9th Expand North Star begins in Dubai

Expand North Star 2024, the world’s largest startup and investment event, is officially under way at Dubai Harbour. Hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), Expand North Star takes place from 13-16 October at the Middle East’s biggest superyacht club. 

Already the annual go-to showcase for startups, investors, accelerators, and tech enthusiasts to source funding, investment deals, and essential industry updates, Expand North Star 2024 is primed to be more dynamic and influential than ever, organisers said.

The event welcomed over 1,800 exhibiting startups and more than 1,200 investors, with assets under management (AUM) exceeding US$1 T.

Source: Expand North Star 2024. Expand North Star 2024 launch day welcomed the global tech ecosystem, investors, innovators, and over 100 participating countries.

This year's edition is also the largest and most international to date with over 100 countries participating. Many new exhibiting companies came from Central Asia and Southeast Asia, alongside many from the Middle East and Africa.  

Bringing together 59 leading unicorns with a combined valuation of US$400 B, Expand North Star 2024 fosters startup innovation with the all-new NS scaleups, a select community of startups. This programme was introduced to forge collaborations, stimulate business growth, and connect late-stage startups with strategic partners, venture capitalists, and clients. 

The opportunistic unicorn landscape was explored on day one in Climate Tech Unicorns: Valuation, Volatility, and Venture Capital. At the talk, Sean O’Sullivan, Founder of US venture capital firm SOSV – the world’s most active climate tech investor said: “Climate change is an urgent, existential crisis for humanity – and unsustainable, nonsensical business models cannot continue. There are opportunities for tens of thousands of startups to immediately begin solving our problems and reinventing society – becoming profitable over time. 

"Open AI was founded in 2015 and was going nowhere until recently. Now it’s the most valuable company in the world. With perseverance, companies can suddenly be worth hundreds of billions – even trillions – of dollars.” 

Throughout its four-day duration, Expand North Star will spotlight the future of money, Blockchain, creativity, and the planet through events such as GITEX Impact, Fintech Surge, Future Blockchain Summit, and Marketing Mania. Meanwhile, GITEX YouthX Unipreneur features YouthX Talks and an Educators Innovation Pitch.

The inaugural Tech Transfer 3.0 converges leading research labs, visionary scientists, engineers, tech experts, and academics to demonstrate innovation from concept to real-world applications. This event welcomes high-tech institutions for the first time – including IE University, University College London (UCL), Johns Hopkins University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Supernova Challenge 2.0 also presents the best startups worldwide, building momentum for new evemts such as GITEX ASIA Singapore. After six months of semi-finals worldwide, nearly 200 selected startups will pitch in the global grand finale for a prize pool of US$200,000. 

Expand North Star runs concurrently with GITEX GLOBAL 2024, the world’s largest and best-rated tech and startup event taking place at DWTC from 14-18 October.