Expand North Star by GITEX GLOBAL is officially underway in the UAE as the world’s largest startup and investor connector event launched its landmark 10th anniversary in thrilling fashion on Sunday alongside thousands of local and international visitors.
Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), and hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, Expand North Star 2025 runs at Dubai Harbour from 12-15 October – convening leading founders, investors, entrepreneurs, business executives, and strategic public-private partners from across the globe. Its four-day programme is poised to elevate funding, scaling, and deal-flow levels – catalysing new partnerships and driving inclusive digital growth across emerging AI economies.
The UAE: Charting a Course to Global Startup Supremacy
Since debuting in 2016, Expand North Star has become an epicentre of collaboration and investment – providing an inclusive global platform from which 8,000+ founders have scaled their businesses over the years. Building on this success, the 2025 edition connects over 2,000 of the world’s most disruptive startups with 1,200 international investors managing US$1.1 trillion in assets.
With the highest percentage of growth and late-stage startups anywhere, the event showcases the most disruptive solutions and projects spanning AI, climate tech, deep tech, digital health, and fintech. This follows the recently announced ‘The Emirates: The Startup Capital of the World’, a new initiative aimed at positioning the UAE as the world’s leading startup hub.
Reflecting the government’s ambition to foster innovation and attract global talent, the initiative aims to generate 30,000 new jobs by 2030 and create at least 10 unicorns – companies with valuations exceeding US$1 billion – by 2031.
Discussing the UAE’s AI strategy and vision during a keynote address, His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, stated: “We don’t think like other countries; we think in multidecade intervals. We started investing in AI in 2008 – very early days. Abu Dhabi was investing in chips, in global countries, in companies that were focused on AI. Nobody expected that we could be a key player in the domain of AI. Against all odds, we are proving that we can. This is going to incentivise everyone – East and West.
H.E. Al Olama added: “It’s important for us to not only succeed, but for everyone who comes to the UAE to help us understand what we can do better. We do not claim to know it all – we claim to be the best students and the best listeners. One thing we promise is that if people come to us with advice, we are going to take it seriously and ensure that it’s implemented in the coming years.”
During a session titled ‘Scaling a digital future: How will emerging tech redraw the startup map of the next decade’, Hatem Dowidar, Global CEO of e&, said: “As the landscape evolves and technology and customer needs change, we may also see pivots and potential changes in companies’ investment criteria. There’s also 5G standalone – or 5.5G – this is something certain to enable a lot of new businesses, including startups. We also have to make sure that we are governing AI in the proper way to ensure data integrity and privacy. For example, within our ecosystem, we have implemented a full AI governance system that ensures data anonymity and customer privacy.”
The Presight AI-Startup Accelerator: A Springboard to Real Business and Global Reach
Among the UAE’s most celebrated enterprises participating is Presight, a G42 company and the region’s largest big data analytics company. One year on from the 2024 edition – where the Presight AI-Startup Accelerator was launched to nurture and accelerate early-stage ventures – the programme’s first cohorts with market-ready prototypes were unveiled.
The Presight AI-Startup Accelerator is the UAE’s first dedicated AI acceleration programme and the first created by a publicly-listed Middle Eastern technology company, leveraging Presight’s technical expertise, enterprise partnerships, and customer ecosystem to provide startups with direct commercial pathways and access to world-class infrastructure and mentorship opportunities.
Thomas Pramotedham, CEO of Presight, revealed: “There are many accelerator programmes around the world, but what’s different about ours is that we are creating a global platform. The UAE and Abu Dhabi has become the AI capital – and this is where technology and innovation meets. With G42’s ecosystem and the UAE’s reach, we offer our cohorts not only compute and expertise – but real business. And since then, they have met ambassadors, enterprises, and key stakeholders from the public and private sectors.”
The showcase underscored Presight’s growing influence in propelling the UAE’s AI innovation landscape, featuring 10 high-potential startups from around the world developing AI solutions with real-world impact.
Pramotedham’s participation coincided with Presight signing a partnership with the UAE Cybersecurity Council – one of many collaborations signed on a momentous opening day.
Prior to the signing, Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government, elaborated on the influence of entrepreneurs in supporting the national security mandate, stating: “Cybersecurity is firmly rooted in the DNA of everything that we do. Amidst so many technological aspects – be it AI today, quantum tomorrow, or something else in the future – safety and security will always be one of the main pillars to elevate and enhance next-generation startups and ensure people utilise technologies in the best ways possible. As a nation, our digital transformation focuses on the human-centric factor – and we see so many great entrepreneurs and aspirational thinkers supporting our national security and critical infrastructure.”
Brazil: An Innovation Powerhouse Building Bridges with the World
With representation from 180 countries, 2025 is a record-breaking year for international participation at Expand North Star – where ApexBrasil, the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, is the first-ever Country Partner. Across two pavilions, 55 startups and innovation hubs – specialising in AI, fintech, and more – are showcasing how Brazil is driving innovation and creating tech solutions for global challenges.
Convening Pioneering Unicorns and Visionary International Investors
Expand North Star 2025 presents its largest-ever unicorn showcase with 40+ companies. Among those receiving significant attention were PsiQuantum (USA), a US$68 billion unicorn architecting the first fault-tolerant quantum system, and talabat (Kuwait), the MENA region’s leading on-demand online ordering and delivery platform valued at US$8.5 billion.
Others included Andalusia Labs (UAE), a global leader in digital asset risk infrastructure and one of the fastest unicorns in history – a billion-dollar company within 11 months of launching – and Carousell (Singapore), one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing e-commerce platforms.
From Europe and North America to Asia and the Middle East, Expand North Star also hosts the world’s most prominent multinational banking, venture capital, and investment institutions searching for the next era-defining ventures shaping the future of technology and innovation.
These include JP Morgan (USA), Daiwa Capital Management (Japan), Eurazeo (France), Octopus Energy Generation (UK), Qatar National Bank (Qatar), Raiffeisenbank (Austria), Samsung Ventures (Japan), and SBI Ventures (Germany).Expand North Star 2025 continues on Tuesday.
