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Cloudflare announced the developer preview of EmDash, a new open-source content management system (CMS) designed to reimagine how websites are built, secured, and scaled in the modern internet era. Built from the ground up using TypeScript and serverless architecture, EmDash aims to address long-standing limitations in legacy CMS platforms—most notably WordPress—while introducing a new model for secure, AI-powered web development.

WordPress currently powers more than 40% of websites worldwide, making it one of the most successful open-source projects in history. However, Cloudflare argues that its architecture, developed over two decades ago, is increasingly misaligned with today’s security expectations and development workflows.

“WordPress enabled a generation of publishers and creators,” Cloudflare said in its announcement. “But the web has fundamentally changed—and so must the systems we use to build it.”

Addressing the Plugin Security Crisis
At the core of EmDash is a fundamental redesign of how CMS plugins operate. Cloudflare highlights that the majority of WordPress vulnerabilities—estimated at 96%—originate from plugins that have unrestricted access to a site’s database and filesystem.

EmDash tackles this issue through a new architecture where each plugin runs in an isolated environment called a Dynamic Worker. These sandboxed plugins must explicitly declare permissions, limiting their access and dramatically reducing the risk of security breaches.

This model removes the need for centralized plugin marketplaces to establish trust. Instead, developers can publish plugins under any license, while users can adopt them with greater confidence due to enforced isolation and security boundaries.

Built for the Serverless, Developer-First Web
EmDash is built on Astro 6.0 and designed to run natively on Cloudflare Workers, enabling a serverless architecture that scales automatically. Websites built with EmDash can “scale to zero,” meaning they incur compute costs only when actively serving requests—offering a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional hosting models.

Unlike traditional PHP-based CMS platforms, EmDash embraces modern JavaScript and TypeScript development, aligning with contemporary developer ecosystems. It can also be deployed beyond Cloudflare’s infrastructure, including any Node.js-compatible environment, offering flexibility for teams with diverse hosting requirements.

AI-Native by Design
A key differentiator for EmDash is its AI-native architecture. The platform includes built-in support for AI agents, a command-line interface (CLI), and an integrated Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, enabling automation of content workflows and programmatic site management.

This positions EmDash as a CMS designed not only for human users but also for AI-driven development and operations—reflecting a broader industry shift toward automation and intelligent tooling.

Migration Path from WordPress
Recognizing the vast ecosystem built around WordPress, Cloudflare has introduced tools to simplify migration. Existing WordPress sites can be imported using standard WXR files or via a dedicated exporter plugin, allowing organizations to transition content, media, and structures into EmDash with minimal friction.

Early Stage, Long-Term Vision
EmDash is currently available as a v0.1.0 developer preview, signaling that the platform is still in its early stages. While it introduces significant architectural innovations, Cloudflare acknowledges that it lacks the mature ecosystem, themes, and plugins that have made WordPress dominant.

Industry observers note that while EmDash presents a compelling vision for the future of CMS platforms, it is not yet positioned to replace WordPress in the near term. Instead, it represents a forward-looking alternative for developers seeking a more secure, scalable, and AI-integrated solution.

A New Chapter for Content Management
With EmDash, Cloudflare is not merely introducing another CMS—it is proposing a redefinition of how content platforms should operate in an era shaped by security threats, serverless computing, and artificial intelligence.

By combining sandboxed plugin execution, modern developer tooling, and AI-native capabilities, EmDash aims to lay the foundation for the next generation of web publishing.

As the project evolves, its success will depend on adoption, community growth, and its ability to deliver on the promise of a safer, more flexible, and future-ready CMS.

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BelArabi, the go-to agency built for agencies providing Arabic communication services, is kicking off Q2 with a brand-new initiative, “Tamkeen by BelArabi.” And guess what? It’s all about lifting up two incredible female-led startups.

We’re talking about three months of pro-level support, on the house. Whether you need PR that pops, media buzz, influencer magic, or scroll-stopping social content, BelArabi has got you covered.

Why? Because founder Ghida Abou Zeki remembers exactly what it felt like to arrive in the UAE, full of ambition and a dream in her suitcase.

“When I first stepped in the UAE in 2014, I felt that only here my dreams will be heard and seen and today is the day I can give back to a country that turned my dreams to reality. Launching this BelArabi initiative for startups, will support small businesses that need it most right now and give back to the startup community that helped shape our journey,” said Ghida.

“The UAE has become a global hub for entrepreneurship however, some female-led startups across the region face unique challenges in scaling their businesses,” explains Ghida. “Access to visibility, gaining earned media coverage and having the right strategic communication support can often be difficult, especially in the early stages of growth.” Ghida explains that founders frequently juggle multiple roles, from operations, to HR to marketing, without the resources or expertise to build a strong brand presence in a competitive market.

At BelArabi, Ghida emphasizes that thought leadership plays a leading role in building credibility and long-term brand equity, particularly in competitive markets. For startups, she says, it positions founders as trusted voices within their industry by consistently sharing insights, perspectives, and expertise on relevant topics, through which their brands then shape conversations rather than simply participate in them. This, she explains, can take the form of opinion pieces, expert commentary, speaking opportunities, or educational content that adds real value to the audience. In the context of Arabic communication, Ghida highlights that thought leadership becomes even more impactful when delivered in a culturally relevant and linguistically authentic way, allowing brands to connect more deeply with regional audiences. She concludes that ultimately, strong thought leadership not only builds trust but also opens doors to partnerships, media opportunities and sustainable growth.

Influencer marketing has also become a powerful driver of brand perception, Ghida notes, particularly in digitally connected markets like the United Arab Emirates. For startups, she explains, it offers a strategic way to build trust and visibility through voices that audiences already follow and respect. Rather than focusing on reach alone, effective influencer marketing in the region prioritizes alignment, partnering with creators whose values, aesthetic, and audience reflect the brand’s identity. As Ghida puts it, this is especially important in Arabic communication, “where authenticity, tone, and cultural nuance can significantly impact how content is received.”

“In addition, navigating culturally nuanced communication, particularly in Arabic, can be a barrier for startups looking to connect authentically with local audiences,” Ghida says. “Without the right messaging and language, even the most innovative ideas can struggle to gain traction, attract investment, or reach their intended audience effectively.”

At the heart of this initiative lies a deeper understanding of the region’s communication landscape. Brands that succeed in the region recognize that language is closely tied to identity, trust, and emotional connection. Crafting messaging in Arabic allows companies to engage audiences in a way that feels authentic, rather than adapted or secondary.

Across markets such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, consumer expectations continue to evolve, with audiences placing greater value on brands that reflect their culture and speak their language naturally. This is particularly important for startups, where first impressions and brand perception can directly impact growth, partnerships, and investment opportunities.

“Tamkeen by BelArabi” aims to help bridge this gap by equipping selected startups with the tools, expertise and visibility needed to tell their story with impact. While the initiative may not solve every challenge faced by female entrepreneurs, it is designed to make a meaningful contribution, helping founders get started, amplify their voice, build confidence in their brand, and unlock new growth opportunities,” Ghida explains.

If you’re building something new, this is your moment. Ready to apply?

• Tell us about your company
• Share your social media handles
• Spill the beans on your biggest challenges right now
• Let us know your key messages and who you’re speaking to
• And most importantly, how can we help you?

Submit your application to: hello@belarabigroup.com

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Via Separations announced $36 million in new funding with significant participation from new investors, including Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, alongside participation from existing backers, including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners.

The investment will accelerate deployment of Via’s modular filtration platform into the refining and chemical sectors, building on proven commercial performance in pulp and paper to help industrial operators reduce energy use, improve uptime, and strengthen operational resilience — with the added benefit of lower emissions.

Via electrifies heat-based separation with modular filtration systems that integrate directly with existing equipment, drastically reducing the energy required for chemical separations. These thermal separation steps account for roughly 12 percent of global energy use, driving significant fuel and steam demand across industrial separations. By replacing them with a mechanically driven membrane process, Via’s system can reduce energy use at the separation step by up to 90 percent, delivering lower operating costs, higher uptime, and a more flexible pathway to energy efficiency and electrification.

The company has proven the technology at commercial scale in the pulp and paper sector, approaching two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Via is now expanding deployment into refining and chemicals, with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital projects in the commercial pipeline. The company also completed a pilot at a major Gulf Coast refinery last year.

“Thermal separations represent one of the largest and least-addressed sources of industrial energy consumption,” said Mike Bishop, Investment Director at Climate Investment. “Via’s innovative membrane platform introduces electrification to processes that have depended on heat for more than a century. By seamlessly integrating into existing industrial infrastructure, the company provides a practical solution for reducing energy consumption, enhancing reliability, and significantly lowering emissions.”

“At Aramco Ventures, we invest in differentiated technologies that can deliver clear operational value at scale,” said Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures. “Via Separations’ modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets.”

“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” said Shreya Dave, CEO of Via Separations. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the product portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane‑based separations.”

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AppsFlyer has released its State of Subscriptions for Marketers 2026 report, revealing a sharp shift in consumer behaviour in the Middle East, where the rapid rise of Short Drama apps is reshaping both content consumption and marketing investment strategies.

Short Drama, bite-sized, mobile-first serialized video content, is emerging as one of the fastest-growing app categories in the UAE, with installs increasing by 109% year-on-year. Crucially, this growth is not occurring in isolation. The category has quickly become one of the largest recipients of advertising investment, ranking as the second-highest category for ad spend on Android in the Middle East. This alignment between user growth and marketing investment signals a maturing category, where marketers are no longer experimenting, but actively scaling.

The data suggests that this surge is being driven by a fundamental shift in how audiences engage with content. In contrast to traditional long-form streaming, Short Drama is designed for mobile-native consumption, favouring short, episodic formats that lend themselves to frequent engagement. At the same time, discovery within the category is increasingly driven by paid acquisition rather than organic channels, with a growing share of installs attributed to advertising. For marketers, this indicates that success in the category is closely tied to the ability to efficiently acquire users at scale.

Beyond Short Drama, the report highlights how paid user acquisition trends are evolving across subscription app categories in the region, offering insight into where marketers are seeing the strongest returns on investment. Utility and Productivity apps recorded a 491% year-on-year increase in paid installs on Android and a 99% increase on iOS, pointing to strong demand at scale, particularly among Android users. Meanwhile, OTT and Streaming apps saw a 31% increase in paid installs on Android and a striking 640% increase on iOS, suggesting that while Android drives volume, iOS continues to attract high-value users in premium content categories.

These shifts underline a growing divergence in platform dynamics. Android is increasingly associated with rapid user growth and scale, while iOS is delivering more concentrated gains in categories where users demonstrate a higher willingness to pay. For marketers, this reinforces the need to tailor acquisition strategies not just by category, but by platform, aligning spend with where conversion potential is strongest.

The report also points to significant differences in how effectively subscription apps convert users, particularly when it comes to free trials. Gaming apps continue to attract the highest share of trial users, with 12.2% of users entering free trials, but conversion remains relatively low, with only 19% going on to pay. In contrast, Education and Lifestyle apps convert more than 40% of trial users, indicating that these categories are more successful at demonstrating value within a limited timeframe. Health and Fitness apps stand apart, with many users opting to pay upfront without a trial, reflecting stronger purchase intent from the outset. These variations suggest that free trials are not a one-size-fits-all strategy, but rather a tactical lever that must be carefully aligned to category dynamics and user expectations.

At the same time, the way consumers pay for apps continues to diverge across categories. OTT and Live Streaming apps are consolidating around subscription-led models, as users commit to ongoing access to premium content. In contrast, Short Drama is beginning to incorporate ad-supported elements, reflecting a growing preference among users in fast-growing markets to trade time and attention for access rather than pay directly. This hybridisation of monetisation models is enabling developers to broaden their addressable audience while still capturing revenue from engaged users.

“The subscription app market is still growing, but the centre of gravity has shifted,” said Sarah Maina, Regional Manager, Middle East & France, at AppsFlyer. “Android is now the primary growth engine, emerging markets are driving the bulk of new subscribers, and the categories pulling ahead are the ones that figured out where their audience actually is, not where the industry assumed it would be. The marketers who close that gap fastest will have a meaningful advantage.”

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