His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum inaugurated the “Expand North Star 2025” exhibition, a premier global event aimed at connecting startups with investors. Organized by the Dubai World Trade Centre, the event takes place at Dubai Harbor from October 12 to 15.
His Highness praised the exhibition for its integrated platform that facilitates connections between innovative minds and investments, fostering the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the digital economy. He emphasized that “Expand North Star” reflects Dubai’s ambitions to stimulate innovation and opportunity creation, serving as a key platform that brings together leading entrepreneurs, investors, and technology creators to exchange expertise and establish impactful partnerships that drive digital economic growth and accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies.
He stated, “The exhibition reinforces Dubai’s position as a global hub for talent and investment, creating an environment that transforms ideas into tangible achievements that enhance competitiveness in vital sectors and support sustainable development and quality of life for the community.”
Accompanying His Highness during the visit were Minister of State for AI, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, Omar Sultan Al Olama, Director General of Dubai Chambers Mohamed Ali Rashed Lootah, and Deputy Head of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, Saeed Al Quraishi.
The visit included a tour of various pavilions featuring participating countries and companies, meetings with investors from tech and AI sectors, as well as discussions with representatives from unicorn startups. Additionally, he attended a panel session discussing the prospects of the upcoming decade for startup innovations and the UAE’s position as a global entrepreneurship capital.
His Highness commenced the tour by exploring the latest solutions and applications presented by the participating countries and companies, stopping at the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) pavilion to learn about initiatives and platforms supporting the knowledge economy, next-generation communication applications, and digital infrastructure that underpins AI innovations and IoT, creating opportunities for startups to grow regionally.
He also visited the Netherlands pavilion to discover the ecosystem of participating startups, highlighting clean technology solutions and deep-tech contributions to sustainability and innovation in critical sectors.
Moreover, he visited the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy pavilion, learning about its programs and initiatives aimed at empowering entrepreneurs, facilitating market access and financing, and its role in creating an environment that accelerates startup growth while attracting global talent to Dubai.
Meetings with Investors
During his visit to the exhibition, His Highness held a meeting with 15 investors from companies specialized in technology and AI. Discussions revolved around global investment trends in transformative technologies, opportunities available in Dubai for developing innovative business models, and enhancing connections between venture capital funds and promising startups, solidifying the emirate’s status as a global center for opportunities across all sectors.
Meeting with Unicorn Representatives
His Highness also met with representatives from unicorn startups, discussing avenues for international expansion from Dubai, the importance of cross-sector partnerships in accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies in markets, as well as supportive policies and programs for sustainable growth, talent development, and facilitating access to capital and markets.
Panel Session
He attended a panel session led by Minister Omar Sultan Al Olama and Yasser Khan, Editor-in-Chief of Thomson Reuters, which discussed the features of the coming decade for startup innovations and the UAE’s leading role as a global startup capital. The session explored how advanced technology companies will drive the next wave of high-growth businesses through AI solutions, deep-tech, and digital platforms addressing challenges in key sectors such as the economy, services, and sustainable urban living. The discussion also emphasized the significance of flexible regulatory frameworks, advanced digital infrastructure, and business facilitation programs in empowering entrepreneurs to translate ideas into globally impactful companies from Dubai.
The global exhibition, part of GITEX Global 2025, showcases over 2,000 of the most ambitious startups worldwide, featuring the highest concentration of companies in growth and expansion stages compared to other tech events. It also includes 40 unicorn companies and over 1,200 investors from 180 countries managing assets exceeding $1.1 trillion.
Alongside the exhibition, Expand North Star offers a rich array of diverse events and content through new interactive zones highlighting innovation and investment opportunities in vital future sectors.
The four-day program covers key themes across these sectors through an interactive conference schedule that includes specialized summits such as the GITEX ScaleX Ventures Summit, Climate Capital Summit, and the GITEX Digital Assets Forum.
Additionally, the Future Blockchain Forum focuses on the latest breakthroughs in Web 3 and financial technologies, while startups from various continents compete in the second edition of the Supernova 2.0 Challenge, the world’s largest competition showcasing startup ideas, with cash prizes totaling over $300,000.