From developing new permutations for online payment to addressing food security and climate change, Abu Dhabi has turned into the region’s most fertile greenhouse for tech startups.

A new report by San Francisco-based Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network ratifies the phenomenon that has become evident in a daily flow of product and funding announcements from fledgling companies in the UAE capital.

The Global Startup Ecosystem Report identifies Abu Dhabi as the fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa region, measuring a 28% growth rate between July 2021 and December 2023.

The Silicon Valley data tracker also highlights key players in Abu Dhabi that are nurturing the startup cradle, including Mubadala, ADQ, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), startAD, and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.

Collaborations with the sovereign wealth funds and other UAE institutions have facilitated a soft-landing for startups in Abu Dhabi from around the world, providing them with access to capital and commercial opportunities, the report says. As a result, Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 community now hosts more than 315 startups that have collectively raised $1.5 billion, the report says.

The GSER, analyzes data from over 4.5 million companies across more than 300 entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems. Abu Dhabi’s ranking jumped 15 spots compared to the previous year, based on $284 million in total early-stage funding and $1.06 billion in total venture capital funding from 2019 to 2023.

Cargo shippers, cruise boat owners and insurers are calling for urgent action to put an end to eight months of attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

“We call for states with influence in the region to safeguard our innocent seafarers and for the swift de-escalation of the situation in the Red Sea,” 14 of the world’s biggest shipping companies said in a joint statement issued on Wednesday.

The signatories are: Asian Association of Shipowners, Bimco, CLIA, ECSA, Intermanager, Intercargo, IAPH, ICS, IFMSA, IMEC, International Maritime Pilots Association, IPTA, FONBASA, and World Shipping Council.

Insurance industry sources said that additional war risk premiums, paid when vessels sail through the Red Sea, had hovered close to 0.7% of the value of a ship in recent days after rising to as much as 1% earlier this year, Reuters reports.

They say more attacks are likely to push insurance rates higher, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra costs to every voyage.

Anticipation of the Gulf’s first sanctioned casino complex has sparked a development boom in the UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, with five-star resorts and multi-million dollar villas rapidly springing up from the desert sands.

Las Vegas casino operator Wynn Resorts last year announced plans for a $4 billion resort on the artificial Marjan islands, about one hour’s drive north of Dubai, which had been all but abandoned since they were completed in 2013.

Now, more than 20 developers are busy at work with Marjan, the owner of the islands, planning to build 9,000 new hotel rooms and as many villas, Bloomberg reports.

Currently there are six hotels with a total of 3,052 rooms, including JW Marriott and Rixos.

Already popular with Russian and Chinese tourists, the resort is expected to lure foreign gamblers looking for a taste of Las Vegas closer to home.

RAK’s small international airport is planning to triple its capacity to 2 million passengers with construction of a new terminal by 2027, when the casino resort is expected to open to the public.

Amid global efforts to move away from fossil fuels, the world’s biggest oil producers see continued growth in demand for at least the next 20 years.

OPEC Secretary General Hathaim Al Ghais offered a peek at the bloc’s long-term forecast in a response to the International Energy Agency’s report on Wednesday that projects oil demand peaking by 2029 and leveling off at around 106 million barrels per day towards the end of the decade, Reuters reports.

The OPEC chief, writing in Energy Aspects, called the IEA report “dangerous commentary, especially for consumers, [that] will only lead to energy volatility on a potentially unprecedented scale.”

Al Ghais said similar narratives had been proven wrong previously, such as the IEA suggesting gasoline demand had peaked in 2019 or that coal demand had peaked in 2014.

As Saudi Arabia invests billions of dollars to adorn its western Red Sea coast with uber-luxe resorts, the kingdom is encouraging foreign tourists to relax on the beach secure in the knowledge that their state-of-the-art hotels are aiming for net-zero emissions.

Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb told the 1,500 delegates attending the Future Investment Initiative Priority Summit in Brazil on Thursday that his nation is committed to sustainable tourism in its sprawling $1.5 trillion Neom mega-project, building developments that adhere to environmental best practices.

Speaking at the Copacabana Palace hotel overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s far-more-developed Atlantic coastline, Al-Khateeb laid down a welcome mat for international investors looking to sink money into the Saudi sand.

“The kingdom’s doors are open for business,” the Saudi minister said at the summit, a spin-off from the annual “Davos in the Desert” conference in Riyadh that is backed by the Public Investment Fund. “We are keen to provide a favorable environment for international investors, and the investment facilities aim to make doing business in the kingdom in the most efficient and the least expensive way.”

While home to Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, the Gulf nation is stressing its commitment to the environment at the Brazil conference. The PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, issued a report on Thursday that highlighted the state mining company Ma’aden’s sustainability efforts, including projects for biodiversity management, vegetation improvement and the preservation of seaside mangrove tree thickets in coastal areas.

Abu Dhabi edtech platform Alef Education struggled on its first day of trading on the ADX, in a rare down day for an IPO on a Gulf exchange.

The shares closed 13% lower than the offer price of 1.35 dirhams on Wednesday despite strong demand for the stock when the IPO was rolled out. Investors poured in over $20 billion worth of orders, pricing Alef at the top of the range and raising 1.89 billion dirhams ($515 million) for the company.

But Abu Dhabi’s first initial share sale of 2024 marks the worst debut since 2021. The 14 companies that had gone public since the start of 2021 saw their shares rise by about 31% on average in the first session, according to Bloomberg data.

“Opening up below IPO price reflects negatively on the valuation it was sold at and the risk appetite of investors and liquidity of the market at that point,” Mohammed Ali Yasin, founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Financial Consultancy and Investments, told the news agency.

Turkish grocery delivery startup Getir, which counts Mubadala as its largest shareholder, plans to address a management dispute that has been blocking a funding lifeline from existing investors.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala demanded in April that additional cash be conditional upon changes to the board and senior management.

Getir CEO Nazim Salur agreed this week to convene an annual general assembly and vote on a new board, as the two sides work to move past the feud, Bloomberg reports.

Salur founded the company in 2015, operating at its peak over 1,100 so-called “dark stores” which worked as fulfillment centers in high-density neighborhoods.

Getir raised $768 million in a Series E round at a valuation of $11.8 billion in March 2022 amid a flood of investment into the delivery space during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The cash infusion spurred the company to continue its aggressive expansion into Europe and the U.S. which it has since unwound, now focusing on its home market of Turkey.

It was most recently valued at $2.5 billion as of September. Other investors include Sequoia and Tiger Global, as well as the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund and Alpha Wave Global. 

From food security to professional football, Saudi Arabia is ready to deploy billions of dollars to invest in Brazil and its Latin American neighbors as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund expands its scope of global investments.

That’s the message being delivered in Rio de Janeiro by Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan who opened a three-day conference on Wednesday aimed at cementing the Gulf country’s financial links with resource-rich nations on the South American continent.

“We started investing in Brazil in 2016… in food securities [and] we are interested in investing in technology, renewable energy, and mining, and hopefully in football too,” Al-Rumayyan said as he kicked off the PIF’s Future Investment Initiative Priority Summit at the Copacabana Palace Hotel overlooking the city’s legendary beach.

Touting the sovereign fund’s $2 trillion in assets, Al-Rumayyan, who is also Chairman of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company; English soccer club Newcastle United and the two-year-old LIV Golf tournament, said the kingdom is particularly interested in companies that are developing infrastructure for artificial intelligence in the Southern Hemisphere.

“We should look for solutions [as to] how to power the AI revolution through renewable energy,” he said, “Brazil is well-positioned to be one of the major players. What you need is the right regulations and government backing, along with an investment mix.”

Brazilian Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said the kingdom intends to invest some $15 billion in Brazil.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva followed Al-Rumayyan onstage, telling the conference’s 1,500 participants that his visit to Riyadh last November provided “tremendous impetus” for collaboration with Saudi Arabia.

“We are not just the Brazil of soccer or Brazil of the violence,” Lula said. “We are also the Brazil of the men and women who want to grow and develop.”