All · 121Accelerators & incubators · 14VC funds & investors · 50Grants & prizes · 7Government programmes · 10Angel networks · 9Corporate VCs · 15State equity · 1Loans & guarantees · 10Funds of funds · 1Support programmes · 4
Create AI Agents Championship (Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy)
Grant · UAE · Open
USD 150,000 grant for each of four category winners of Dubai's AI Agents championship.
No equity — grant; free to enter
—
Expo City Dubai Foundation — Changemakers Academy
Grant · UAE · Closed
Grants up to AED 50,000 plus incubation for idea-stage impact founders.
Grant
—
TiE Women MENA
Grant · UAE · Active
Pitch competition with US$50,000 in equity-free cash prizes.
No equity — cash prize
—
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Grant · UAE · Closed
Non-dilutive prize: US$1M per category winner, US$100K per finalist.
No equity — prize money
—
Al Quoz Creative Entrepreneurship Competition (Dubai Culture)
Grant · UAE · Closed
Cash prizes of AED 80,000 / 50,000 / 30,000 for the top three (2025 edition).
No equity — cash prize
—
FoodTech Challenge (UAE)
Grant · UAE · Closed
Global food-tech competition; the third edition offered $2m in cash, winners selected.
No equity — cash prize
—
MBZUAI Incubation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC)
Grant · UAE · Active
AI startup incubator at MBZUAI; competitive grants of up to AED 200k for its founders.
Grant — competitive
—
Grants & prizes elsewhere in the Gulf
These 7 are on the map next to the other 114 programmes in the UAE — filter the whole Gulf by type, deadline and equity.
Open the UAE map →