Startup Failures in UAE

Bayzat pivoted so many times it lost its identity and then its funding.

UAE's scrappy BNPL player was outgunned by better-funded rivals and rising rates.

Dubai's robo-advisor ran out of runway when regional markets turned hostile.

Telr built a regional payments pioneer but Stripe and Checkout.com made it obsolete.

Eureeca pioneered equity crowdfunding in MENA but regulatory walls made scale impossible.

MENA's super-app dream sold to Uber for $3.1B before it could fully bloom.

$1.7 billion raised in 2018 — the SEC called it an unregistered securities offering and Telegram paid $1.2B back.

The GPS-based delivery startup backed by FedEx that solved the Middle East's no-address problem — then ran out of capital

The Middle East's electronics marketplace that couldn't survive the Amazon shadow.

Dubai's beloved bootstrapped marketplace killed by the harsh math of competing against VC-funded rivals.

The Arab world's biggest ecommerce brand swallowed whole by Amazon.

MENA's payment infrastructure pioneer erased when Amazon rebranded everything its own.

Dubai's corporate travel management startup was destroyed by COVID and TripActions' Middle East push

UAE digital banking startup outpaced by DIFC-licensed neobanks and incumbent bank digital arms

MENA e-commerce brand aggregator that acquired and scaled third-party marketplace sellers across Amazon and Noon in the Middle East

The Arab answer to Amazon that could not keep the lights on

UAE BNPL startup raised $10M but could not hold ground as Tabby and Tamara raised 50x more

UAE AI competing against sovereign-backed G42 ($1.5B+), Emirates NBD's 300-person AI team, and every global AI company using Dubai as their MENA headquarters

UAE BNPL for blue-collar workers — outcompeted by Tabby, Tamara, and Postpay simultaneously

MENA personal finance app that raised $5M and spent nine years trying to monetize budget tracking in a region where most banking relationships are informal.

UAE car subscription startup that raised $15M to let Gulf consumers swap cars monthly before rising debt costs destroyed the fleet-financing model.

Mohamed Alabbar e-commerce platform that raised $1B to beat Amazon in MENA but is losing the war.

Jordanian peer-to-peer SME lending platform raised $9M to finance Arab small businesses and shut down after nine years when the unit economics finally closed the door.