Dubai has been ranked the world’s third most startup-friendly behind San Francisco and Zurich and ahead of established hubs including New York, London and Paris.
The Startup Friendly Cities Index 2026, published by Multipolitan assessed startup ecosystem depth across 60 countries before ranking 28 cities based on five criteria: startup activity, digital connectivity, young talent, quality of life and business agility.
Dubai topped the global rankings for business agility, reflecting fast company incorporation processes, regulatory efficiency and competitive tax conditions.
According to the report, founders in Dubai can often complete company setup in about a week, putting the city ahead of major global centres such as New York, London, São Paulo and Mexico City in overall setup speed.
The index measures business agility by combining incorporation timelines with effective corporate tax burdens at national, emirate and city levels.
Dubai also scored strongly on talent attraction and quality of life. On Multipolitan’s combined metric covering higher education quality, depth of talent, cost of living, safety, healthcare, pollution and purchasing power, Dubai recorded a score of 178.5. This placed it ahead of cities including San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, London and New York.
While Dubai’s number of unicorns and overall startup scale remains below more mature ecosystems such as San Francisco, London and Paris, the index noted that the gap is narrowing.
Cities compete to attract founders
Multipolitan said cities with high regulatory efficiency and strong talent inflows are becoming increasingly attractive to founders, even if they have fewer large exits today.
“The geography of entrepreneurship is shifting, and a city’s competitiveness now depends on how well it enables founders to build, with frictionless business setup and access to global talent, Dubai has engineered a founder experience that is increasingly hard to match,” said Nirbhay Handa, chief executive and co-founder of Multipolitan.
In Asia, Singapore ranked fourth globally and Seoul seventh, highlighting what the report described as an eastward shift in innovation power.
Legacy European hubs such as London, ranked eighth, and Paris, ranked tenth, continue to attract capital and talent but face challenges linked to bureaucracy and higher costs.
Multipolitan said the UAE’s digital governance framework, residency programmes and financial free zones such as DIFC and ADGM have strengthened Dubai’s position as a base for globally mobile founders.
“Founders follow efficiency, investors follow founders, and the cities that make it easiest to build will define the next chapter of global innovation. The next Silicon Valley may not be in California,” said Nicholas Michael, group head of market development at Multipolitan.
Top 10 Startup Friendly Cities 2026
- San Francisco
- Zurich
- Dubai
- Singapore
- New York City
- Los Angeles
- Seoul
- London
- Hong Kong
- Paris
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