DIFC announces new venture studio rules

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has proposed to enact new Venture Studio Regulations to establish the first global legal framework for the regulation of venture building. The proposed regulations seek to enable, enhance and promote venture building from within DIFC.

In April 2022, DIFC announced the launch of the first global Venture Studio Launchpad to assist with the growth of DIFC’s financial ecosystem.

Jacques Visser, Chief Legal Officer at DIFC, said: “The introduction of global first-of-its-kind DIFC Venture Studio Regulations will add further depth to the DIFC’s thriving innovation ecosystem. The proposed regulations provide a legal framework that enables the scaling of businesses; the ability to develop, test and launch new start-ups; and which supports venture builders, entrepreneurs and investors. DIFC is committed to providing a robust regulatory environment for businesses to operate with confidence and certainty, including in new and developing sectors.”

The key benefits of the proposed Venture Studio Regulations include providing the world’s first legislative framework for venture building and, in doing so, establishing legal certainty for the venture building model. It will also provide certainty on how venture studios, entrepreneurs and spin-off entities deal with each other and the wider market. Additionally, it will facilitate the ease of doing business within the venture studio model, with specific operational measures implemented to enable the incubation of new business ideas, sponsorship of entrepreneurs and reduced costs for the scaling of new businesses. The proposed regulations will form tailored ecosystem for venture building, entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors.

Furthermore, it allows forming a tailored ecosystem for venture building, entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors.

The proposed regulations have been posted for a 30-day public consultation period with the deadline for providing comments ending on March 19, 2023.