Expand North Star 2024: Dubai's Global Startup Summit Begins

The highly anticipated Expand North Star 2024, recognized as the largest startup and investment event globally, has officially commenced in the UAE. The event kicked off on Sunday at Dubai Harbour, where the entire global startup ecosystem gathered for an exhilarating opening day.

Event Overview and Significance

Hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and organized by the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), Expand North Star spans from October 13 to 16 at the Middle East's premier superyacht club. This annual gathering has become the go-to platform for startups, investors, accelerators, and technology enthusiasts to secure funding, investment deals, and vital industry insights. With its nine-year legacy, Expand North Star 2024 is set to be the most impactful and vibrant iteration yet.

Record-Breaking Participation

As the event unites the entire startup community in the UAE, it also serves to accelerate the growth of the world’s most promising startups. This year's edition is notably the largest and most globally inclusive, featuring participation from over 100 countries. With the highest European representation ever, more than 1,000 SMEs and 450 startups from 35 nations are attending, highlighted by the session “Connected for Success: The Power of Cross-border Collaboration in Europe.”

Insightful Discussions and Networking Opportunities

A key highlight of the first day was a panel discussion featuring Dr. Sebastian Schäfer, CEO of House of Finance & Tech Berlin, alongside representatives from France, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. They explored the evolving landscape of funding and investment. Expand North Star 2024 also showcases a diverse range of new exhibiting companies from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, alongside many from the Middle East and Africa.

Dr. Schäfer called for newfound cross-continental collaboration between European nations, citing the vast “untapped potential” across the digital space. He said: “As countries, we don’t collaborate. We need real joint value propositions for tangible success and use cases that help us to work together. We have the ingredients needed to compete with the big tech companies from China and the US – but we need novelty ways to utilise advantages, harness talent, and create future unicorn factories. There’s so much untapped potential waiting to be explored.”

Encouraging Innovation and Collaboration

The event brings together 59 leading unicorns with a collective valuation of $400 billion, promoting innovation through the newly introduced NS Scaleups program. This initiative aims to create partnerships, drive business growth, and connect late-stage startups with strategic allies, venture capitalists, and clients. One of the standout sessions discussed the “Climate Tech Unicorns: Valuation, Volatility, and Venture Capital.”

During the Sunday afternoon talk, Sean O’Sullivan, Founder of US venture capital firm SOSV – the world’s most active climate tech investor – addressed the opportunities at hand for the climate tech unicorns of tomorrow. He 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.”

Anticipated Highlights of Expand North Star 2024

Exploring Future Trends

Over its four-day span, Expand North Star will focus on pivotal themes such as the future of money, blockchain technology, creativity, and environmental sustainability. Key events include GITEX Impact, Fintech Surge, Future Blockchain Summit, and Marketing Mania.

Tech Transfer 3.0 Initiative

A significant addition this year is the inaugural Tech Transfer 3.0, which will bring together leading research labs, visionary scientists, engineers, and academics to showcase innovations from conceptual stages to practical applications. Esteemed high-tech institutions like IE University, University College London (UCL), Johns Hopkins University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are participating for the first time.

Global Startup Competition

The renowned Supernova Challenge 2.0 will feature top startups from Europe, Asia, and Africa, setting the stage for upcoming GITEX events in Berlin, Singapore, Nigeria, and Morocco in 2025. After six months of global semi-finals, nearly 200 selected startups will compete in the grand finale for a share of a $200,000 cash prize.

Engaging the Next Generation

In a bid to connect the youth of the UAE with Dubai's economic future, the event will highlight GITEX YouthX Unipreneur, featuring YouthX Talks and an Educators Innovation Pitch among its key events.

Concurrent Events

Expand North Star runs alongside GITEX GLOBAL 2024, recognized as the world’s largest and most prestigious tech and startup event, taking place at the DWTC from October 14 to 18.