Key Takeaways
- For its first three years the ADGM Tech Startup licence costs USD 1,500 a year. After that, the standard fees apply (ADGM schedule, January 2025).
- You can't get the Tech Startup licence without a Hub71 eligibility letter. ADGM allows three visas for each dedicated desk space.
- DIFC charges USD 1,500 a year for its Innovation Licence while the discount lasts. The standard fee is USD 12,000 (Table of Fees, July 2026).
- In a release dated 16 October 2023, Hub71 described support of up to AED 750,000, with the cash paid in return for equity. Today's terms may be different.
- A company with revenue up to AED 3 million can use Small Business Relief until 31 December 2029. A Qualifying Free Zone Person can't.
Most founders planning a startup company in Dubai begin by comparing licence prices. A better first question is how the company will be owned, because your investors, your visas and your tax position all depend on it. You'll usually choose between an operating company in an ordinary free zone and a company in one of the two financial centres, ADGM in Abu Dhabi or DIFC in Dubai. Both use common law, the English-style legal system that investors' documents are often written for. A holding company can sit above either option. The fees in this guide come from each centre's own published documents.
How to structure the company
Talk to your lead investor before you pay for any licence. Find out which jurisdiction and which share terms its documents assume.
The mainland, meaning anywhere in the emirate outside a free zone, got new rules with Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2025, issued in October 2025. A limited liability company (LLC) can now create more than one class of quotas, which is what shares are called in an LLC, as long as its articles allow it. The detailed rules are still waiting for a Cabinet decision. LLC articles can also include drag-along and tag-along clauses. A drag-along lets a majority owner who sells force the minority to sell too. A tag-along lets the minority join that sale. Clyde & Co noted in December 2025 that statutory pre-emption rights, the legal right of existing partners to buy first, may limit these clauses in practice.
ADGM applies English common law directly. DIFC's framework rests on common-law principles. Each has its own courts (October 2026).
Sign a shareholder agreement before the first investor comes in. It says who makes decisions, who can sell and what happens when the company is sold. Under the amended law, a majority shareholder that sells can make minority partners sell as well, if the articles have a drag-along clause (Ministry of Economy and Tourism, January 2026). A UAE lawyer usually drafts the agreement at the same time as the share classes and the terms on who owns the company's intellectual property (IP).
Don't put the operating business inside a holding vehicle. In DIFC, a Prescribed Company, a lighter structure used mainly to hold assets, costs USD 100 to register and USD 1,000 a year. A private company costs USD 8,000 to register and USD 12,000 a year (Table of Fees, July 2026). Pick the cheaper vehicle for its price alone and you may end up registering a second company for the real business. For what each type of vehicle is meant to do, see the guide to holding companies.
ADGM Tech Startup licence and the Hub71 letter
ADGM, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, has a Tech Startup licence that costs USD 1,500 a year for three years. That covers registration and two renewals in a row. After that, the company moves to the standard Category B fees, or to Category A fees if it's a fintech. The annual data protection fee isn't included (ADGM fee schedule, version January 2025). Once the three years are up, a Category B renewal comes to USD 5,300, and USD 300 of that is the data protection fee.
You'll need an eligibility letter from Hub71, Abu Dhabi's tech startup programme. ADGM's Tech Startup page says it doesn't accept applications without one. The same page mentions two stages, seed and emergent, but the schedule shows only one figure of USD 1,500. Ask ADGM in writing which stage your company falls into and what it will pay.
A startup has to keep an ADGM office address and hand in an office space lease. The page allows three visas for every dedicated desk space. It also mentions five-year business visas for entrepreneurs who come through Hub71. How long employee visas last is something to check when you apply.
Hub71 set out an incentive of up to AED 750,000 in a release dated 16 October 2023. It came in three parts. AED 250,000 was in-kind services. Another AED 250,000 was cash, given in exchange for equity through a SAFE, a simple agreement for future equity where the investor pays now and receives shares later. Startups that did well could get up to AED 250,000 more for further equity after the one-year programme. In plain terms, Hub71 takes a stake in the startups it picks. That was the 2023 structure. Today Hub71's website lists programmes with in-kind and cash incentives but gives no amounts. Find out the current terms, and how much equity they cost you, before you build a plan around any of these numbers.
The standard ADGM company fees, which the Tech Startup licence replaces for its first three years, are in the ADGM company setup guide.
DIFC Innovation Licence
DIFC, the Dubai International Financial Centre, offers startups an Innovation Licence. Registration is USD 100. The licence fee is USD 1,500 while the discount applies, compared with USD 12,000 at the standard rate (DIFC Table of Fees, revision 16, 30 July 2026). The table doesn't tell you how many years the discount lasts or what headcount condition comes with it. Get DIFC to confirm both for your company.
Innovation Licence companies also pay lower data protection fees. Check the current DIFC figure for that. DIFC promotes a flexi desk, a shared workspace you book instead of renting your own office, and subsidised co-working alongside the licence. It confirms your visa quota, the number of residence visas your company may apply for, at the application stage.
Hiring brings its own costs. A new establishment card, the immigration record that lets your company sponsor visas, is listed at USD 618 (USD 656 express). On top comes a USD 680 sponsorship deposit (September 2026 handbook). DIFC employers don't pay the usual end-of-service gratuity, the lump sum most UAE employers owe when someone leaves. They pay into the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings plan (DEWS) instead, at 5.83% of basic salary, or 8.33% after five years of service. Employment visas are tied to the space you occupy. DIFC Government Services can give you the number that goes with your desk.
The yearly paperwork is cheap for an ordinary company. DIFC's registrar charges nothing for the confirmation statement or the accounts. If your directors, shareholders or beneficial owners change, you have to report it within 30 days (September 2026 handbook). A beneficial owner is the real person who owns or controls the company in the end. The full list of fees is in the DIFC company setup guide.
Flexi-desk free zones
Plenty of startups don't need a financial centre at all. A free zone is an area with its own authority that licenses companies under its own rules, and many of them sell flexi-desk licences that spare you an office lease. The terms differ from zone to zone. Meydan Free Zone advertises its standard licence from AED 12,500 a year, without visas (Meydan price page, October 2026). A flexi desk is included and you don't need a physical office. Visa allocations cost extra. Meydan can tell you how many you'd get and what each one costs.
IFZA, the International Free Zone Authority, doesn't publish a price list on its public pages. The only price worth quoting is the one on an IFZA quotation. IFZA is based in Dubai Silicon Oasis and has no public visa table either. You'll have to ask it how many visas each licence allows. In a July 2023 article, IFZA said licences with fewer than four visa allocations don't need an office. Check whether that rule still holds. Dubai Silicon Oasis is part of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ).
A free zone licence on its own doesn't let you work with customers on the mainland. Executive Council Resolution 11 of 2025 gives Dubai companies three options. You can open a mainland branch. You can run a branch from your free zone office, called a dual licence, for AED 10,000 a year. Or you can get a permit for six months, which costs AED 5,000. Founders who are still abroad can find the remote steps in setting up a UAE company from abroad.
Visas for founders and the team
The number of visas you get depends on the desk or package you buy. Count the seats before you promise anyone a visa. Outside the Tech Startup rule, ADGM sets the general employee quota case by case. It looks at your activity, your office space and health and safety requirements. Other free zones set their own numbers, as the Meydan and IFZA examples above show.
Founders themselves can look at the entrepreneur Golden Visa, a long-term residence visa. You need a letter from a business incubator or relevant authority and proof that your project is innovative or technical (u.ae, July 2026). The Golden Residency guide published by ICP, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security, on 10 September 2026 gives entrepreneurs 10 years. One of its options covers an SME, a small or medium-sized business, in an approved field with annual revenue of at least AED 1,000,000. Check with ICP or GDRFA Dubai, the emirate's residency office, which option fits you before you count on it.
Staff also need health insurance. Employers in every emirate must insure their private-sector employees. The northern emirates came under that rule on 1 January 2025. u.ae lists a basic package at AED 320 a year (September 2026). To see where the visa step comes in the whole process, read how to open a company in Dubai, step by step.
Corporate Tax, QFZP status, Small Business Relief and SaaS income
A new UAE company has to register for Corporate Tax within three months of incorporation (FTA Decision 3 of 2024). The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) charges AED 10,000 for registering late (Cabinet Decision 75 of 2023 as amended). The standard rate is 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% on anything above (Cabinet Decision 116 of 2022, Ministry of Finance text, as of October 2026).
Paying 0% across the board is only possible for a Qualifying Free Zone Person (QFZP), a free zone company that meets the conditions for the 0% rate. Even then it applies only to qualifying income. Money from customers who aren't Free Zone Persons counts only if it comes from a Qualifying Activity that isn't an Excluded Activity, or if it's qualifying IP income. Beyond that there's just a small de minimis allowance, a limited amount of other income the rules tolerate. A QFZP must also prepare audited financial statements (Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025, Article 5). Income from software subscriptions, often called SaaS (software as a service), doesn't automatically fit. Go through the test with a corporate tax consultant before you rely on 0%.
Small Business Relief works differently. A company with revenue up to AED 3 million can choose to be treated as having no taxable income. That choice covers tax periods ending on or before 31 December 2029 (Ministerial Decision 131 of 2026). It isn't open to QFZPs or to members of a multinational group with consolidated revenue of AED 3.15 billion or more.
Opening a bank account before you have revenue
With no sales to look at, a bank has to judge the founders. Your papers need to show who they are and where the money comes from. The Central Bank's customer due diligence guidance, which covers the checks banks run on new clients, is listed in the rulebook as in force from 7 November 2025. Its warning signs include a newly formed company funded with large sums, an unclear source of funds and ownership hidden behind several layers. Nominee shareholders, people who hold shares on someone else's behalf, are on the same list.
Put the papers together first. Start with the cap table, the record of who owns what, showing every natural person with 25% or more. Add the founders' source-of-funds documents, any investor term sheet or SAFE, a short product description with a website and the monthly flows you expect. Each bank publishes its own eligibility rules and schedule of charges. If a holding company owns your startup, read those for every bank you're considering.
Setup advisers say applications often stall when the founders can't explain the holding-company layers in their cap table, or when the money can't be traced. An adviser can prepare the cap table and the source-of-funds papers and make the bank introductions for you.
AdvisoryHub may receive a fee when you request an introduction; it does not affect the information on this page.
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