RIYADH: The number of scale-ups in Dubai surged 26 percent in 2022, according to a report issued on Sunday. The report titled “Dubai’s Venture Capital Ecosystem,” issued by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, said scale-ups in the emirate raised over $11.7 billion in capital in the last 10 years. It said as many as 306 fast-growing companies in the region are located in Dubai. “The country’s proactive vision in developing legislation and initiatives in the digital field creates a favorable environment for startups and fast-growing companies, which has attracted unicorn companies and investors from around the world and consolidated the UAE’s position as a global hub for the digital economy,” stated Omar Al-Olama, minister of state for artificial intelligence, digital economy and remote work applications, and chairman of DCDE. Dubai is reported to hold over 40 percent of scale-ups in the Middle East and North Africa. The report also revealed that the emirate includes more than 90 percent of all scale-ups in the UAE, which hosts 338 scale-ups. A scale-up is a startup that has grown and become a profitable product or service. Al-Olama said: “The results in the report reflect our long-term commitment to developing smart digital solutions and deploying these to build a new and future-facing model for the economic sector in the UAE, and Dubai in particular, and underline the emirate’s position as a global capital for the future economy.” UAE scale-ups alone made up 65 percent of the total cumulative capital raised in the region in the last 10 years, the report said. With a world-class fiber optic network, cloud-based systems, and innovative smart city development, the city has set the standard for leveraging technology to improve the standard of living as well as to pull in global businesses. The country’s digital economy is projected to grow from around $38 billion to a conservative estimate of well over $140 billion by 2031.