Author: Emirates Insight

Every year, TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield pitch contest draws thousands of applicants. We whittle those applications down to the top 200 contenders, and of them, the top 20 compete on the big stage to become the winner, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and a cash prize of $100,000. But the remaining 180 startups all blew us away as well in their respective categories and compete in their own pitch competition. Here is the full list of the enterprise tech Startup Battlefield 200 selectees, along with a note on why they landed in the competition AI Seer  What it does: Builds…

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has continued to accelerate its transmission expansion programme in 2025, commissioning eight new substations and extending 250km of underground cables and overhead transmission lines at a cost of more than AED1.35 billion. The projects, carried out in Al Warsan 4, Al Yalayis 5, Hatta, Saih Shuaib 3, Al Habiyah 5 and Jebel Ali First, are part of DEWA’s ongoing drive to develop advanced electricity infrastructure that supports Dubai’s rapid growth. DEWA also commenced work on five additional 132kV main transmission substations to supply new Emirati residential areas, including Latifa City, Al Awir I and…

As Dubai’s property market continues to shatter records and capture global attention, the realities behind the deals are rarely as polished as they appear on screen. In the latest episode of AB Majlis, Tala Michel Issa, Chief Reporter at Arabian Business, sat down with Million Dollar Listing UAE stars Ben Bhandari and Rami Wahood to unpack what really changed in season two, from heightened pressure and personal risk to the evolving dynamics of Dubai’s ultra-competitive real estate market. “It’s completely different. You can’t compare it in any single way, shape or form,” Wahood said. “It goes deep into our personal…

Nearly a quarter of all stablecoins are now sitting on exchanges, largely unused and waiting for direction. Stablecoin supply has climbed to a record $314 billion in 2025, with $69 billion now parked on centralized exchanges, according to the latest data from CryptoQuant. The scale and concentration of this liquidity, much of it sitting idle, have sharpened focus on whether the market is primed for its next major move once sentiment flips. $69B in Stablecoins Cluster on Binance as Liquidity Waits CryptoQuant contributor Crazzyblockk wrote on December 29 that exchange-held stablecoin reserves stand at $69 billion, representing about 22%…

Ousmane Dembélé and Aitana Bonmatí were the major winners at the 16th BEYOND Developments GLOBE SOCCER Awards held on Sunday evening in Dubai. During a glittering ceremony at the ultra-luxury Atlantis The Royal hotel, Paris Saint-Germain forward Dembélé was crowned Best Men’s Player for the first time and FC Barcelona midfielder Bonmatí made history by being named Best Women’s Player for a third consecutive year. Attended by world football’s most celebrated players, decision-makers, legends, and rising stars, the 2025 edition of the GLOBE SOCCER Awards saw more than 20 awards presented on the night. French giants PSG, capping off an…

At TechCrunch Disrupt, three investors took the stage to dissect what makes — and breaks — a pitch deck. Jyoti Bansal, a founder-turned-investor; Medha Agarwal of Defy; and Jennifer Neundorfer of January Ventures shared with the crowd their candid views on what works in a pitch deck — and what doesn’t. Their biggest pet peeve? Buzzword overload. The more a founder says AI in the pitch, Agarwal said, the less AI the company likely uses. “The people who are doing things that are really innovative, they’ll talk about it, and it’s built in, but it’s not the core of their pitch,” she told the audience.   Bansal, who built and sold multiple companies…

The Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) revealed that the Arab region’s food and beverage sector attracted 516 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with Capex of US$22 billion and 93000 jobs between January 2003 and December 2024. In its third sectoral report for 2025 on the Arab food and beverage sector, issued at its headquarters in the State of Kuwait today, Dhaman said that five Arab countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Morocco and Qatar, attracted 421 FDI projects, making up 82 percent of the total, with Capex of more than US$17 billion, or 79 percent. These projects created…

Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) 2025 has begun announcing weekly winners for its citywide Shop, Scan & Win campaign, offering shoppers the opportunity to win from a total cash prize pool of up to AED 1 million. Running from 5 December 2025 until 11 January 2026, the campaign rewards everyday shopping with weekly cash prizes and live winner celebrations held as part of DSF Nights. As part of the promotion, shoppers who spend AED 200 or more at any participating outlet can scan the QR code on their receipt to enter the digital raffle. Entries are collected weekly, with six winners…

The crypto market went through another minor roller-coaster. It almost feels like a deja vu in the past few weeks, and it happened again on Monday morning as BTC pumped to just over $90,000, only to be rejected violently there and drive immediately south to its starting position. Most larger-cap altcoins followed suit, with ETH going above and below $3,000 in the span of hours. BTC Stopped (Yet Again) The chart below will clearly demonstrate BTC’s inability to break through the $90,000 resistance despite several attempts in the past few weeks. In fact, it has been rejected at least…

Pay10 and Commercial Bank of Dubai has announced the successful go-live of Open Finance services under the UAE’s Open Finance Initiative, AlTareq, marking a significant advancement in the country’s transition toward regulated, customer-centric digital financial services. As part of this milestone, CBD in collaboration with Pay10 has enabled its retail current and savings accounts to connect through the UAE’s Open Finance framework, allowing customers to securely share data and initiate payments in line with Central Bank of the UAE regulations. This activation represents one of the first large-scale retail implementations of Open Finance capabilities in the country, moving beyond controlled…