Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) registered 492 new companies in the first half of the year, up 59 percent on the same period last year.
It means the emirate’s financial hub has achieved its ‘2024 Strategy’ growth targets three years ahead of schedule.
The total number of active registered companies has reached 3,292, an increase of 27 percent year-on-year (H1 2020: 2,584), and three-times the number when the ‘2024 Strategy’ was originally initiated.
Overall, DIFC is now home to 1,025 financial and innovation-related companies, up 25 percent from last year (820).
Arif Amiri (pictured below), chief executive officer of DIFC Authority, said: “Our reputation as a leading global centre for finance, fintech and innovation has contributed to our ability to attract new entities to our ecosystem, alongside our continued efforts to enhance our operating environment, regulatory frameworks and innovation initiatives.”
Following its launch in May, DIFC’s Innovation Hub has reached full capacity with tenants including early to growth-stage start-ups such as YAP, Beehive, Tabby, Xpence, Stake, Rain and Bayzat as well as Thunderbird School of Global Management, part of Arizona State University, and established tech companies including Ebury, Amazon and Huawei.
To meet demand, DIFC has announced a fourfold expansion to the hub in the next two years, which will see it grow to more than 315,000 sqft in order to accommodate up to 1,000 businesses.
The DIFC Innovation Hub also incorporates the FinTech Hive. To date, 100 start-ups have taken part in FinTech Hive-based programmes, rigorously selected from over 2,400 applications. The start-ups have successfully raised $100 million.
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