UAE's Business Ecosystem: A launchpad for global entrepreneurs

The UAE welcomes entrepreneurs from around the world to invest in the region and gain immensely. The country is offering talent passes, freelance permits, start-up licenses especially focused on small businesses. The free zones in the UAE support the small business growth significantly through various license packages and business infrastructure support.

The free zones have world-class facilities such as executive offices, co-working spaces, flexi-desk offices, where small business can start and succeed easily. They can start with a minimal budget and work on the business goals seamlessly.

The UAE has a lot to offer to the business community. The favourable tax regime, global connectivity, a large network of national and international banks, logistics support, public safety, ease of doing business, world-class infrastructure at an affordable cost, and growing real estate options provide a conducive environment for businesses to thrive and expand easily.

Scaling up or expanding a new business from the UAE comes with its own challenges as there are multiple aspects involved in the process. Key parameters to consider include adding new business activities, structuring the company as a branch or head office, identifying the addressable market and competition, handling legal documentation, and compliance, and more. This is where the role of an expert business consultant such as AURION comes in.

Our team will provide investors with a complete understanding of the legislation, procedures, office space specifications, market expansion strategies, investment requirements, and more to expand their company seamlessly, from the UAE to the world.

We begin by understanding the client’s requirements, long-term vision, activities, ownership goals, and funding plans. We then evaluate how each structure supports scalability, investor entry, tax efficiency, and operational flexibility as the business grows.

Selecting the right jurisdiction and framework is prioritised over simply choosing the cheapest option. Our aim is to guide entrepreneurs, MSMEs, and MNCs towards a structure that is compliant and robust enough to support future expansion and strategic evolution.

Our approach is advisory-led and future-focused. We help clients understand how their chosen structure affects licensing, hiring, taxation, compliance, ownership, and future restructuring. Through the A&A ecosystem, we streamline non-core functions like tax and accounting, IP protection, legal support, banking, HR, payroll, and marketing so companies can focus on their core business. This integrated support allows businesses to scale confidently, backed by a structure designed for long-term operational and financial efficiency.

At Consult Kumar, we do not believe that our role ends with business formation, since it is just the start of the entrepreneurial journey. With almost two decades of experience, we know that what matters is staying with the client throughout the journey, from setting up to scaling up.

This is the differentiator we have always offered to countless entrepreneurs. Our support to building the bricks of entrepreneurship can be endorsed by businesses. Through the years, we have helped set up over 5,000 companies, many in the UAE, but also in nearly 10 global jurisdictions, covering over 100 business activities.

We have always believed that we are strategic partners to our clients and our mandate goes beyond business formation. This is why we support them in building local credibility, navigate evolving regulations, and also identify growth corridors for their businesses in the UAE and GCC.

Innovation runs on the fast track in the business ecosystem of the UAE. This is why new entrepreneurs are offered regulatory sand boxes to test their business models in a real-world environment.

At Consult Kumar, we help businesses identify the right ecosystems, where their ideas can be put to test responsibly and in the rightful strategic growth perspective. Innovation hubs like the DIFC Fintech Hive, Dubai Science Park, and Masdar City are platforms of confluence for investors, mentors, and regulators.

Start-ups entering the UAE are operating in a competitive and fast-moving environment, and at Créo Global, we help them understand how the market works and how founders make decisions by analysing signals across media, sector demand, and founder behaviour.

This allows us to design acquisition systems that bring clarity to the founder’s journey and help free zones connect with the right audience at the right moment.

While global macroeconomic trends are reshaping investment patterns, the UAE is attracting strong international interest due to its focus on innovation, sector aligned regulation, and economic openness. Investors today are prioritising ventures that can scale, demonstrate real demand, and operate within credible and supportive environments.

For start-ups and SMEs, the path forward is to position themselves with clarity, adopt lean and focused models, and align with the UAE’s priority sectors. Businesses that combine ambition with operational discipline and data informed decision making will be best placed to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.

Companies today are rethinking and are structuring their financial and tax planning with far greater discipline. With the introduction of Corporate Tax, businesses are shifting toward structured reporting, stronger internal controls, and long-term tax planning instead of year-end compliance.

The most forward-thinking companies now treat tax as a core business strategy by running continuous impact assessments, reassessing QFZP eligibility, reviewing transfer pricing positions, optimising group structures, and planning loss utilisation long before year-end. At Dominic & Partners, we help clients transform tax into a strategic advantage by aligning accounting, operations, and decision-making with regulatory expectations.

Corporate Tax is a decisive and vital factor in shaping broader business decisions. Companies are reconsidering where they base operations, how they allocate resources, and whether new ventures should be structured as standalone entities or part of tax groups without violating GAAR.

Hiring strategies are changing as finance teams need stronger technical expertise. Investment decisions are more data-driven, with tax impact now a key evaluation metric. Our role at Dominic & Partners is to provide clarity, help clients build resilient tax frameworks, and ensure they make confident, compliant, future-focused decisions.

The UAE’s business set-up sector has transformed from complex processes to a fully digital environment where information is easily accessible. But even with everything online, nothing replaces real experience. Regulations still shift and each jurisdiction has its own nuances. What makes Ezone different is our focus on relationship and integrity. We do what we say and we say what we do.

With more than 13 years in the industry, and having built my career from the ground up, we guide clients with honesty, clarity and lived experience. In a market like the UAE, relationships and reputation can make or break you. That is why trust is the foundation of everything we do. I built Ezone as an entrepreneur advising entrepreneurs. Every client gets the same guidance I would give myself. Our mission is simple. Give every founder the clarity I wish I had when I began.

Plant-It-Forward reflects our belief that businesses should create meaningful impact. For every company set up through Ezone, we plant a tree. It is a simple way for founders to begin their journey with purpose, contributing to reforestation and sustainability.

Transfer pricing is no longer a peripheral issue; it has become central to tax compliance in the UAE. At Hussain Al Shemsi Chartered Accountants (HALSCA), we support businesses in navigating this evolving landscape by developing robust and defensible documentation frameworks tailored to their operational realities.

We conduct arm’s length benchmarking using reliable global databases and prepare clients for FTA audits through tailored risk assessments and compliance reviews. For multinational and related-party structures, we place strong emphasis on proactive planning, detailed functional analyses, and intercompany agreement reviews to ensure complete alignment with OECD guidelines and UAE-specific transfer pricing requirements, minimising exposure and enhancing audit readiness.

As the UAE moves toward implementing Pillar Two and the Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax, large multinationals and free zone entities must reassess their global tax strategies. The 15 per cent minimum tax threshold will affect profit allocation models, especially for groups that rely on preferential regimes.

We foresee increased demand for substance-based reviews, restructuring advice, and impact modelling. Free zone entities must stay vigilant, as qualifying status alone may not shield them from top-up tax exposure. Trust is built on transparency and strengthened by accountability.

At HALSCA, our role is to simplify complexity. By combining regulatory insight with practical execution, we help clients stay compliant, competitive, and confident in a fast-evolving tax landscape.

In today’s dynamic and evolving tax landscape, it is very important that companies approach financial and tax planning as an integrated strategy. Our role at IAS is to help businesses design and implement frameworks that balance profitability and compliance with the relevant laws.

This emphasises building forecast models that anticipate FTA requirements, optimising their structures to benefit from free zone incentives, and embedding risk management into daily decision-making.

By leveraging tools and expertise like data analytics and advisory reviews, we enable businesses to identify operating inefficiencies, manage cash flow, and ensure that their compliance with the laws enhances and does not hinder competitiveness. True competitiveness lies in transparency, alignment, and foresight.

The key to staying ahead is preparedness. Companies should focus on maintaining robust transfer pricing documentation that is aligned with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and FTA guidelines, and this should be supported with benchmarking studies.

Ensure that intercompany agreements reflect arm’s-length principles, and regular Transfer Pricing reviews should be a standard.

During audits, we must be prepared to present consistent and clear data trails and disclosures, which minimise risk and build credibility.

Those who treat transfer pricing as strategic governance will lead confidently in this new regulatory era.

We began with a simple goal to support businesses with reliable accounting and taxation services. We began exploring opportunities in the UAE and realised that our clients needed guidance from the set-up stage onwards, so we added company formation as a service along with its crucial steps. I personally believe that every business should understand and analyse its risks and advantages before taking the first step, which helped us build our services and processes. This year, we became a registered tax agency with the FTA and also secured our audit licence.

When a new enquiry comes in, we begin with a call to understand the client’s exact needs, and then, moving forward, we assign a dedicated relationship manager so the onboarding process feels smooth and personal.

Real Estate, family offices, fit-out and construction firms, traders, manufacturers, e-commerce brands, and many other industries are just a few of the diverse clientele we serve. Some are large firms, some are smaller set-ups, and each one trusts us to guide them towards the right business zone and structure for their goals.

For businesses preparing to scale or enter new regional markets, our advisory team helps establish the right corporate structure, align tax obligations, and create a compliant foundation for long term expansion.

Many companies underestimate how critical banking readiness, financial reporting, and regulatory alignment become at the scale stage.

We assist with corporate tax and VAT consultancy, accounting and bookkeeping support, bank account opening, payment gateway set-up, attestation and legalisation, and office space solutions to ensure that growth is operationally sound.

For teams relocating talent or establishing regional bases, we also provide relocation assistance and ongoing operational support. Our approach ensures that businesses expand with clarity, efficiency, and a strong regulatory footing.

Investors should anchor their decisions to the UAE’s long term national agenda.

Under We the UAE 2031 and the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, the country is prioritising high value industries that reinforce innovation, sustainability, and economic diversification.

This includes the digital and technology economy, renewable and clean energy, logistics and trade infrastructure, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, advanced manufacturing, and real estate development supported by large scale urban expansion.

These are the sectors benefiting from regulatory support, infrastructure investment, and talent attraction initiatives, which makes them well positioned for sustained growth.

We go beyond incorporation. Through our offices in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and India, we provide our clients with cross-border growth support that includes legal structuring, market-entry documentation, and taxation readiness. It’s a one-stop shop for growth in Asia and the Gulf.

AI and fintech are changing customer expectations in addition to revolutionising entire industries. At SAB, we’ve reduced turnaround times by 40 per cent by integrating predictive set-up mapping and AI-based compliance checks. Technology is now a necessity for more intelligent set-up, risk mitigation, and scalable entrepreneurship.

MCA supports businesses in high-growth sectors such as tech, healthcare, and renewable energy through end-to-end corporate advisory and structuring solutions. From business set-up in the right free zone or mainland jurisdiction to regulatory licensing, tax planning, and compliance, MCA ensures each entity is future-ready and scalable. The firm also guides clients through sec-tor-specific approvals, IP protection, and bank account facilitation. With deep regional exper-tise, digital transformation initiatives, and a client-first approach, MCA helps innovators build sustainable operations.

It stands out for its speed, flexibility, and investor confidence. Entrepreneurs can establish companies within days, with 100 per cent foreign ownership, streamlined digital licensing, and clear regulatory frameworks. Free zones offer tailored incentives, while the mainland allows unrestricted market access. A 0% personal income tax regime, world-class infrastructure, and global connectivity further enhance its appeal. The government’s focus on innovation, sustainability, and ease of doing business, supported by stable leadership and strong banking, makes the UAE not only a gateway to the Middle East but also a thriving base for global entrepreneurs.