Mass firings by social media major Twitter, edtech leader Byju’s and scores of other ventures in India and globally are set to trigger large-scale tech talent movement to the UAE, talent search firms and startup entrepreneurs said.
Fintech, edtech and healthtech ventures are the most sought after sectors for techies moving from India and other parts of the world to the Gulf country.
“Twitter’s loss is Dubai’s gain,” said A Ramachandran, founder and chief executive officer of MyRCloud, a leading recruitment marketplace for technology companies, told Arabian Business.
“There has already been a significant spike in tech talent movement to the UAE from India in the recent months in the wake of a series of policy initiatives by UAE, and this trend is expected to see a quantum big in the coming weeks and months following the recent large-scale employee layoffs by startups and leading companies in India and in the Western countries,” Ramachandran, whose platform focuses mainly on tech talent search and hiring for the Emirates.
The spike in tech talent movement to the UAE from India alone is estimated to be up to 40 percent in the last months.
Human resource (HR) industry experts and startup founders said besides India, there has been an uptick in tech talent movement to the Gulf country from many other parts of the world, including Silicon Valley, in recent months.
“When we announced new vacancies for senior roles to be based in Dubai, particularly for the position of chief metaverse officer, we were surprised to see the applications received from high profile executives who either recently left or on notice from global giants such as Microsoft, Uber and Byju’s,” Shihab Makaniyil, founder and CEO of ShopDoc, a healthtech startup moved base from India to Dubai recently, which is now building the world’s first preventive healthcare platform in metaverse, told Arabian Business.
“[It’s] not just Twitter rapid-firing which is making news in the tech world, but almost all global tech giants including Microsoft and Meta have also started either putting a freeze on hiring or reducing their headcounts. Silicon Valley has now embraced the huge wave of new layoffs as the recession is said to be imminent,” Makaniyil said.
Shaan Abdul Rahman, founder and chief operating officer of THC, a leading Dubai-based strategic HR consultancy, also confirmed the latest surge in tech talent movement to the country from India and other parts of the world.
“There is a sudden increase in the number of applications we process from India for IT and software roles, mainly for consumer focused companies based in the UAE and across the region,” Rahman said.
“It’s not the usual migration pattern …. the impact [of the layoffs] is profound. [The number of] candidates who are having startup exposure in their CVs is substantial,” said Rahman, whose consultancy operates across the GCC to deliver cross-industry human capital solutions.
Rahman said after years of continued growth that led to over-hiring, the technology and startup sectors are now going through an adjustment phase.
Makaniyil said the surge in tech talent movement to the UAE could benefit UAE companies by way of reduced hiring and talent retention costs.
“The new trend will also turn beneficial for the UAE government schemes and initiatives to attract tech companies and talents to the country. The pool of high calibre tech resources will no longer be concentrated in one place – Dubai. Abu Dhabi will also emerge as the new hubs for web 3.0 and metaverse ventures,” Makaniyil said.
Arjun Varma, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Alcodex, an Indian startup in the weather monitoring arena, told Arabian Business that even startup entrepreneurs from India were also looking to move to the Emirates in numbers of late.
“Lot of Indian startups are also planning to set up in Ras Al Khaimah to capture the opportunity,” he said.
Ramachandran, however, said though there is a rush of techies from India to seek employment in the UAE, they were ready to move only on their own terms – with a substantial hike in remuneration level from what they are or were getting in India as a major condition.
“The new generation tech talents are very discerning. They pick and choose jobs that they want, not what they are offered,” Ramachandran, a highly seasoned HR expert, leading EMA Partners in India and the UAE said.
Besides firing by global majors, the Indian startup ecosystem has also seen an unprecedented level of mass layoffs this year, with an estimated over 15,000 employees having lost their jobs, predominantly at major tech startups as the funding winter has intensified.
Edtech has seen the maximum layoffs, with13 major startups, including four edtech unicorns, letting thousands of employees go in recent months.
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