Expand North Star 2024: The world’s largest startup and investment event officially underway in Dubai

• Expand North Star’s highly anticipated ninth edition takes place at Dubai Harbour from 13-16 October
• Acclaimed event brings entire global startup ecosystem to the UAE to accelerate the world's most sought-after startups towards rapid growth and development

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 13 October 2024: The highly anticipated Expand North Star 2024, recognized as the world’s largest startup and investment event, has officially kicked off in the UAE. The opening day on Sunday brought together the global startup ecosystem at Dubai Harbour for an exhilarating experience.

Hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and organized by the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), Expand North Star is taking place from 13-16 October at the Middle East's largest superyacht club. The event serves as the premier platform for startups, investors, accelerators, and tech enthusiasts to secure funding, forge investment deals, and gain essential insights into the industry. This year’s edition is set to be the most prominent and influential in its nine-year history.

A Record-Breaking First Day
This year’s Expand North Star is seamlessly integrated with GITEX GLOBAL, featuring an extensive program and immersive exhibition. More than 1,800 startups are exhibiting, accompanied by over 1,200 investors with assets under management (AUM) exceeding $1 trillion.

The event highlights the largest and most international participation to date, with over 100 countries represented. Particularly noteworthy is the event’s unprecedented European involvement, featuring more than 1,000 SMEs and over 450 startups from 35 countries. During the "Investor Sunday" session titled “Connected for Success: The Power of Cross-border Collaboration in Europe,” panellists from France, Italy, Poland, and Portugal, including Dr. Sebastian Schäfer, CEO of House of Finance & Tech Berlin, emphasized the need for collaboration among European nations to tap into the vast potential of the digital space.

Dr. Schäfer remarked, “As countries, we don’t collaborate. We need real joint value propositions for tangible success and use cases that help us work together. We have the ingredients needed to compete with the big tech companies from China and the US, but we need novel ways to utilize our advantages, harness talent, and create future unicorn factories. There’s so much untapped potential waiting to be explored.”

Expand North Star 2024 also welcomes a diverse array of exhibiting companies from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, alongside many from the Middle East and Africa.

The event brings together 59 leading unicorns with a combined valuation of $400 billion and introduces the all-new NS scaleups program, designed to foster collaborations, stimulate business growth, and connect late-stage startups with strategic partners and venture capitalists. Another highlight of the opening day was the session titled “Climate Tech Unicorns: Valuation, Volatility, and Venture Capital,” featuring Sean O’Sullivan, Founder of US venture capital firm SOSV. He emphasized the urgent need for innovative solutions to combat climate change, stating, “There are opportunities for tens of thousands of startups to immediately begin solving our problems and reinventing society.”

What to Watch at Expand North Star 2024
Throughout its four-day duration, Expand North Star offers a unique spotlight on the future of money, blockchain, creativity, and sustainability through several defining events, including GITEX Impact, Fintech Surge, Future Blockchain Summit, and Marketing Mania.

The inaugural Tech Transfer 3.0 will showcase innovation from leading research labs, featuring participation from prestigious institutions such as IE University, University College London (UCL), Johns Hopkins University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The globally acclaimed Supernova Challenge 2.0 will also present the best startups from Europe, Asia, and Africa, culminating in the eagerly anticipated GITEX EUROPE Berlin, GITEX ASIA Singapore, GITEX NIGERIA, and GITEX AFRICA Morocco in 2025. Following six months of semi-finals worldwide, nearly 200 selected startups will pitch in the global grand finale for a cash prize pool of $200,000.

In a proactive effort to engage the UAE’s youth with Dubai’s economic agenda, the younger generation will be highlighted through GITEX YouthX Unipreneur, which includes YouthX Talks and an Educators Innovation Pitch among its schedule highlights.

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

As the official media partner of Expand North Star, DXB News Network will provide comprehensive coverage of the event, showcasing its significance in shaping the future of startups and investment on a global scale.