Why the Middle East is becoming the first halt for Indian startups’ global ambitions

The founders in the ecosystem find that the appetite of the region, from cyber security to cloud information, is gathered to increase the attractiveness of the market. Protectt, Kluisz.ai, Doqfy, Ringg.ai and others want to enter the Middle East before sailing to larger markets such as the United States.

“We will focus on Indian and Middle East markets first. Very big and fast growing markets,” he said. However, even though the company’s primary focus is the Indian market for now, it admitted that the US could work faster than expected.

In July this year, the company collected $ 9.6 million in a seed tour from RTP Global and participated in several angel investors, including Unicorn India Ventures, Blume Founders Fund, Climber Capital and Oyo’s founder Ritesh Agarwal.

Similarly, Protectt.Ai, a cyber security company for applications, collected $ 8.7 million in the A Series led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company mostly appeals to sectors such as banking, finance and exchanges. According to a report from McKinsey & Co., what makes it attractive to protect the region is that it is currently more than 1,000 Fintech in the Middle East and North Africa region in the Middle East and North Africa.

Manish Mimani, the founding partner and CEO of the company, said, “The region’s rapidly growing banking and fintech ecosystem makes it a natural choice for us. It has a strong potential for large business opportunities from players on the market.” Protectt established offices in Dubai because of its expansion to the region at the end of March. While the company targets the US, it sees the Middle East as a growth center and a long -term market.

Doqfy, a cloud -based contract management software company, is in India and Dubai. So far, the company has provided $ 1.9 million seed financing from Silverneedle Ventures, Pentathlon Ventures and Letsventure. “If we just discover the US, there are only federal law -based contracts. However, there are options for European law, British and even the United States. Several law firms appealed to high -valuable transactions such as real estates and other industries,” Aditya Pandranki said, “If we just discover the US.” He said. In January this year, the company started to receive customers from the region.

Doqfy’s approach is to refer to a large holding of various industries, thus providing the company for more than one usage for its software and market visibility. Most of the revenues continue to be produced by Indian customers, while Pandranki said that the Middle East business will begin to generate income until the end of the current financial year. “After the pandem, the adoption of technology became relevant in the markets in Asia Pacific and Middle East and North Africa (Mena).”

Similarly, this year, Capital 2B, the audio artificial intelligence (AI), Ringg.ai, which collects $ 1 million seed money, aims to the Mena region as its first international market. In 2022, the Esports Game Platform, which collected $ 1.1 million from Unicorn India Ventures in 2022, found a big market for its proposals in Mena, more than 70-80% of its revenues.

Make a profitable market

According to a report of META and Global Professional Services Company Alvarez & Marsal, published in June, software initiatives as a service are often the first initiative to enter international markets due to lower customer acquisition costs, higher scalability and easier privatization of products.

In this context, the UAE has been a target for the first office of Indian initiatives in the Mena region. In fact, the report says that the UAE ranks second among the top five markets in which Indian initiatives opened international operations and the US is at the top.

Sudarshan Parek, President of the CE Ventures, the corporate risk arm of the UAE -based Konglomer Crescent Enterprises and the President of CE Ventures, said, “For the founders of the Early Stage, the region is logical from potential promotions to new customers, but more importantly, to the future.” He said. “There is some brand recognition that can be used here in a low -risk environment that is located in the market and can be used in a low -risk environment without putting too much capital investment and establishing a business.”

Moreover, government policies in the region have been effective in withdrawing Indian initiatives, especially in the UAE.

India has a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with the UAE, which entered into force in 2022. In addition, the UAE-India starting series, which is a part of Cepa, found that 10,000 Indian initiatives are valid for access to the program. In accordance with the program, 20 companies will be selected in the UAE.

Drying investments from the region

Indian initiatives aiming at the region as a market are an unexpected surprise, because first of all, the investments made from the region to the Indian market have shrunk significantly.

According to the data obtained from initiative intelligence, investments flowing from the Middle East to India increased to 4.1 billion dollars in 39 agreements in 2021. But since then they have rejected it steadily. In 2022, the general investment was $ 3.9 billion, and in 2023, in 2024, it fell to $ 692 million before falling to 201 million dollars without falling. So far, companies have invested only $ 72 million in India in India.

Between 2020 and 2025, three of the five major investments in the region were ruled by Qatar Investment Authority. In 2022, the Egemen Servet Fund injected 1.5 billion dollars to Bodhi Tree, led by James Murdoch and Uday Shankar. In addition, between 2021 and 2022, currently listed the food distribution company Swiggy has invested a total of $ 1.5 billion.