Abu Dhabi Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Companies in Fintech, AI, Agritech and Health
Abu Dhabi has spent years building a startup scene around Hub71, the ADGM financial free zone and its sovereign investors, and it is now producing companies worth following. But the 2026 version of this article listed ten "Abu Dhabi startups", and when we checked them, only one, Hubpay, is actually based in Abu Dhabi. Most of the others are Dubai, Saudi or US companies, and one website no longer exists. For this 2027 edition we started again: in October 2026 we checked every company on its own website, legal page or official release, that it still operates, that it gives an Abu Dhabi base, what it sells and what it says about its numbers. Funding rounds we found only in the press are named with the outlet, Wamda, the regional startup publication. The old names and where they really belong are listed near the end.
Quick answer: the Abu Dhabi startups to watch in 2027 are Hubpay (business payments), AppliedAI (enterprise AI), Pure Harvest Smart Farms (climate-controlled farming), Ovasave (fertility and hormone health), Professional.me (an AI recruiter) and BioSapien (a cancer drug implant in clinical trials). Careem and Ziina are Dubai companies, Amwal is Saudi, and Loft Orbital is American, so they are no longer on the list.
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Why Abu Dhabi Matters for Founders in 2027
According to a Hub71 press release of 17 June 2026, Startup Genome's 2026 Global Startup Ecosystem Report places Abu Dhabi in the 41st to 50th band of the world's emerging startup ecosystems, with an ecosystem value of $73.4 billion. The city's pitch to founders is a combination you rarely find elsewhere: a common-law financial free zone, government programmes with real money behind them, and investors such as Mubadala that back local startups.
Hub71, the city's startup hub, says its community has more than 410 startups and 200 partners. On 29 October 2026 it announced that it had picked 40 startups for its Cohort 19 from 2,502 applications from 117 countries, that these startups have raised a combined $296 million, and that 88% of them come from outside the UAE. It runs programmes for different stages: Initiate for founders at the idea or pre-MVP stage, the MZN x Hub71 Programme with the Khalifa Fund for Emirati founders, a Sandbox programme to test products with regulators, and Hub71+ tracks for AI, climate tech, digital assets and life sciences. For AI-focused programmes beyond Abu Dhabi, see our comparison of accelerators for AI startups.
Three more doors are worth knowing. ADGM, Abu Dhabi's international financial centre on Al Maryah Island, offers an incentivised Tech Start-up licence; its setup page says each application needs a Hub71 approval letter and that the eligibility review takes about 21 days on average. The Khalifa Fund is a not-for-profit fund of the Government of Abu Dhabi for Emirati-owned small businesses; it reports more than 1,200 funded SMEs, more than AED 1.3 billion in total funding and more than 15,000 jobs created. The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) helps companies set up and grow, with sector clusters that include fintech, insurance and digital assets, and an Innovation Programme. MBZUAI, the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, also runs an Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center for AI ventures; its website blocked our checks, so look up the current terms there.
Comparing cities? See our guides to Beirut startups to watch, Eindhoven startups to watch and Berlin startups to watch. Our newest European city guide covers Rotterdam startups to watch.
Abu Dhabi Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared
Sources: each company's official website, legal page or official release, checked 29 October 2026; funding rounds as reported by Wamda where marked. "None cited" means we found no funding announcement we could link.
The Abu Dhabi Startups to Watch in 2027
1. Hubpay: payments for UAE businesses that trade abroad
Hubpay is the only company from the old list that we could confirm as an Abu Dhabi startup. It sells a business account with multi-currency balances, corporate FX, virtual IBANs, payment links and global payroll, and says more than 1,000 UAE businesses use it. Its legal footer says Hubpay Limited is incorporated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and regulated by ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority for providing money services, with its headquarters on Al Maryah Island and further bases in London and Karachi. It is on the UAE's Future100 list of startups and scale-ups. We found no funding announcement on its site, so we cite none.
Best for: founders who sell or hire across borders and want to see how a startup turns a financial-centre licence into a selling point.
2. AppliedAI: AI workflows for regulated industries
AppliedAI builds Opus, a platform that automates and supervises document-heavy processes in banking, fintech, insurance and healthcare. Its homepage names Abu Dhabi as its headquarters, lists clients in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and says it is backed by Mubadala, Palantir and G42. According to Mubadala's announcement of 22 January 2026, AppliedAI completed a Pre-Series B round led by Mubadala's MENA Venture Capital Fund and Arbor Ventures; the release gives no amount and says Opus launched in 2025.
Best for: B2B founders in AI. Selling to regulated buyers is slow, but trust, audit trails and human oversight are what those buyers pay for.
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3. Pure Harvest Smart Farms: growing food in the desert
Pure Harvest Smart Farms grows tomatoes, leafy greens and berries in climate-controlled farms, so it can harvest all year, even in the Gulf summer. Its site lists 7 farms in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including leafy greens and tomato farms in Al Ain, blackberry, oasis and vertical farms in Abu Dhabi, and the Haradh and Al-Muzahmiyya farms in Saudi Arabia, with more than 13,000 tonnes of annual production capacity on 28 hectares. Its investor page names co-founder and CEO Sky Kurtz, co-founders Mahmoud Adi and Robert Kupstas, and investors including Franklin Templeton, Olayan, Shorooq Partners, Wafra and SHUAA Capital, but gives no funding amounts.
Best for: climate and food founders. Pure Harvest shows how a local food security problem can attract large international investors.
4. Ovasave: fertility and hormone health for women
Ovasave sells at-home fertility and hormone tests, such as an AMH test, offers menopause care and supplements, and connects women with partner fertility clinics in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Its privacy policy gives the business address of Ovasave Health Technologies Limited in Al Khatem Tower on Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi. Co-founder and CEO Torkia Mahloul started it after her own egg freezing journey; Majd Abu Zant is the other co-founder. According to Wamda, the Hub71-backed company was founded in 2023 and raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding in July 2025, led by PlusVC, Annex Investments and 25 Madison, to expand into Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.
Best for: women founders in health. Ovasave turned a personal problem into a product and talks about it openly, which builds trust in a sensitive market.
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5. Professional.me: an AI recruiter that lives in your chat app
Professional.me sells Meg, an AI recruiter that works inside Slack, Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp: you describe the role, and it finds, ranks and books candidates. Its homepage cites more than 80 employers, more than 560,000 profiles matched and 5 countries, and its about page lists CEO Ryan Adams in Abu Dhabi, a $500,000 pre-seed round from Raha Beach Ventures in June 2022, and a place in the HUB71 x Techstars Cohort 17 in September 2025. According to Wamda, it raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Raha Beach Ventures in August 2025, bringing its total to $4.6 million.
Best for: founders who want to meet users where they already work. Meg needs no new app, only a chat window the employer already has open.
6. BioSapien: a cancer drug implant tested in Abu Dhabi
BioSapien develops MediChip, a biodegradable, 3D-printed implant placed at the tumour site that releases chemotherapy locally over 28 days. Its site lists offices in San Diego and in the ADGM Building on Al Maryah Island, and its homepage shows logos including Hub71 and Mubadala. According to Hub71, BioSapien opened its first clinical site at Burjeel Cancer Institute in Abu Dhabi, where screening of patients with localised rectal cancer for a Phase I safety trial was due to start on 23 October 2026. The implant is investigational: its safety and benefit are not yet proven.
Best for: deep tech and health founders. Abu Dhabi offers foreign biotech companies regulators, hospitals and investors in one place.
Companies From the Old List That Changed or Are Not in Abu Dhabi
The 2026 version of this article mixed real Abu Dhabi startups with companies from Dubai, Saudi Arabia and the United States, and linked to third-party lists rather than to the companies. Here is what we found on their own sites:
- Careem: its about page calls it "Dubai born". It was sold to Uber in 2020 for $3.1 billion, and the telecom group e& later invested $400 million in the Careem Super App. A large company, but not an Abu Dhabi startup.
- Ziina: a payments app founded in Dubai in 2020, according to its own about page, which also lists Y Combinator (W21), a $22 million Series A and a Central Bank of the UAE licence in 2024.
- Amwal Tech: the Amwal at amwal.tech says it was founded in Saudi Arabia, is licensed by the Saudi Central Bank and has a Jeddah address. It offers credit card instalments, not the biometric checkout the old article described.
- TekRevol: a software and marketing agency with offices in Houston, Dubai, London and Doha. The old article linked to TekRevol's own list of UAE tech companies.
- BTSE: a crypto exchange. We found no Abu Dhabi base on its site, and company profiles place it elsewhere.
- Loft Orbital: a space infrastructure company that, according to its about page, operates in San Francisco, Golden (Colorado) and Toulouse.
- Wall Street Prep: a financial training company whose about page shows no Abu Dhabi base.
- Khibraty.io: the domain no longer resolves, so we could not verify the company.
- Xedos Technologies: an IT services company in Al Garhoud, Dubai, that supports clients across the UAE, not an Abu Dhabi startup.
We also removed the old article's unsourced figures (such as a "$40 billion UAE remittance market"), claims about partnerships we could not confirm, and its links to third-party startup lists.
Which Abu Dhabi Startup Should You Learn From?
- You build fintech: study Hubpay and how an ADGM licence lets a young company handle other businesses' money.
- You build B2B AI: study AppliedAI, which picked regulated industries and backers that open doors to them.
- You build in food or climate: study Pure Harvest and its mix of local farms and international investors.
- You build in women's health: study Ovasave, which grew from its founder's own experience into a regional product.
- You build HR or productivity tools: study Professional.me, which delivers its product inside the chat apps employers already use.
- You build deep tech: study BioSapien, which uses Abu Dhabi for clinical trials while keeping a US base.
How Founders Use Abu Dhabi's Startup Scene
Most of the companies above went through Hub71 or are licensed in ADGM, so start there if you want to move to Abu Dhabi. Before you apply, compare the startup incubators in Asia and the top startup accelerators, and meet investors at the events in our guide to startup events in Dubai. AI founders should read our guides to the best countries for AI startups, VCs for AI startups and angel investors for AI startups, and everyone raising in the region can compare early-stage VCs in Asia.
Women founders can add non-dilutive money from our lists of grants for women entrepreneurs in Asia and female founder grants, and find programmes in the femaleswitch.org guide to accelerators and incubators for women-led startups. If you hire in the UAE, mean.ceo compares HR and payroll software in the UAE. Comparing ecosystems? Read about China startups to watch, Mexico City startups to watch and San Diego startups to watch.
Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. When you want to get noticed, publish your startup press release and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool so customers and AI assistants can find you.
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FAQ About Abu Dhabi Startups to Watch in 2027
Which Abu Dhabi startups should I watch in 2027?
Our verified list: Hubpay, AppliedAI, Pure Harvest Smart Farms, Ovasave, Professional.me and BioSapien. Each still operates and shows an Abu Dhabi base on its official site, checked in October 2026.
Is Careem an Abu Dhabi startup?
No. Careem's own about page calls it Dubai born. It was sold to Uber in 2020 for $3.1 billion, and e& later invested $400 million in its Super App.
Is Ziina based in Abu Dhabi?
No. Ziina was founded in Dubai in 2020, according to its own about page, and is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE.
Which Abu Dhabi startups raised money recently?
AppliedAI completed a Pre-Series B round led by Mubadala's MENA Venture Capital Fund and Arbor Ventures in January 2026. According to Wamda, Professional.me raised a $3.1 million seed round in August 2025 and Ovasave a $1.2 million pre-seed round in July 2025.
Where does Abu Dhabi rank as a startup ecosystem?
According to Hub71, Startup Genome's 2026 Global Startup Ecosystem Report places Abu Dhabi in the 41st to 50th band of emerging ecosystems, with an ecosystem value of $73.4 billion.
How do I join Hub71?
Hub71 runs cohorts and programmes for different stages, from Initiate for idea-stage founders to Hub71+ tracks for AI, climate tech, digital assets and life sciences. Its Cohort 19, announced on 29 October 2026, took 40 startups from 2,502 applications.
How do I get a startup licence in Abu Dhabi?
ADGM offers an incentivised Tech Start-up licence. Its setup page says you need a Hub71 approval letter first and that the eligibility review takes about 21 days on average.
Is there funding for Emirati founders?
Yes. The Khalifa Fund is a not-for-profit fund of the Government of Abu Dhabi for Emirati-owned small businesses, and it co-runs the MZN x Hub71 Programme for Emirati founders.
Are there women-led startups in Abu Dhabi?
Yes. Ovasave, the fertility and hormone health company, is led by co-founder and CEO Torkia Mahloul and is backed by Hub71.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
