Jeebly LLC was founded in 2016 with a clear vision: to revolutionize the logistics industry. Guided by the idea of delivering “Joy in Motion”, the company set its course, fuelled by unwavering values of commitment, honesty, efficiency, and innovation. In a short span of just seven years, these principles translated into impressive numbers, with the company delivering more than 20 million orders.

The landscape of the UAE around 2015 provided the backdrop for Jeebly’s inception. With the rapid ascension of e-commerce and door delivery services, the founders of Jeebly, Raman Pathak and Ram Parashar, identified a blatant inefficiency. Major restaurant chains, although at the forefront of delivery services, were grappling with the fixed costs of maintaining independent fleets. Recognizing this, Jeebly crafted a unique business model, pivoting to offer an efficient, on-demand service that presented businesses with time-bound SLAs, resonating with the dynamic needs of the region.

Jeebly’s emphasis on integrating cutting-edge technology into its operations has been a significant driver of their success. By embedding AI-driven technology and advanced data analytics into their processes, they positioned themselves at the intersection of efficiency and customer satisfaction. This techno-centric approach, paired with their acute understanding of market dynamics, allowed them to capture partnerships with industry stalwarts like McDonalds, Americana, Zomato, DHL, Amazon, and many more.

From its early days focusing solely on food delivery, Jeebly’s course has been nothing short of impressive. Today, they are a leading logistics provider, seamlessly catering to both B2B and B2C sectors across a plethora of industries. This agility and adaptability have enabled them to expand their offerings, branching out to serve not just businesses, but also individuals, facilitating parcel deliveries throughout the seven Emirates. Their 2023 launch of a user-friendly, self-service platform, Jeebly NoW, further underscores their commitment to innovation, with the platform clocking over 1 million orders in its debut month alone. Crafted with meticulous attention to the user’s experience, this platform boasts an array of features that simplify logistics for customers, from real-time shipment tracking to advanced booking capabilities.

Like any journey of growth and innovation, Jeebly’s path was interspersed with challenges. Delving into the intricate dynamics of deliveries, establishing tech-integration, and scaling operations were substantial tasks. However, Jeebly’s approach, rooted in their foundational expertise in Facilities Management and Finance, ensured they navigated these challenges adeptly. Their foresight in recognizing the indispensability of professional HR management early in their journey and their adeptness in forging partnerships with industry leaders further cemented their dominant position in the logistics landscape.

Jeebly LLC’s story, from its inception with self-funding and a vision to its stature today as a tech-empowered 3PL company offering end-to-end supply chain solutions, is a testament to their innovation, resilience, and undying commitment to customer satisfaction. Always on the move, Jeebly continues its quest, delivering joy with every package delivered.

It takes minutes to book a flight or reserve a hotel room from your phone. So why does booking a doctor’s appointment take so long? That was the thought process of Okadoc founder Fodhil Benturquia when he was struggling to do the latter in 2017. Shortly afterwards, he launched his company to bring the medical appointment process into the 21st century.

Okadoc is the UAE’s first online doctor booking platform, helping to improve patient experiences with hassle-free appointment management. By connecting patients with the right healthcare providers directly, the company also helps to improve outcomes for all.

Okadoc’s success is largely due to its simple appointment-setting process. Customers can filter by location, insurance acceptance and availability to find the healthcare practitioner that’s right for them. Next, they can read doctor and faculty profiles before selecting their preferred option.

After deciding who they want to see, they choose a time and date and hit book. Appointments can be made for virtual or in-person consultations, and customers receive an instant confirmation of the booking.

Okadoc not only improves patient experiences but also provides a valuable service for practitioners. By offering their services through the platform, healthcare professionals can communicate directly with patients, reduce the burden on their contact centres, and improve the quality of appointments with pre-booking checks such as ID verification, insurance upload and online payment.

As well as striving to improve patient outcomes, Okadoc is committed to safeguarding their privacy. The company was the first healthtech platform in the Middle East to achieve ISO 27001 certification, ensuring it follows a strict framework across over 100 security controls, policies and procedures.

Emirates Modern Poultry serves the UAE market with diverse meat products, from burgers and mortadella to chicken franks and pieces. The company sells its products under two brand names – Al Rawdah for fresh poultry products, and Al Salwa for frozen goods.

In 2000, Emirates Modern Poultry merged with Al Rawabi Dairy to form Emirates Rawabi. The company is now the leading poultry producer in the UAE, employing over 1,200 staff, and with plant and farmland covering more than 460 hectares.

Emirates Rawabi owns many of the country’s best-known brands offering all manner of fruit juices and dairy products. The company also sells various milk and dairy products under the Al Rawabi brand, including full-fat, low-fat, skimmed, and full-cream milk, and a range of plain and fruit yoghurts. Another of the company’s brands, Green Fields, sells a variety of animal feed products.

Emirates Rawabi is co-owned by high-profile investors, including the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development, Gulf Investment Corporation, Investment Corporation of Dubai and Emirates Industrial Bank.

The company we now know as Daikin was founded in 1920s Japan by Akira Yamada. In 1936, its Mifujirator machine was installed as the first air conditioner on Japanese trains. Many more firsts would follow over the subsequent decades.

Daikin was the first company to mass produce packed air conditioners, the first to develop a rotary compressor and the first to invent and produce a packaged type heat pump, in 1958.

In 1973, the company entered the European market, and in 2006, it launched in the Middle East. Today, the Europe, Middle East and Africa market accounts for around 18% of its business. This is alongside 29% in North and Latin America, 21% in Japan, 15% in China, and around 16% in the rest of Asia and Oceania.

Daikin is a global leader in the manufacture and supply of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration solutions for the residential, commercial and industrial markets.

The company leads the way in innovation across its industry and beyond. Daikin’s Variable Refrigerant Volume solution is the world’s first multi-split air conditioner for commercial buildings, while its next-generation Bluevolution product range delivers unmatched energy efficiency and low environmental impact.

Still fuelled by its mission to create comfortable and sustainable interior environments for all the people and regions of the world, Daikin is now operational in more than 170 countries with 86,000 employees globally.

The company’s regional division, Daikin MEA, operates in 64 countries in the Middle East and Africa. It employs over 600 staff in two sales offices in Nigeria and Morocco, two factories in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and four warehouses across the region.

800-Pharmacy is the region’s first licensed Smart Healthcare Platform, swiftly approving and delivering online prescription medicine, health products and services.

Established to bring the pharmacy experience and delivery service up to the high standards UAE residents expect, the company’s cutting-edge solutions and rapid fulfilment are quickly gaining an enviable reputation.

800-Pharmacy is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing customers to place an order or request at the most convenient time. In most cases, customers can receive orders from a local pharmacy within 30 to 90 minutes.

In line with its commitment to the fastest and highest possible standard of service, 800-Pharmacy strives to have all MOH Licensed Medicines readily available for order on its website and mobile applications. To make the process even more accessible, the company accepts health insurance, offers a range of payment methods and has a customer service team on hand should any issues arise.

The success of 800-Pharmacy’s fast, transparent and reliable service is credited with transforming the way people think about medicine and healthcare delivery.  

Yalla Grooming was founded by two pet owners on a mission to take animal grooming to new levels in the UAE. As Dubai residents, the pair understood the challenge of fitting pet grooming into busy lives and therefore put convenience – for animals and humans – at the centre of their services.

Yalla Grooming operates a nationwide fleet of mobile pet care services, offering the same standard of care and quality finish as any fixed salon premises. Its experienced groomers travel to customers to make them feel at ease, grooming with only the highest quality, eco-friendly products.

Having quickly gained an esteemed reputation in Dubai, Yalla Grooming is now on its way to becoming the number one mobile pet grooming service in the UAE. Its most popular service, the Full Groom, is available to cats, dogs, birds and rabbits. As well as full shampoo and conditioning treatment, the service includes hair cutting and styling, blow drying, nail trimming, tooth cleaning, eye and ear treatment, anal gland expressing and perfuming.

The French concessions and construction company VINCI was founded in 1899. In the years since, it has been involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions. Most notably, Société Générale d’Entreprises, as VINCI was known at the time, was acquired by Vivendi in 1988. It then went on to acquire the UK operations of construction and aggregates giants Taylor Woodrow and Tarmac in the mid-2000s.

The company name, chosen in 2000, pays tribute to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, whose ‘humanism, inventiveness and technical resourcefulness’ inspire the company’s mission.

Following another high-profile merger with Eurovia in 2021, VINCI Construction now comprises over 1,000 companies and 115,000 employees, offering an unrivalled scope of services across the building, civil engineering and infrastructure industries.

The company’s concessions arm operates across many of the world’s major airports, including Hollywood Burbank and Atlantic City International in the US, Belfast International and Gatwick in the UK, Porto and Lisbon in Portugal and Rennes Bretagne and Lyon Bron in France.

Now a world leader in concessions, energy and construction, VINCI spans more than 4,000 business units, with 314,000 worksites worldwide. The company has a market capitalisation of EUR 55bn and generated revenues of over EUR 61bn in 2022.

As well as transforming the construction and concessions industries, VINCI is committed to being a force for good in the wider world. The company worked extensively on the confinement of the Chernobyl reactor to guarantee the safety of millions of people. It also supports middle school students from underprivileged areas throughout their education.

After launching in 2003, Royal Catering wasted no time in becoming one of the UAE’s leading catering service companies. Regularly running events for up to 2,000 guests, the company’s laser focus on customer satisfaction has earned it an enviable reputation in the industry.

Royal Catering offers services for almost all budgets and requirements, from an intimate dinner with friends to a large corporate or commercial event. If high-quality service is required, Royal Catering can deliver. 

In recent years, the company merged with Royal Strategic Partners to expand its team to 2,500 staff across four market-leading production and service facilities in Abu Dhabi, Ruwais and Dubai. Its central kitchen spans over 2,000 square feet, and its chefs can serve more than 55,000 meals daily. The rest of Royal Catering’s staff are just as impressive – for example, its cleaning team covers 100,000 square miles a day.

The company also has a large manpower division, with over 5,500 staff in reserve, ready to take on any hospitality requirements for its clients. Another key arm of the business is Royal Catering’s residential complex in the heart of Ruwais’ industrial sector. The facility provides accommodation services for staff, from branch and regional managers to labourers. As well as boarding, the complex offers swimming pools, sports facilities, and several restaurants.

Royal Catering’s comprehensive technology stack drives its success. The company’s CAFM System integrates ordering and stock-keeping data with other essential services to provide clients with all vital catering information in one place. Meanwhile, its pioneering AI and Robotics Division can autonomously sterilise facilities using UV light, sanitising agents and control vacuums remotely.

Technogym launched in the early 1980s when home workouts brought to mind lycra-clad aerobics and small garage setups. Founder Nerio Alessandri wanted to change this image and offer everyone the chance to train at home – or anywhere else – with gym-quality equipment.

As a first step in this mission, Alessandri created a prototype exercise machine in his garage. With no home phone, he used a local payphone and enlisted the help of friends, family and neighbours to start selling his creation.

By 1985, Technogym was selling its full-strength training line, manufactured, packaged and posted from a warehouse in Gambettola, Italy. A cardiovascular equipment line joined the product portfolio in 1990. This was followed by complete wellness solutions and, in 2002, Excite, one of the first home gym setups on the market to include an integrated TV screen.

The company continued to lead the way throughout the 2000s with its market-leading cloud wellness solutions and connected equipment. This long line of fitness innovations catapulted Technogym to global attention, and it began providing equipment to professional athletes, sports teams and international fitness organisations.

Technogym has been an official supplier to every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000 and was designated an exclusive supplier at Rio 2016. The company also has exclusive partnerships with AC Milan and Juventus, the Ferrari and McLaren F1 teams, and the Professional Golfers Association.

Today, Technogym’s equipment is used by 50 million people in over 100 counties, including 10,000 uniformed personnel, 3,000 schools and universities and 3,000 sports associations. Its financial returns are equally impressive, with annual revenues of over EUR 500m.

Founded in Sweden in 1887, Scanian Cement Casting started out manufacturing concrete products. Before long, it was a fully-fledged construction firm, and within ten years, it was operating overseas.

Skanska, as it was soon to be known, played a pivotal role in the rapid development of Sweden’s infrastructure in the early-1900s, contributing to roads, power plants, offices, residential estates and much more. In the 1950s, the company grew its international operation, entering the South American, US, African and Asian markets.

A series of mergers and acquisitions followed, which saw the company gain a significant foothold in the US, where today it is one of the largest companies in its sector. Skanska is also the fifth largest construction company in the world and has worked on major projects, including the UN Headquarters, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub and the MetLife Stadium.

Alongside its construction activities, which is by far its largest division, Skanska also operates residential development, commercial property development and infrastructure development arms. Outside the US and Scandinavian market, the company is heavily focused on the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

Skanska’s esteemed reputation and international reach have seen it claim numerous industry prizes over the years. Notable accolades include Innovator of the Year and Executive of the Year at the Construction Dive awards.

The company also receives high praise for its ethical and environmental credentials. It was crowned the number one Green Builder and number three Green Contractor in the US and ranked as the Greenest Company in the UK. Skanska was also given a Boldness in Business Award by the Financial Times for its corporate responsibility and environment.

Today, Skanska employs over 30,000 staff across its operation and generates annual revenues of over SEK 148bn.

The concept for Servcorp started with a piece of chalk. After noticing that his fledgling enterprise was not using its office space to capacity, founder Alfred Moufarrige began dividing it with chalk lines and renting the unused space to other businesses and entrepreneurs.

Within a year, in 1978, the company had outgrown its single corner office and filled multiple floors across two Melbourne locations. Just two years later, Servcorp pioneered the virtual office concept, allowing businesses to present a professional front without the expense of leasing physical space.

International expansion did not take long. Servcorp opened its first overseas office in Singapore in 1987, shortly followed by locations in Japan in 1994. By 2002, the company was operational in China and the Middle East. More international locations followed across the UK in 2009 and the US in 2010.

Today, the company offers serviced offices, virtual offices, coworking and IT solutions in 150 sites across 41 cities in 20 countries. These include some of the world’s most prestigious business locations at One World Trade Center in New York, London’s Leadenhall Building, Two International Finance Centre in Hong Kong, Marina Bay Financial Centre in Singapore, and Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi. In 2022, company revenues exceeded USD 275m.

As well as driving change in the world of workspace, Servcorp is committed to protecting the planet. The ‘Servcorp Forest’ of more than 55,000 trees spans around 480,000 square metres of land – larger than the combined floorspace of its global office network. The initiative is estimated to capture and remove over 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during its lifespan.

Now synonymous with the oil, gas and energy industries the world over, Shell was established following the merger of two smaller companies in 1907. In a bid to compete with their larger rival, Standard Oil, on the world stage, the Netherlands’ Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the UK’s Shell Transport and Trading Company Limited joined forces.

Due largely to patriotic attitudes and sensibilities, for many years the two divisions retained separate identities, outwardly at least. The Dutch arm handled production and manufacturing from the Hague, while the British side oversaw transport and storage from London. 

Officially headquartered in the English capital since 2005, Shell is now one of the largest companies in the world across all industries. It is the second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world by revenue after ExxonMobil and is active in every subsector of the oil and gas industry, from exploration and refining to distribution, petrochemicals and power generation.

With over 93,000 employees and operations in more than 70 countries, Shell produces approximately 2.9 million barrels of oil daily and 66 million tonnes of liquified natural gas annually.

Its network of 46,000 sites serves more than 32 million customers each day. On top of this conventional fuel business, Shell’s broader product portfolio includes low-carbon fuels such as biofuels, renewable natural gas, hydrogen, and electric-vehicle charging. The company also produces and sells lubricants, bitumen, sulphur and petrochemicals.

Shell has a keen eye on the future of its industry, spending over USD 1bn per year on the research and development of more efficient, renewable, alternative fuels. It also invests over USD 200m annually in social and welfare projects in underprivileged areas. In 2022, Shell generated over USD 381bn in revenues.

Founded in 1994, Network International wasted no time becoming the first independent payment vendor in the Middle East to be certified by Mastercard and Visa. And many more firsts followed.

Network International would go on to be the first in the region to open a bureau for EMV chip personalisation, the first to offer real-time payment capabilities to UAE merchants, the first to launch mobile point-of-sale devices in the UAE, and the first Middle Eastern acquirer to establish its own e-commerce platform.

Such was the company’s early success that the prestigious Abraaj Group bought a 49% stake in the business less than ten years later. In 2011, Network International went public, listing with a valuation of over USD 2bn, joining the FTSE 250 list of companies at the same time.

Today, the company continues to deliver accessible, simple and innovative payment solutions to businesses in the Middle East and beyond. It now enjoys a long-held reputation as the quickest acquirer in the UAE and as the Middle East and Africa’s leading digital commerce enabler.

In 2021, Network International processed over USD 42bn worth of payments for over 150,000 merchants across its comprehensive portfolio of products. That equates to around 980 million transactions on more than 18 million cards for over 200 financial institutions.

Today, with decades of experience in the financial services, payments and tech sectors, Network International continues to expand its operation into new markets. The company’s largest business segment is the Middle East, where it facilitates payments for merchants and consumers in countries such as the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, among others. Network International also provides its services across Africa in countries including Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa.

The idea for Marks & Spencer was set in motion in 1884 when Polish immigrant Michael Marks borrowed GBP 5 from a friend to open a penny bazaar on Kirkgate Market in Leeds, UK. Despite not having been in the country long and with limited English, Marks’ stall quickly became a success, attracting attention with its slogan, “Don’t ask the price, it’s a penny.”

Before long, Marks needed help running his operation. He partnered with a cashier he met at the local wholesalers, Tom Spencer, and a lifelong connection was born. The pair began selling homewares under the name Marks & Spencer, adding many more new penny bazaar stalls across northwest England.

Over the years that followed, the company’s reputation for quality goods at a low, flat price spread across the UK. By the 1930s, Marks & Spencer was a household name with over 200 stores throughout the UK.

International expansion soon followed, with stores opening throughout Western Europe and as far afield as Canada. In 1998, the company became the first British retailer to post pre-tax profits over GBP 1bn.

Driving this success is a long-standing focus on quality goods, excellent service and affordable prices – a blueprint that continues to serve the company and win new customers to this day.

Marks & Spencer currently employs over 65,000 staff across its 1,487 stores in more than 100 international markets. Its financial returns are just as impressive. In 2022, group profits exceeded USD 11.9bn.

Perhaps more importantly, the brand is still one of the UK’s most trusted, and its stores remain a near-permanent fixture in a high-street retail sector that has transformed enormously since the company’s inception some 140 years ago. 

Launched in 1901 as Japan Advertising Ltd., it was many decades before Dentsu adopted the name we recognise today. After a series of mergers and acquisitions that saw it become one of Japan’s leading advertising companies and briefly adopt the name Japan Telegraphic Communication Co., Dentsu Inc. was born in 1955.

Many more mergers, pivots and accusations followed over the following years. The 2000s saw a move into the publishing and entertainment field with the takeover of the Pioneer Corporation, and the digital marketing and PR field with the purchase of Aegis.

Before long, Dentsu’s vast advertising arm was operational across four divisions: national advertisement market, advertisement-related market, new market and foreign market. The company does business with almost every major government department or public institution in Japan and receives around 28% of the country’s total advertising budget.

This vast portfolio of services and a high-profile client base propelled Dentsu Inc. to become the largest advertising agency in Japan and the fifth-largest advertising agency network in the world in terms of revenues.

There was more restructuring in 2020 when the business transformed to become a pure holding company under the name Dentsu Group Inc. The wider Dentsu Group is operational across more than 145 countries and regions, employing almost 70,000 people worldwide. In 2022, it generated over JPY 1tr in revenues.

Founded in 1907, Damas is one of the leading names in the Middle East’s prestigious jewellery industry. After decades of trading gold with the merchants who passed through the UAE at the start of the century, Damas opened its first store in 1959 at Dubai’s Gold Souk.

By 1962, it began trading Gulf pearls from this location and offering numerous gold creations. Just eight years later, business went into overdrive as Damas expanded its operation into wholesale gold trading. Buoyed by this success, the company was the first to import a diamond-cutting machine into the region in 1973. This move would kickstart its creation of gemstone-encrusted bangles and wedding bands.

Over the following years, Damas imported jewellery from Italy and beyond, putting goods from world-famous brands on the shelves of the Middle East. At the same time, it introduced several of its most iconic brands – Damas Classics, Vera, OneSixEight and Farfasha.

By 2000, Damas had expanded beyond the UAE with outlets across the GCC and MENA regions. In 2021, the company launched Bayt Damas, the region’s first lifestyle destination bringing together limited-edition luxurious jewellery pieces, art and fashion under one roof.

Today, Damas employs more than 2,000 people at over 300 stores across the GCC and MENA regions. Along with its in-house brands and collections, the company sells pieces by more than 40 prestigious and international brands, including Fope, Roberto Coin, Djula, Damiani and Mikimoto.

Coty began its mission to transform the global beauty industry over 100 years ago. The story goes that founder Francois Coty dropped a bottle of his latest fragrance concoction, La Rose Jacqueminot, on the sales floor of a busy Parisian department store. Within seconds of the scent filling nearby shoppers’ nostrils, they were asking where they could buy this incredible perfume.

A few months later, La Rose Jacqueminot was being sold in large quantities across the French capital. Bolstered by this early success, Coty made many more attention-grabbing fragrances. By 1907, his success was such that Coty opened its first boutique on La Place Vendôme in Paris.

The company’s reputation for fine fragrances grew over the following decades. Before long, Coty’s success had spread beyond France, and it quickly became the go-to brand for alluring and head-turning perfumes.

Coty’s incredible stable of scents was soon supplemented with many more high-quality cosmetics. In 1910, the company began rolling out a host of new products, from face powder and skin creams to hair and nail treatments and men’s toiletries.

Fast forward to the 1970s, and Coty was driving the cosmetics industry’s rapid innovation, pioneering new applications, effects and formulations. By the 1990s, product diversification became big brand partnerships as the company took on the fragrance operations for prestigious names, including Calvin Klein, Vera Wang and Miu Miu.

Unsurprisingly, Coty came to dominate the global market across all its key divisions. By 2016, it was the world’s number one fragrance brand, number two professional hair styling brand and number three cosmetics brand. Today, it manages the fragrance and cosmetics operations of international brands, including Adidas, Balenciaga, David Beckham, Hugo Boss, Stella McCartney and Tiffany & Co.

Formed in 2007, British Orchard Nursery is now one of the leading providers of childcare and early education in the UAE and the UK. The company has over 30 locations in both countries, offering easy accessibility to excellent childcare for the nations’ families.

British Orchard Nursery has been recognised with over 30 national and international quality awards, making it the most awarded nursery chain in the GCC region.

The nursery follows the British Early Years Foundation Stages curriculum focusing on seven core areas of age-appropriate learning. Unlike many other preschool providers in the region, the British Orchard Nursery incorporates multiple languages into its teaching, such as Mandarin, English, Arabic and French. It also offers many extra-curricular activities, including football, music, skateboarding and yoga.

British Orchard Nursery is also the first preschool in Dubai to adopt child-initiated project-based learning. This approach allows children to pursue their likes, passions and interests while learning vital skills.

The British Orchard Nursery’s spacious facility features roleplay and waterplay rooms, a sensory room, gym, library, playground and road track. It is open to children aged from 45 days to five years. To ensure a close eye is kept on the progress of every child, the nursery works in close partnership with parents, running more than 50 parent, children and teacher events every year.

As well as its extensive nursery services, the company provides early years teacher training through its British Orchard Centre arm. The course uses a blend of respected learning models and tutor-led workshops to help develop the preschool teachers of tomorrow. After successfully completing the early years course, learners are offered volunteer placement hours at a British Orchard Nursery.

Founded in 1996 by husband and wife team Eric Malka and Myriam Zaoui, Art of Shaving set out to bring high-quality, crafted beauty products to the mass market. Starting with a single store on New York’s Upper East Side, the company’s reputation soon spread across the US.

A few years later, Art of Shaving’s presence was international, with stores opening in Canada, Qatar, Russia and the UAE. In 1999, health and hygiene giant Procter & Gamble purchased the business in a deal worth an estimated USD 60m. As part of the takeover, industry leader Gillette took on several Art of Shaving franchises and collaborated on razors and other products.

While Art of Shaving’s business model changed over the years that followed, shifting focus from physical stores to a primarily online model, its commitment to the best quality natural products has not wavered.

Art of Shaving only sells products made from 100% sustainably sourced ingredients, with popular items including creams, soaps and shave gels. The company also offers a range of brushes, razors and blades. Customers wishing for the in-person grooming experience can still find it at Art of Shaving’s BarberSpa® locations in New York and Florida. BarberSpa® services include shaves, premium haircuts and express facials with master barbers and beauty technicians.

The company also offers grooming tutorials, hints and tips via its blog and YouTube channels as well as a ‘Virtual Barbershop’ experience via social media.

An ambitious and determined transformation expert and mentor, Yasir Khan has dedicated more than 20 years to developing 360-degree fitness and holistic transformation programmes. Through his work, he helps clients improve their mind, body and soul.

Khan has delivered more than 100 weight-loss transformations, with clients including celebrity names such as influencer Khalid Al Ameri and tennis star Sania Mirza. He also developed numerous other regimes, including Personal Training, Online and In-Person Programmes, Mind Coaching, and Goal Setting.

All this experience, knowledge and skill led Khan to launch Transform Your Body (TYB), the largest gym in the GCC region and one of the most advanced in the world. TYB is much more than a place to work out. It offers clients a clear path to physical, mental and spiritual improvement, combining fitness and nutrition with NLP and other mindfulness practices.

TYB’s signature programme is centred around the belief that fitness, nutrition and mindset go hand in hand. TYB believes that the body achieves what the mind believes, and mental transformation is at the heart of everything we do.

In Khan’s own words: “I have dedicated my entire life to understanding the science of transforming the human body, and I have personally learnt and practised this with the best in the world.” Through TYB, he passes on his extensive learnings through exclusive highly-customised training programmes from TYB’s locations in Jumeirah 2, IBN Battuta, Al Quoz 3, Abu Dhabi and Al Khawaneej.

Yash Raj Films (YRF) was founded in 1970 by veteran Indian film director Yash Raj Chopra. The company started as a production and distribution house, but after growing frustrated at the lack of professional-standard studio shooting during the 70s, 80s and 90s, it took matters into its own hands in 2005.

The building of YRF Studios was a game-changer, quickly propelling the company to international prominence. The first film shot at the new facilities, Fanaa, was a commercial and critical hit, scooping numerous awards and paving the way for many more productions.

Spanning over 20 acres and six floors, YRF Studios is still used by the company to film its own productions and those of other companies for film and TV shoots, such as 10 Ka Dum and Kaun Banega Crorepati for Sony.

YRF’s star rose so high that it caught the attention of The Walt Disney Company. After working in partnership on a three-film co-production agreement, Disney submitted an offer for a 49% acquisition of Yash Raj Films in 2009, valuing the company at USD 1.3bn. To the shock of many in the industry, the offer was declined.

The company did not look back, releasing several films throughout the 2010s that broke multiple Indian box office records. One release, Dhoom 3, went on to become the twelfth highest-grossing Indian film of all time.

With 50 years of production history, YRF is the region’s most prominent and best-respected film company. On top of its world-class services and facilities covering everything from production to post-production, domestic and international distribution, marketing, and talent management, its catalogue of films is one of the best in the entertainment business.

Founded by Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company was born from a passion for movies. The brothers bought a film projector and began to show films across the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio, USA.

Before long, the concept had grown so popular that the brothers opened their first theatre, the Cascade, in 1903. Less than 20 years later, the brothers had made their name in Hollywood by acquiring the rights to the 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers. Shortly afterwards, the Warner Brothers studio, as it was now known, uncovered its first star – Rin Tin Tin. A dog brought back to America after World War I, Rin Tin Tin went on to star in numerous high-grossing films, earning the studio over USD 1,000 per week – an enormous amount of money in the 1920s.

In the 1930s, the studio worked with many of the biggest names of the time, including Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. It also established its soon-to-be lucrative animation division. The following two decades saw the launch of several characters that soon became iconic, such as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.

Fast forward several incredibly successful decades later to 2015, and Warner Bros was generating more than USD 3bn in global box office receipts for the ninth year running.

Today, Warner Bros needs little introduction. It has produced or acquired one of the largest libraries of film and television entertainment in the world, consisting of more than 75,000 hours of programming, including nearly 7,000 feature films and 5,000 television programmes comprising tens of thousands of individual episodes.

The company is also a global leader in the marketing and distribution of feature films, with offices in more than 30 countries releasing films in over 120 international territories.

Spotting the need for reliable, durable and secure turnstiles at venues in South Africa, engineer Sidney Sacks set his skills to work. In 1990, he established Turnstar to provide a range of solutions for physical access control and attendance applications.

The company completed its first project shortly afterwards, installing 28 full-height turnstiles at the Soccer City Stadium in Soweto. Further orders followed from mines, health clubs, factories, office parks, residential estates and elsewhere.

Before long, Turnstar was being trusted to control and secure access to some of the world’s most prestigious locations and sporting events. In 2003, the company manufactured all 142 turnstiles across nine stadiums which held the ICC Cricket World Cup. Its solutions facilitated access for over 700,000 spectators with a 0% failure rate.

In 2010, Turnstar manufactured and installed over 960 turnstiles for eight major stadiums and 15 training stadiums in South Africa as the country hosted the FIFA World Cup. This project represented the single biggest turnstile project ever awarded in South Africa.

Over the years, Turnstar has added numerous other security and access solutions to its product portfolio, including vehicle barriers, spike barriers, rising bollards and kerbs, revolving doors and man-trap cubicles.

In addition to being the market leader, Turnstar continues to innovate. It continuously adds state-of-the-art machinery to its production line, incorporating the very latest in robotics, hydraulics and CNC machines.

The company’s 800m² factory in Johannesburg, South Africa, manufactures some of the world’s most reliable entrance control products for companies and institutions worldwide. Its international client base includes organisations of all sizes, from global mining companies and financial service providers to single-site retailers.

Inspired by the work at his father’s small glass factory, Daniel Swarovski embarked on a mission to make diamonds and fine jewellery available to all. In 1892, at the age of 30, he had invented and patented an electric glass-cutting machine that would go on to revolutionise the production of crystal glass.

This creation set in motion a new era for crystal jewellery and quickly saw Swarovski’s pieces adorn the young and fashionable throughout 1920s Europe. By the time Swarovski opened its first boutique in the 1980s, the company had added collectable figurines to its collection, drawing in an entirely new audience of loyal customers.

Today, Swarovski’s crystal collectors are among its most committed patrons, and its annual limited-edition release is a bona fide tradition for crystal glass lovers worldwide. For 35 years now, Swarovski has captivated customers with its incredibly intricate creations, from the Nirvana cocktail ring to the Slake bracelet and its signature Swiss movement watches.

Its crystal business is one of the most profitable units, operating around 3,000 stores in approximately 170 countries, with over 29,000 employees. In all, the company generates a revenue of more than EUR 2.7bn.

While Swarovski remains focused on producing beautiful yet affordable items, its commitment to the highest possible quality has never been in question. Its patented Pointiage® cutting technique highlights the ultra-precise craftsmanship of every piece.

Swarovski’s stores and showrooms around the world are just as attention-grabbing as its jewellery. The company runs the Crystal Worlds exhibition in Austria, a museum dedicated to crystals, as well as showcasing its work as part of Asia’s prestigious Fashion Jewellery & Accessories Fair. Swarovski has also collaborated with the London Design Museum to launch a ground-breaking digitally enhanced crystal exhibition.

Founded in 2013, ServiceMarket is an online marketplace that provides quotes and online booking services for a wide range of domestic services. Originating in Dubai, the company quickly expanded across the Middle East to Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The company facilitates moving, storage, cleaning, decorating, handyman, gardening, pest control, and events and catering services through a single easy-to-use platform.

With the best local providers in one place, ServiceMarket customers can quickly and easily find the most suitable companies to meet their needs. The platform also makes it easy to obtain and compare multiple quotes for the same job. All providers on the ServiceMarket platform are licensed, vetted and reviewed by users.

Instead of trawling through hundreds of providers, customers search for the service they require, compare the available options and request quotes or book directly through the ServiceMarket platform. The chosen service provider then carries out the work.

Today, ServiceMarket is the largest home services provider in the Middle East, trusted by thousands of people in the region every month. The company regularly monitors and evaluates all providers on its platform to ensure each continues to provide a quality service. ServiceMarket customer support is also available seven days a week to answer questions and resolve potential issues.

This impeccable service has seen the company amass over 150,000 happy customers, with an average satisfaction score of 4.8 out of 5 across 15,000 reviews.

After growing frustrated with the inefficiencies in the local vehicle servicing and repair market, UAE-based entrepreneur Ozair Puda launched Service My Car in 2019 to plug the gap. Within just two years, the company had raised USD 10m in investment and set its plans for expansion in motion.

That same year, Service My Car launched its first location outside the UAE, in Muscat, Oman. The following year, 2022, saw the opening of several new branches in India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UK.

The company is famous for its simple, fast and contactless five-step service. First, the customer books a service or repair, and the vehicle is collected and inspected. Next, Service My Car technicians send the customer a detailed report with information on any issues found. Only when any suggested work has been authorised does labour commence. With the job complete, the vehicle is returned to the customer’s chosen location.

Service My Car offers a wide array of repair, servicing and maintenance options, including oil change, belt replacement, door repair, transmission replacement, bodywork, battery replacement and car valet services. In the UK, the company also provides contactless MOT test renewals.

Thanks to this vast portfolio of services, Service My Car is the largest car service and repair network in Dubai.

Formed in 1979 to import and refine edible oil, Savola quickly added many more foodstuffs to its offering. Its brands have adorned the shelves of the Middle East’s stores ever since. Now available across the MENA region and Turkey, the company owns many household names across a range of goods, from oils and sugar to pasta and ghee.

After decades of steady growth, by 2015, Savola has operations in seven countries – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. By 2019, its output reached record heights, with total sales volumes across its brands exceeding 1.6 million tonnes of edible oil, 2.2 million tonnes of sugar and 279,336 tonnes of pasta.

With an eye on the future, Savola plans to build on its strong foundation in the Middle East and Africa to drive further growth, investing in its fresh food, seafood, baked goods and children’s foods market. All of which was recently bolstered by the introduction of Savola’s Italiano pasta brand and its USD 50m partnership with Thai Union to introduce the John West seafood brand to 12 countries.

Today, the Savola Group is Saudi Arabia’s largest food company by revenue, the ninth largest company in the country and the second largest in the industrial sector after chemical manufacturing giant SABIC.

Having noticed that businesspeople in Brussels regularly conducted meetings around the city’s small coffee shop tables, Regus founder Mark Dixon came up with an idea. He would offer flexible office solutions on an hourly rate basis.

Regus launched in 1989 to do just that, and by 1994 the company was international, with locations across Europe, South America and Asia. This rapid expansion continued well into the next decade. By 2010, Regus had acquired a portfolio of over 1,000 offices and business centres in 78 countries worldwide.

Today, the company covers every continent, conducting business in all time zones across the globe. Regus is now the world’s number one workspace provider, helping more than eight million people work more flexibly and productively every day.

The company has over 4,000 locations in almost every major city or town on the planet. It now operates in more than 120 countries, with 10,000 employees speaking more than 50 languages.

Regus delivers services for businesses of all sizes, from startups and individuals to SMEs and multinational enterprises. It is trusted to meet the office space and business facilities needs of some of the world’s largest brands, including Microsoft, Disney, Samsung, Spotify, Uber and PayPal.

With fundamental changes in how the world works, Regus has adapted its services to include even more flexible options. The company offers coworking space and virtual office solutions inclusive of call and mail handling and meeting room access to allow all businesses to present a professional front and grow their enterprise.

Unsurprisingly given its global reach, Regus generates significant revenues, exceeding GBP 277bn in 2022.

The brainchild of Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek, PayPal took only four years to grow from ‘just another tech start-up’ to a unicorn with a valuation of over USD 1bn. Established in 1999 to provide security software for hand-held devices, the company pivoted towards electronic payment services in 2000.

Two years later, PayPal launched its first IPO, swiftly followed by its acquisition by online auction giant eBay. The company operated as a subsidiary of eBay for many years, facilitating 70% of its auctions. By 2007, PayPal generated revenues in excess of USD 1.8bn, and by 2010 it boasted over 100 million users across 190 territories, handling payments in 25 different currencies.

By the time PayPal neared the end of its role as an eBay subsidiary, it was responsible for 40% of its parent company’s revenue and was processing over USD 145bn in payments.

After officially going it alone in 2014, the company embarked on a series of multi-billion acquisitions, buying out the vast payment platforms of Xoom and iZettle. This aggressive growth strategy saw PayPal increase user numbers to over 170 million by 2015.

Today, PayPal’s reach is nothing short of phenomenal. The company employs over 30,000 staff and has over 429 million active accounts on its platform. At the same time, it processes over 41 million transactions a day – amounting to over USD 1.2tr worth of trade every year. As a result, the company commands approximately 44% of the total online payment processing market, a long way ahead of its nearest competitor Stripe’s 20% stake. In 2022, PayPal posted revenues of over USD 27bn.

Founded in 2007, Dubai-based holding company Meraas has launched numerous transformational projects across the real estate, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, leisure and healthcare industries since its launch.

The company’s impressive real estate portfolio includes many prestigious addresses and constructions, including Central Park at City Walk, Nikki Beach Residences and Bulgari Residences. The company is also behind the Dubai Harbour project, which is set to be the first yachting community hub in the Middle East, with thousands of berths and an exclusive VIP lounge.

Meeras also owns and operates many leisure and entertainment destinations across the UAE. Notable projects include the Hub Zero tropical forest, The Green Planet virtual reality experience in City Walk, and the inflatable playground Hawa Hawa in La Mer. Another of Meeras’s most striking projects is the Ain Dubai, otherwise known as the world’s largest Ferris wheel.

The company also owns DXB Entertainment, the largest leisure and entertainment company in the region, which operates Dubai Parks and Resorts.

Meeras’s hospitality division handles operations for many hotel partners, including Bulgari Hotels and Resorts,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meraas Jumeirah, Marriott, Nikki Beach Hotels and Resorts, and Caesars Entertainment. The company’s hospitality portfolio also includes La Ville Hotel & Suites, Caesars Palace Bluewaters Dubai,  Zabeel House, and Al Seef Hotel.

To maintain and enhance its reputation for high quality, Meeras launched its Dubai Community Management (DCM) division in 2021. DCM quickly became an industry leader, offering exceptional services to maintain and enhance residential communities and districts across the emirate.

Founded in 2012 by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority to build and run a new bottled water plant, Mai Dubai wasted no time gaining ground in this highly competitive subsector of the beverage market.

Four years later, Mai Dubai received a bronze medal for its product in the prestigious US magazine Beverage World’s 7th Annual BevStar Awards. In the same year, Mai Dubai’s water was named the preferred choice of Emirates passengers.

Market share alone is not enough for this ambitious company. Mai Dubai also strives to lead the way in sustainability and innovation. The company operates the first and only bottling plant in the region to be 100% solar-powered and consistently achieves net-zero energy consumption. It also has the second-largest solar roof in the world, consisting of 52,000 panels.

The latest in Mai Dubai’s long line of sustainability initiatives is the company’s partnership with DGrade to turn discarded plastic bottles into sustainable clothing.

Mai Dubai produces over 86,000 bottles of water per hour thanks to its raid PET line, equivalent to around two million units per day. As well as being sold throughout the UAE, Mai Dubai water is exported across the GCC and beyond to Asia, Africa, and Europe.

To stand out in a crowded market, Mai Dubai water is packaged in a striking bottle with red branding, in contrast to the shades of blue used by other manufacturers. Its products are available in various sizes, including five-gallon bottles for home or office delivery. In all, Mai Dubai water is available to buy in 13 countries, including Bahrain, Oman and South Africa.

Luigi Lavazza opened his artisanal coffee house in Turin, Italy, in 1895, pioneering a practice that is now commonplace around the world – creating coffee blends for domestic consumption.

Until Lavazza created its blending technique, coffee was often unpredictable, varying wildly in taste depending on where and when it was sourced. Thanks to his background in chemistry, Luigi was able to create the perfect formula for great-tasting blends, a talent that quickly saw demand for his product grow.

With the purchase of his first Eureka, a machine that could roast a game-changing 12kg of coffee in a single cycle, the stage was set for the launch of the first official Lavazza coffee store in 1927.

Still owned by the same family today, Lavazza is now the world’s seventh-ranking coffee roaster, bringing in revenues of over USD 2.2bn. In the company’s native Italy, it enjoys a market share of 36%.

Lavazza is a global success, too. The company employs almost 4,000 staff worldwide and exports 46% of its total production. Operating from six production sites, it distributes its famous blends through associated companies in more than 90 countries.

The Lavazza brand is held in such high esteem that its Training Centre, formerly known as the “Luigi Lavazza Centre for Coffee Research”, has expanded across a network of over 50 schools worldwide, taking in 30,000 trainees annually.

In recent years, a series of acquisitions has seen the company reach new heights. Between 2018 and 2022, Lavazza either took over or purchased a majority stake in the Carte Noire, Kicking Horse Coffee and MaxiCoffee brands. It also partnered with beverages giant Pepsi to launch a ready-to-drink canned coffee during the same period.

Founded by English estate agent Howard Frank in 1896, Knight Frank is one of the world’s largest and best-respected real estate consultancies. The company took under 12 months to secure its first sale, achieving a price of GBP 270 for a cycle machinery and plant business in Battersea, London. It was to be the first of many.

By 1911, the company was making sales in the region of hundreds of thousands of pounds, listing property for many of the UK’s wealthiest and most high-profile individuals. Just a few years later, Knight Frank recorded its most notable sale to date, selling Stonehenge for GBP 6,600. Many more headline-grabbing sales followed, from Winston Churchill’s house to the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate.

Before long, Knight Frank was advising on real estate developments, too. The company was enlisted to work on the site assembly for the BBC’s Broadcasting House in 1928 and to advise on the development of the London Olympic Village for the 2012 games. In the UAE, Knight Frank won the contract to sell 231 prime residential properties in the Royal Atlantis at Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

In recent years, the company has become as well known for its indexes and reports as for its real estate services. The Knight Frank Global House Price Index, Country House Index, Prime Central London Index and annual Wealth Report are all used as benchmarks by prestigious organisations, institutions and industry leaders.

Today, Knight Frank is a global powerhouse with an operation spanning more than 20,000 staff across 488 offices in 57 territories. The company handles over USD 817bn worth of commercial, agricultural and residential real estate every year.

JETSTREAM was founded in 2008 by a team of highly skilled aviation experts. Since then, it has provided certified training courses to pilots, placing them with the world’s top airlines.

From the outset, the company’s mission has been to give the crew of tomorrow the skills they need to meet the high and rising standards of the global aviation industry. JETSTREAM continues to achieve this goal by operating some of the world’s most stringent safety, performance and discipline aviation training, meeting and exceeding the European JAA and EASA regulations.

Originating in Greece, the company foresaw the rapid spike in demand for commercial and private crew in the Middle East and expanded its operations to Dubai to meet this need. Today, JETSTREAM is an EASA Approved Training Organisation and the only combined Flight and Type Rating Organisation in Athens, Greece and Dubai. All its instructors are active captains, ensuring the training is accurate, up-to-date, and tailored to specific airlines where necessary.

JETSTREAM’s portfolio of training services also includes professional accreditations for helicopter pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers and cabin crew.

As well as training individuals, JETSTREAM provides cost-effective crew provisioning solutions. The company handles all recruitment and onboarding processes on behalf of its airline partners, from the initial screening of candidates to airline-specific training courses.

JETSTREAM’s EASA-approved Crew Training Centers are based at Athens International Airport in Greece and Silicon Oasis in Dubai. Both offer industry-leading facilities and can cater to a large number of trainees. Flight training takes place in Athens, and Full Flight Simulator Training is performed in the UAE. The company also offers issues pilot medical and English language certificates.

Geidea was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2008 with a mission to make payments and e-commerce technology as accessible and affordable as possible. The company aimed to bring the latest processing tech to merchants of all types and sizes.

While it may have been ambitious, Geidea achieved this goal within just a few years. Having launched its first certified point-of-sale (POS) terminal in 2013, by 2015 it was Saudi Arabia’s market leader with 50% of the POS market.

Within three more years, it reached unicorn status following a USD 1bn acquisition by one of the region’s financial giants, Gulf Capital. Geidea continued to break new ground, becoming the first fintech in Saudi Arabia to be licensed as a payment institution.

 A year later, in 2021, the company expanded its operations into Africa, signing a deal with a major bank in Egypt. A few months later, Geidea saw its second international expansion of the year, signing a deal to provide services for UAE payment provider Magnati.

Today, Geidea remains committed to its mission to help small businesses gain access to the technologies that only the big players could previously benefit from. By delivering best-in-class solutions to the SME sector, the company has levelled the payment processing playing field.

Founded in Abu Dhabi in 2009 by H.E. Mr Ahmed Al Darmaki & Mr Aldaba Saif Aldarmaki, Emirates Hospitality set out with a vision to integrate the world’s most successful global brands in the UAE market.

That mission continues to this day. With a passion for retail, the company has developed relationships with many of the best brands in the industry, introducing them to the UAE and the wider region. Emirates Hospitality is also expanding internationally and launching concepts worldwide across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the U.S.

Today, the company’s dedicated team manage numerous operations across the entertainment, food and beverage and leisure industries, including several beverage concessions operations, plated speciality meals for conventions and large banquets, and event management solutions.

Emirates Hospitality’s brands include the speciality coffee concept, Arabica. Brewed in Japan since 1998, Arabica has earned a global reputation for its taste and high quality. Another of the company’s leading operations is HACCI, a beauty brand whose products focus on the healing and beautifying properties of honey.

The company is also the sole UAE license holder of Sarabeth’s, an award-winning bakery and restaurant originating in New York. The brand has won over 18 NASFT awards and was included in Oprah Winfrey’s prestigious ‘Favourite Things’ list. Emirates Hospitality has introduced the brand to Dubai and has plans to open another outlet in Abu Dhabi.

Since its launch in 2007, Emaar Hospitality has set the standard for quality in the region’s hotel and leisure industries. The group manages numerous prestigious brands and locations, including Address Hotels + Resorts, the upscale Vida Hotels and Resorts, and the stunning and contemporary Rove Hotels brand.

Emaar Hospitality’s portfolio also includes the Arabian Ranches Golf Club, the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club and the Dubai Marina Yacht Club, as well as a vast collection of restaurants and wellness facilities. Such is the company’s impeccable reputation throughout the region that it was named the Official Hotel and Hospitality Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai.

In all, Emaar Hospitality’s operation spans over 3,000 staff, 12,000 hotel rooms, 11,000 residence units, and 40 restaurants.

Driven by its ambition to become the most innovative hospitality company in the Middle East, the company strives to combine technology with the human touch to create inspirational brands and breathtaking developments. In the coming years, Emaar Hospitality has plans to launch its brands in key destinations across Africa, China, Europe and India.

The company is also steadfastly committed to sustainability. As part of its growing environmental policy, Emaar Holdings has pledged to eradicate one-time-use plastic items from its bathrooms, change all plastic packaging to biodegradable alternatives, establish a partnership with UAE Food Bank to minimise waste, and reduce energy usage and water consumption by 15%.

Founded by Indian entrepreneur Sowmyer Iyer, DViO is one of the region’s largest independent digital-first marketing agencies. Following rapid growth, the company now employs over 175 people across India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Driven by its ethos that the time for conventional advertising is coming to an end, DViO works with its clients to enable integrated strategies that deliver memorable experiences and increase brand loyalty across a wide range of industries.

With clients including McDonald’s, Toms and Birkenstock, DViO builds its highly successful campaigns by enhancing rich data with its unique creativity and proprietary technologies. From this foundation, its highly experienced network of staff and agency partners work together to solve business challenges and build profitable brands.

Among its many services, DViO offers search engine marketing, search engine optimisation, campaign management, social media marketing, media planning and buying, and online reputation management.

The company’s broad service portfolio and impressive track record have been in the spotlight over the years. Among many prestigious accolades, DViO scooped five Lighthouse Awards for its work on the Game of Thrones season seven launch.

Strath Sherriff’s grandfather, Ross Sherriff, was a great tennis player and legendary coach, working with some of Australia’s greatest-ever players, from Rod Laver to Tony Roach.

Following the family tradition, Strath set up the Dubai Tennis Academy to pass on his sporting skills. Strath has many accolades to his name, too. He was a worldwide agent for the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, a touring pro for the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch, and the UAE Davis Cup captain and national coach. He has also conducted clinics featuring top international players such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

The resumes of DTA’s other coaches are equally impressive. Ilac Tabura was a member of the Philippine National Junior Tennis Team and has represented the country in many international events. Warren Alivio was a regular player on the National tournament circuit in the Philippines and held a national ranking. James Cañete played on the Junior ITF tour as well as college team tennis.

Together, the team at Dubai Tennis Academy offer many coaching options. The company has classes for all age groups, with Mini Minors for 4-7-year-olds, Young Guns for intermediate 7-16-year-olds, and Top Guns for advanced juniors aged ten and above. For adults, DTA runs private lessons as well as mixed and women-only sessions.

As well as tennis lessons, the Dubai Tennis Academy also runs regular events, from junior tournaments to Guinness World Record attempts.

Established in 2004, Dubai Holding is the personal investment portfolio of the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The company has very quickly amassed an impressive collection of real estate, leisure, infrastructure and commercial interests.

Within a few years of its launch, Dubai Holding opened the Arabian-themed resort Madinat Jumeirah, announced the construction of Dubai Studio City and opened Dubai International Academic City. It also launched Emirates International Communications to invest in numerous comms organisations across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. It has not slowed down since.

The mid-2000s saw a raft of projects, including SmartCity, the Dubai Design District and in5, an initiative designed to help early-stage companies grow and thrive in the UAE.

Dubai Holding has also partnered with Aldar Properties to build and manage three major new developments in the emirate. The 3.5 million square metre project will feature over 9,000 units, including villas, townhouses, apartments and retail and community facilities.

This is one of a number of similar ventures. In 2014, Dubai Holding partnered with Emaar Properties to develop Dubai Creek Harbour, a sustainable mixed-use waterfront destination.

Dubai Holding operates many more business groups in the leisure, manufacturing, science, logistics, design and technology industries, including the Jumeirah Group, TECOM Group, Arab Media Group, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, Wild Wadi Waterpark and The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

In all, Dubai Holding has over USD 130bn in assets across 13 countries and more than 20,000 employees worldwide.

Founded in 1976, Australian investment services firm Colliers owes its incredible growth to a long series of mergers and acquisitions. The first came just two years after it launched when the company joined forces with Hong Kong’s Tony Petty & Associates.

Over the next 30 years, the company was involved in no fewer than four multimillion-dollar deals, merging with Macaulay Nicolls, American Realty Services Group and the British firm Jardines.

After accumulating numerous divisions, legal entities, franchises and other organisational departments over several decades, Colliers consolidated its companies and franchises under a single name in 2010.

The aggressive growth strategy paid dividends. Today, Colliers is one of the world’s leading diversified professional services and investment management companies. It employs over 18,000 staff across 66 countries and delivers annual returns of approximately 20% per year for its shareholders. The company has annual revenues of $4.5 billion and manages assets worth $98 billion.

Still actively pursuing growth through merger and acquisition, Colliers remains committed to its mission to provide a full range of commercial and residential real estate services to occupiers, developers, owners and investors on a local, regional, national and international basis.

On top of this diverse service portfolio, the company issues an internationally respected annual Global Impact Report highlighting the industry’s progress towards realising a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was founded in 1963 by Herb Hyman, who began importing and roasting coffee to sell to local offices. After gaining a taste for finer beans on a trip to Sweden, Hyman introduced a more hands-on approach to selling his product.

One of many retail innovations was to invite customers to observe the beans being roasted and sample various varieties before making their purchase.

This commitment to high-quality produce and excellent customer service saw the company quickly expand to ten stores in Southern California by the end of the 1970s. The brand’s popularity increased further in the 1980s following the creation of its now signature Ice Blended drinks. The predecessor to Starbucks’ Frappuccino, it was unlike anything sold in most American coffee shops at the time.

Following its own meteoric rise, Starbucks would come calling in 1997, first opening a store near Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s San Francisco location and then offering to buy the company’s now sizeable chain of stores. Not only was the offer declined, but Hyman credited its rival’s arrival in the area with attracting more customers to his stores.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has retained its commitment to sourcing only the finest produce. The company’s coffee master, Jay Isais, selects the top 1% of Arabica beans from the world’s best growing regions in East Africa, Latin America and the Pacific for use in its products. All beans continue to be roasted in small batches at the company’s facility in Camarillo, California.

Today, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf serves coffee, tea, soft drinks, snacks and more to customers across the US and 31 other countries from its network of over 1,000 stores.

Cluttons traces its roots back to 1765 when founder William Clutton took over his fathers-in-law’s surveying business and began trading under his own name. This long history has earned the company the distinction of being the UK’s oldest established firm of chartered surveyors.

In the decades following its launch, Cluttons focused the bulk of its expertise and resources on consultancy. Today, it has amassed a team of experts across a wide range of fields. This broad talent pool allows the company to assign a team of associates to each client rather than a single account manager. This approach sets Cluttons apart from many in the field and gives its clients access to specialists across each stage of the property lifecycle.

With a global reputation for excellence secured, the company expanded its operation into the Middle East in the 1970s. Today, Cluttons still has a presence in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain and Oman.

While its early competitors have grown into international behemoths, Cluttons has held back from rapid expansion. As the market’s big players get even bigger, the company is committed to delivering its industry-leading advice with a personal touch, something that cannot be guaranteed elsewhere.

With over 250 staff in 50 countries around the globe, Cluttons offers a broad range of consultancy services. It advises, supports and guides its clients on everything from building and lease advisory, compulsory purchase and property management to business rates, valuation and investor services.

The Belhasa Group can trace its roots back to 1960s Dubai. The brainchild of founder and current chairman, Dr Ahmed Saif Belhasa, it began as a small trader of imported used cars and parts.

In 1968, the group established one of its most transformational ventures, the Union Trading Company, which was instrumental in the development of Dubai and the Northern Emirates. The company participated in several key infrastructure projects, including power stations, substations, gas turbines and more.

Over the next two decades, the group added the Belhasa Engineering & Contracting Company to its portfolio. Launched in 1977, it is now one of  Dubai’s leading contractors.

The 1980s saw the group enter several new markets, starting with the establishment of the United Decoration Company, specialising in the design and delivery of high-quality interior decoration work. Across the following decades, the group went on to break ground in the pools, water treatment, concrete repairs, joinery and sports surfacing industries.

Driving was the Belhasa Group’s next port of call with the launch of its Emirates Driving Institute, which soon became the market leader in driving tuition within the UAE. This division went on to become one of the group’s most enterprising, leading to the creation of two more highly respected institutions, the Qeyadah and Dubai International Driving Centres.

The 2000s saw yet more diversification. The Belhasa Group entered the disinfection market through its Belhasa BioTek brand, opening an office in Beijing, China, to strengthen its trading ties with the country.

Today, thanks to its vast range of divisions, associate companies and representative offices throughout the region, the Belhasa Group is one the major contributors to the economic development of the UAE and the wider GCC.

When Bechtel began trading in 1898 with equipment transported by the founding family’s mules, no one could have predicted its impact on the world stage. Starting out on the railroads, the company quickly gained a reputation for the speed and quality of its service and pioneering use of equipment.

By 1925, Bechtel was the leading construction company in the western US and regularly took on government work to build pipelines, refineries and other vital infrastructure. Seven years later, the company would win its most prestigious contract as part of a consortium to build the Hoover Dam.

Following the project’s success, Bechtel was trusted to carry out many more government and state projects and, by the 1960s, was responsible for developing around 40% of all nuclear plants in the US.

It was during the 1970s and 80s, however, that things went into overdrive. Dubbed its ‘megaprojects era,’ Bechtel worked on major airports in Saudi Arabia, the Washington D.C. metro, and the industrial city of Jubail and handled project management for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Another of the company’s and indeed the world’s most transformational projects would come in 1987 when Bechtel was awarded the contract to manage the building of the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France.

The 90s and 2000s saw similar fortunes with multibillion-dollar projects undertaken to manage and build the Hong Kong Airport Core Programme, an extension to the London Underground and yet more infrastructure management for the Olympic Games.

Today, Bechtel is ranked eighth on the Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies in terms of revenue and seventh on its list of most important private companies. In 2022, Bechtel generated revenues of over USD 17bn.

Formed in 1985, Asteco is an international award-winning real estate services company. Enjoying a first-rate reputation in the region and beyond, the company’s success rests on high-quality, professional, and transparent services across its portfolio of offerings.

The leading full-service realty company in the Middle East, Asteco has been instrumental in driving numerous projects that continue to define the landscape, infrastructure and culture of the region.

Driving this success is its commitment to helping clients work towards their objectives with a fast, thorough, and no-hassle service. With over 25,000 units under its management and more than USD 20bn worth of sales and leasing transactions, it is one of the region’s most experienced and trusted organisations.

Asteco offers a broad range of real estate solutions, including sales, leasing, building consultancy and more, to over 2,000 satisfied clients. Its unrivalled industry knowledge, collaborative approach and enormous pool of resources continue to win the company new business day after day.

Whether working with institutions, investors, offshore entities or individuals, Asteco’s goal is to deliver measurable, consistent returns for its clients. This approach has been recognised with numerous accolades across the years.

The company was ranked as one of the Top Regional Consultants by Forbes, is a designated ‘Super Brand’ and has won a MENAFA Excellence Franchising Award. Asteco was also recognised with a prestigious International Property Award for Best International Property Consultancy Marketing as part of its Residences at St. Regis Abu Dhabi project.

ALDO was established in 1972 as a footwear concession within the Canadian fashion house Le Château. Founded by Aldo Bensadoun, the son of a shoe merchant and grandson of a cobbler, it is little surprise that the company soon became one of the industry’s leading names.

In 1978, ALDO opened its first standalone store in Montreal. Over the next two decades, the retailer expanded to many more locations across Canada. The early-2000s saw further growth with stores launching in Saudi Arabia, the UK and Singapore.

For many years, ALDO was best known for its FeetFirst line of footwear, which catered to older consumers. This changed in 2010 when the company launched its pioneering store concept, Lōcale. These boutique-style locations catered more for the young professional market, with ALDO footwear sold alongside many big-name brands.

More evolution followed when, in 2012, ALDO announced the ‘Call It Spring’ brand in collaboration with department store giant JCPenney. The partnership saw ALDO footwear on the shelves of more than 600 JCPenney stores throughout the US. Another big-name partnership, this time with Kohl’s, saw ALDO design and produce exclusive footwear products to be sold in hundreds more department stores across the country. Today, the ALDO Group’s 16,000 staff sell shoes, apparel and accessories from over 3,000 stores in more than 100 countries. The company generated revenues of over 1.7bn in 2022.

Arabian Adventures is the most experienced tour operator in the Middle East. Its guides ensure a hassle-free experience and enable tourists to see a side of the UAE that they would not otherwise be able to experience.

With excellent local knowledge and speaking a variety of languages, the Arabian Adventures team enrich every tour with facts, history and insight not found elsewhere.

Customers can choose from a wide variety of sightseeing and adventure tours, including desert safaris and experiences, overnight desert camping, dune buggy tours and various sightseeing expeditions.

Desert experiences give visitors to the UAE a chance to feel immersed in local culture. With experienced guides, tourists can roam the Emirates on a Jeep adventure, get a taste of authentic Bedouin life by trekking the dunes by camel, or simply relax and enjoy the tranquillity and solitude of the desert with dinner under the stars.

For a unique experience, customers can book a private tour. This typically takes in many of the same sights as a group tour, but travellers benefit from a personal waiter service, chauffeur, and a premium three-course meal served at a table for two in the desert.

Arabian Adventures also facilitates trips to many of the UAE’s top tourist attractions, including Atlantis Adventure, Ski Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, Ferrari World, and Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

As a responsible tour operator, Arabian Adventures donates a portion of every safari fee to support conservation. It has taken steps to drastically reduce its plastic waste and conducts a quarterly desert clean-up. The company also works to the industry’s highest animal welfare standards, ensuring all their animals have plentiful food and water, a high-quality living environment and good health.

Wagamama was the brainchild of Hong Kong-born entrepreneur Alan Yau. After opening the doors of its London restaurant in 1992, the company wasted little time cornering the market in casual Asian dining.

A little over ten years later, Wagamama had produced enough noodles to circumnavigate the globe 64 times, with over 190 restaurants across Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Oman, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the USA. Today, there are more than 200 outlets around the world.

For over 30 years, the company has prided itself on offering a unique dining experience by bringing together the fresh and invigorating flavours of Asia for everyone.

Driving this rapid global expansion is the company’s long-standing philosophy of “kaizen”, meaning “good change”. Wagamama states that this belief guides every dish and is the force behind the continuous improvement of its recipes, service levels and restaurant ambience.

Wagamama’s restaurants are noted for their communal tables, with unrelated diners seated side by side on long benches. As well as its restaurant setup, the company is also well-known for its signature dishes, such as ramen, teppanyaki and katsu curry.

Now part of The Restaurant Group after a USD 559m acquisition in 2014, Wagamama posted half-year sales in H1 2022 of GBP 423.4m, up from GBP 216.8m in the first half of 2022. The Restaurant Group posted annual revenues in the same year of over GBP 459m.

The Twining family made its name in the weaving business in Gloucestershire, UK, in the 1600s. After a move to more prosperous London in the 1680s, one of the family’s younger members, Thomas Twining, set his sights on continuing the family tradition. However, he landed a job handling tea shipments for a wealthy merchant – and the rest is history.

By his mid-20s, Thomas Twining was immersed in the tea trade; and when his son took over in the 1740s, the Twinings name was about to go global. By 1749, Twinings tea was being sold in America. Such was its popularity across the Atlantic that when Boston Tea Party rebels protested against British taxation by dumping English tea into the harbour in 1773, it is said that Twinings tea was not among the goods discarded.

More prestigious recognition followed in 1837 when the company was granted its first Royal Warrant for tea, designating the company as the supplier to the household of Queen Victoria. Twinings has supplied tea to every British monarch since.

Today, Twinings has a global reputation for its beverages which, along with tea, now include coffee, hot chocolate, and malt drinks. It has occupied its London premises since 1706 and is the city’s longest-standing ratepayer.

Along with its long history and commitment to the finest produce, Twinings’ dedication to ethics and sustainability sets it apart from the competition. Through its ethical tea programme, Sourced with Care, the company aims to enhance the quality of life in the communities where it sources tea. Twinings is also a founding member of the Ethical Tea Partnership, an organisation dedicated to monitoring and improving conditions on tea estates globally.

Twinings is part of the Associated British Foods Group, which posts annual revenues of over GBP 1.1bn.

Drawing on its African heritage, The Meat Co. has brought its winning combination of world-class ingredients, innovative design and captivating decor to the Middle East for many years. As well as its famed fusion of colours, textures, and signature elements in every dish, each of its restaurants adds a touch of theatrics, with tables overlooking iconic landmarks, from the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi to the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa.

Over the years, The Meat Co. has built a loyal following thanks to its commitment to sourcing only the finest steaks from around the world, coupled with its unique ageing process. Prime cuts are the focus across all the company’s locations, whether it’s the Mayura Station Signature Wagyu or the prime 1kg Tomahawk steak. Diners can also indulge in fresh seafood, raw cuts and a range of speciality dishes that draw influence from The Meat Co.’s South African roots.

In addition to its two outlets in Dubai, The Meat Co. has a restaurant in Manama, Bahrain and another in Al Zahra, Kuwait.

The company is part of the wider FoodFund International, a family-owned and operated restaurant group that spans seven countries worldwide. For over 50 years, the company has created unique concepts centred around food quality, authentic service, and incredible guest experiences. Beyond the UAE, FoodFund International has restaurants in Kuwait, Kenya and Greece.

After an unsuccessful attempt to find a spot for a late-night coffee in their native Brisbane, two friends began to plan their next business venture. That venture would become The Coffee Club.

Later that same year, The Coffee Club opened its first store on Eagle Street Pier in Brisbane. In 1994, the company became a franchise, paving the way for its global expansion.

The Coffee Club’s first international store opened a year later in Wellington, New Zealand – a country that is now home to 65 branches. Following the company’s acquisition by Thailand’s Minor International, the company set its sights further afield.

Today, there are more than 440 Coffee Club stores across 14 countries in the Pacific, Asia and the Middle East. Serving over 40 million customers, it is now the largest café chain in Australia and one of the largest in the world.

The Coffee Club’s philosophy has remained unwavering since its inception: “to provide Good Food, Great Service and Excellent Coffee in welcoming, relaxing surrounds.”

Whether it’s a celebration, a Sunday breakfast session, coffee with workmates or a break from shopping, the company’s founders want The Coffee Club to be the go-to answer to the question, “Where will I meet you?”

Alongside its global café domination, The Coffee Club is also fiercely committed to doing its bit to save the planet. The company is a member of the Simply Cups upcycling program, which saves an estimated 10 million coffee cups from landfill. Its sustainable packaging also saves an estimated 468,500 Styrofoam containers annually from the same fate.

Splash has been offering the latest fashions to shoppers in the Middle East since its first store opened in Sharjah in 1997. With its headquarters now in Dubai, it is the largest fashion retailer in the Middle East, having expanded its presence across 13 countries worldwide.

Splash offers an extensive collection of fashionable clothing for men, women, and teenagers, serving as the go-to destination for local brands and international names like Kappa, Lee Cooper, Bossini, CR7, and Being Human.

As well as its popular retail locations, Splash is famous for its fashion shows, which it holds to much acclaim once or twice every year. The showcases display the latest regional fashions and highlight Splash’s latest breakthroughs in sustainable clothing. Such is its success in this area that over 80% of the company’s clothing is now crafted from eco-friendly fabrics such as recycled polyester, Tencel, organic cotton, and Lenzing viscose.

This dedication to responsible retail practices has seen Splash earn numerous industry awards over the years, including the ‘Most Admired Responsible Retailer’ and the ‘Most Admired Retailer of the Year’ in 2019. The company was also recognised as one of the best places to work in the UAE in the Great Place to Work Rankings 2020.

Today, Splash operates over 200 stores across the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, with over 4,000 staff serving customers across more than 2.8 million square feet of retail space.

Shakespeare and Co., a cafe-restaurant concept established in Dubai by Dr Edward Saad in 2001, has flourished over the past two decades. The cafe has become a leading player in the casual dining sector, redefining and influencing the UAE’s catering landscape.

With 32 locations across the UAE and eight more franchised stores in the wider GCC, Shakespeare and Co. serves over five million customers every year. Its growing menu combines the classic and contemporary, drawing inspiration from the world’s most popular cuisines and attracting much acclaim along the way.

The restaurant’s eye-catching interiors, curated by Shakespeare and Co.’s in-house design team, combine elegance and cosiness and evoke the ambience of Parisian cafes of the past.

As well as its cafe-restaurant, Shakespeare and Co. is renowned for its patisserie and chocolate offerings, both of which can be purchased online. Using the finest and most exotic ingredients, Shakespeare and Co.’s highly skilled artisans create delectable treats, including classic French cakes, petit fours, ice creams, sorbets and gourmet chocolates.

Thanks to its commitment to producing the finest goods and delivering extraordinary dining experiences, Shakespeare and Co. is now very much a part of the fabric of UAE, becoming the go-to place for baked goods, indulgent deserts and a break from the busy city.

Lush founders Mark Constantine and Liz Weir started out in the industry by supplying one of the company’s biggest rivals. Until 1995, the pair were the biggest manufacturers for the Body Shop and formulated many of its best-selling products.

After growing increasingly uncomfortable with creating but not owning the products they were producing, Lush’s soon-to-be founders sold their cosmetic manufacturing business to the much larger Body Shop brand in 1991. As part of the sale, they were prohibited from competing with the company until 1994.

Lush was therefore launched in 1995, with the first store opening in Poole, UK. Before long, it had expanded Its presence with new locations in London’s Covent Garden and Kings Road. By 2003, Lush had over 200 retail stores around the world, including in the UK, Croatia, Brazil, Australia and Ireland.

Driving this growing popularity and rapid expansion was the company’s vision to provide simple, natural products with minimal packaging and as little impact on the environment as possible.

To bolster its natural and ethical credentials, Lush operates a Supplier Specific Boycott policy, which means the company will not buy any ingredients from a business that tests any of its materials on animals. Natural ingredients also account for 65% of the company’s raw material spend, with the other 35% spent on safe synthetic materials. Finally, each Lush recipe is vegetarian, with 85% also vegan.

Today, Lush produces and sells creams, soaps, shampoos, shower gels, lotions, moisturisers, scrubs, masks, and much more in over 950 stores across 49 counties. This global reach regularly translates to over GBP 800m in annual turnover.

Taking its name from the French for ‘the daily bread’, Le Pain Quotidien was founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1990. Having grown increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of bread on offer in the city, young chef Alain Coumont began baking his own. Made with just three ingredients – water, flour and salt – his organic sourdough soon gained a reputation in Brussels and beyond.

Le Pain Quotidien’s first bakery at 16 rue Dansaert in Brussels is still in operation. With money tight, Coumont furnished his first location with second-hand cabinets and a large central table made of reclaimed wood from the floors of Belgian trains, purchased from a local flea market. He did not know it then, but this long, wooden communal table would become a centrepiece for Le Pain Quotidien cafes worldwide.

 By 1997, Le Pain Quotidien had branched outside Europe with its first outlet in the USA, opening in Madison Avenue, New York City. Over the course of the next decade, Coumont was reported to receive tens of emails every day from investors wanting to secure a franchise of the business.

Thanks to its impeccable baked goods and its growing franchise model, Le Pain Quotidien now has over 210 bakeries in 21 countries, including Argentina, the Netherlands, the UK, France, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, Russia, Hong Kong, Japan and the UAE.

While high-quality, freshly baked bread remains its flagship offering, Le Pain Quotidien has expanded its menu over the years to include pastries, soups, salads, eggs, yoghurts, organics teas and coffees and a range of vegan and vegetarian options.

Today, La Petite Maison is synonymous with incredible food in wonderfully ambient settings. But while any foodie worth their salt will know all about its reputation, getting here was a long road.

Established in 1980s Nice by Nicole Rubi, a French chef of Italian descent, La Petite Maison started out by serving home-cooked dishes – simple food made well and served in humble surroundings. Such was the quality of that food that the restaurant soon gained a stellar reputation among the city’s discerning diners and to French Riviera holidaymakers.

This is how things would remain until the early 2000s, when a consortium of investors and restaurateurs acquired the global franchise rights to the brand. What followed was a meticulously planned international expansion.

La Petite Maison is both a chain and a boutique restaurant all in one. While its attention to impeccable service, fantastic food and relaxed French ambience runs through every location, each brings its own unique style to proceedings.

Today, La Petite Maison has restaurants in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Limassol, London, Miami and Riyadh. Each is among the top-rated restaurants in its respective city. La Petite Maison locations ranked among the Top 50 Restaurants in London, the Top 50 in MENA and the Top 40 in Miami, while its Dubai incarnation has been recognised as the emirate’s best by Time Out.

While the company’s international owners have stayed true to the stylings and menus that earned the original restaurant its reputation, things have naturally evolved over the past two decades. The main inspiration remains the French Riviera, with a heavy Mediterranean influence. Artichokes, lemons, olives, tomatoes, peppers, fresh fish, traditional pasta and fine cuts of meat drive every dish.

Founded in Dubai in 2018, Kitopi set the record for the Middle East’s fastest unicorn three years later, receiving a USD 1bn valuation following a USD 415m funding round.

The company, which offers a managed cloud kitchen platform, has made great waves in a short time around the world, too. Today, it operates in the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Poland, and Bahrain.

Behind this success is its proprietary in-house technology to enables it to cook for multiple brands from a single kitchen. Kitopi handles the entire operational process from preparation to direct delivery to customers.

Following the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company looked to diversify its solutions portfolio. As well as cooking for food and beverage outlets, Kitopi began investing in them too. Today, the company is a tech-powered multi-brand restaurant that offers both online and dine-in options.

And tech-powered is the key term. Kitopi’s growth is powered by its innovative and scalable software solutions. Its kitchens are all equipped with the Smart Kitchen Operating System, an in-house suite of applications that optimises cloud kitchen operations in real time.

The team behind this technology is based in Poland. It consists of 100 staff with various specialisations, including Frontend Developers, QA Engineers, Platform Developers, Data Mining Engineers, Solution Architects, Lead Data Analysts and Product Managers.

As Kitopi’s rapid rise to unicorn status shows, this is not a company that likes to sit still. As well as relying on its propriety kitchen management software, the company also develops and deploys a range of other solutions, from personalised web and mobile e-commerce apps to customer service, delivery, control, and other business applications.

The company currently operates around 60 applications and 50 additional components, with more on the way. Combined, this enviable tech stack powers its many multi-brand cloud kitchens and dine-in locations throughout the Middle East.

Launched in Dubai in 2021, Kitch-In rapidly gained a reputation as one of the region’s most disruptive startups. Its food-tech platform and dark kitchen operation initially served just four restaurant brands from a single location. Within little over a year, it has seen incredible growth and now facilitates the business of more than 20 virtual restaurant brands across its expanding kitchen network.

Founded by renowned chef Izu Ani and restaurateur Evgeny Kuzin and backed by the global hospitality Accor Group, Kitch-In’s continuous focus on innovation is already redefining the domestic delivery segment and disrupting the hospitality industry.

To set itself apart from other brands in the increasingly competitive dark kitchen space, Kitch-In reports that it is the only platform with the capacity and technology to effectively monitor quality control across the entire ecosystem.

Today, the company primarily operates in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, promoting the food and beverage brands it supports across various delivery platforms and hotel digital menu systems. Kitch-In also collaborates with esteemed fine dining restaurants like Gaia, Scalini and Shanghai Me to deliver their food throughout the UAE.

The company has its eyes on global domination. It is already expanding its operations across 36 new sites in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, among other GCC countries. At the same time, Kitch-In is introducing its first burger delivery concept in the Netherlands and Belgium through an exclusive agreement with Johnny’s Burger Co.

As part of the deal, customers will be able to order food from Kitch-In’s digital restaurant brands at 45 existing Johnny’s Burger Co. kitchens. Kitch-In is also set to open 50 of its own kitchens throughout the region.

Dhamani’s journey into gold and diamond trading began in 1969 when it opened its doors as a loose gemstone dealer in Jaipur, India. Since then, the company has crafted exquisite jewels for customers worldwide, blending precious metals, stunning gems and unique diamonds.

In the 1970s, the company had expanded overseas, venturing into new trading markets in Far East Asia and North America. Further international expansion followed in the 1990s, when Dhamani established a gemstone and diamond trading office in Bangkok, Thailand, to strengthen its supply chain and trading network in the Far East. Around the same time, the company began trading diamonds and gemstones with retailers and manufacturers in the UAE. At the end of the decade, a trading office was set up in Dubai to further enhance trading with the markets of the Middle East.

Just a few years later, Dhamani launched its first retail boutique at Dubai’s famous Gold Souk, offering fine jewellery directly to customers. In 2016, it opened the Dhamani 1969 retail boutique at the prestigious Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

Underpinning Dhamani’s success is a focus on providing superior services and personal care to all customers. The company’s dedicated team of consultants are always available to assist with general queries, repair, resizing, personalisation of existing jewellery, and the creation of unique pieces by Dhamani’s master designer.

Alongside the Dhamani 1969 and House of Dhamani brands, the company operates another prestigious luxury outlet, DUSOUL. Catering largely to the Millennial market, DUSOL focuses on meticulously crafted jewellery inspired by current trends and mesmerising themes. As well as offering collections designed and developed in-house, DUSOL also exclusively features renowned international brands such as Akillis, Palmiero, Giovanni Ferrais, Moraglione 1922, Lenti Villasco, Brumani, Bigli, Casato, and Moiseikin.

While the company’s global ubiquity makes it hard to believe, Deliveroo has only existed since 2013. The fact that the company’s founders, Will Shu and Greg Orlowski, were recognised with the Best Startup Founders and Fastest Rising Startup of the Year accolades at the Europa Awards just three years later says everything about the company’s rapid rise.

Today, Deliveroo operates in over 200 cities across the UK, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, the UAE and Hong Kong, with 3,800 staff and 180,000 riders worldwide.

Such is the company’s influence, a UK study found that by 2017 – just four years after launch – Deliveroo has boosted the country’s food industry revenue by USD 460m.  

In 2017, the company changed the game once more with the introduction of Deliveroo Editions. These delivery-only facilities allow restaurants to reach customers in various locations without the need for high-street or customer-facing premises.

As a result, restaurants can drastically reduce costs and expand into new areas without opening standard physical premises. Editions customers pay a flat fee inclusive of rent, rates, upkeep costs, marketing support, a dedicated growth manager, brand-building assistance, menu optimisation services and packaging advice.

Deliveroo Editions currently operates across 380 kitchens in five countries, serving a range of customers from startups and single-site restaurants to international brands including Pho, Honest Burger and Shake Shack.

Here in the UAE, Deliveroo operates five Editions locations, including its largest global site, a 12-kitchen facility on Hessa Street, Dubai.

De Beers’ origins can be traced back to Dutch brothers Diederik Arnoldus and Johannes Nicolaas de Beer, who found diamonds on their farmland in South Africa in the 1860s. Several ventures later, the pair established a company for the purpose of gemstone trading.

Over the following years, De Beers became one of the industry’s most revered and respected names and furthered gemstone exploration and innovation over the years. Today, the company has unparalleled expertise in the locating, mining, sorting, selling, grading and marketing of diamonds.

Working in some of the world’s most remote and challenging locations, De Beers’ exploration teams search for signs of kimberlite, the rock formation that contains diamonds. From the harsh Arctic winds of Canada to the deserts of Botswana, the company uncovers the earth’s most precious gemstones.

De Beers’ pioneering technology, aided by the latest research and equipment such as airborne geophysical surveys and seismic and magnetic readings, is helping its teams in southern Africa and Canada search meticulously for the next viable kimberlite pipe. This discovery will mark the first significant diamond deposit in over two decades.

The company is also actively searching across southern Africa for the region’s next diamond mine with cutting-edge tech that can pinpoint gemstones up to 1,000 feet below the earth’s crust.

De Beers leads the way in gemstone verification, too. Its UK-based diamond research and technological development centre is the world’s most advanced. Its team of scientists and engineers are continuously creating new methods for verifying and sorting diamonds, developing powerful technology that can detect any synthetic materials or treatments.

This commitment to quality is reflected in the company’s financials, too. Revenues for 2022 exceeded USD 6.5bn.

Barakat’s inception can be traced to 1976 when its founders started out in the trade of fruit and vegetables. Having quickly established a name for great service and the finest quality ingredients, the company began catering to ships at local ports, selling goods for export directly.

This early trade helped the company establish a comprehensive and reliable international network of suppliers and logistics partners. Before long, Barakat began serving Dubai’s increasing number of hotels and caterers. The company is now a trusted supplier of fresh produce to five-star hotels, airline catering companies and local grocers.

Today, the company’s extensive product list includes a variety of fresh vegetables, as well as fruit platters and its signature Barakat fresh juices, which contain no added sugar or preservatives. Barakat also offers ice cream, juice popsicles, salads, crudités, dairy products, eggs, bakery items, and more.

The company has become the region’s go-to online grocer thanks to its extensive, speedy, high-quality e-commerce offering. Barakat’s user-friendly e-grocery store offers a wide range of fresh produce sourced from the best locations around the world, delivered same- or next-day in food-grade refrigerated vehicles.

Driving the company’s success is its intricate and well-defined supply chain management strategy. This, along with recent technology, process line and machinery upgrades, has allowed Barakat to expand internationally to Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the Maldives in recent years.

Established in the UAE in the 1970s, Al Islami Foods started as a small grocery store called the Dubai Co-operative Society. Before long, it was joined by a second, larger store in Karama, Dubai. By 1979, there were numerous outlets across the emirate, including its Mirdif hypermarket, which would act as the blueprint for future locations.

Still under its former name, the company bolstered its reputation throughout the 1980s with the introduction of several innovative concepts, including a ladies-only store and a specialised halal butchery.

The move into food production continued with the launch of the Co-op Islami, the company’s first processing plant, which specialised in halal meat, burgers, frankfurters, and more. Another plant followed in 1991 to keep up with demand, and by 2006, the company had rebranded as Al Islami Foods to export goods beyond the UAE to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Libya, the Maldives and Mauritius.

Just over ten years later, in 2017, Al Islami Foods opened its largest food manufacturing factory – a 10,000-square-metre state-of-the-art facility in Dubai Investment Park. The new site boosted production capacity by over 150%, reaching 17,000 metric tons per year and allowing the company to serve its growing global customer base.

Today, Al Islami Foods holds a reputation as the UAE’s premier halal food company and is one of the largest food distributors in the region. Its vast and diverse portfolio of products, from meat and seafood to vegetables, kids’ menu items and international ingredients, is trusted by famous chefs, culinary experts, foodies and home cooks alike.

Al Adil Trading Co was inspired by the spice traders of old who embarked on journeys from India’s shores to the markets of the Gulf, USA, Canada and Europe. However, its journey would not begin until 1984 when Dhanajay Datar joined his father in the UAE to open the company’s first shop in a back alley of Bur Dubai.

As Dubai began modernising, its growing expatriate community drove the demand for Indian spices, condiments, pulses, and other food items. The enterprising Datars seized the opportunity without hesitation.

Before long, the company’s reputation for the finest ingredients stretched beyond the UAE to Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and even India. The single store in Dubai was quickly joined by two more in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah as Al Adil Trading’s product list expanded rapidly. By now, the company was offering masalas, rice and flour, oils and ghee, pickles and chutneys, tea and coffee, canned and instant foods, Ayurveda herbs, cosmetics, dry fruits, mouth fresheners and confectionery items alongside its wide range of spices and condiments.

Today, Al Adil Trading is renowned among the South Asian communities of the UAE and beyond. With 34 outlets across the GCC and India, the company has mastered the art of sourcing the right products and delivering them to customers wherever they are. Underlining this quest to give customers exactly what they want is the company’s ever-increasing product portfolio, which now includes over 4,500 items sourced from their countries of origin.

The story of Trinity Laban begins in 1870s London with the establishment of the College of Church Music by Henry George Bonavia Hunt. Launched initially to improve the teaching of choral singing, the institution was soon incorporated into Trinity College London, becoming Trinity College of Music in 1876.

Many years later, in 1946, the Laban Dance Centre was founded by Rudolf Laban in Manchester. Over the years that followed, the company moved first to Surrey, UK, and then to New Cross in London. Having gained an international reputation as a leading school for dance and movement, Laban merged with Trinity College of Music in 2004 to form the UK’s first and only conservatoire of music and contemporary dance.

Now called Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the institution educates over 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from its London locations in Greenwich, Deptford and New Cross.

The conservatoire’s continued success is down to its longstanding commitment to discovering, supporting and developing the most talented and innovative performers to nurture the resourceful, enterprising and adaptable artistic leaders of tomorrow.

Competition for admission is fierce. Auditions are held in November, December, March or April of each year to find the world’s most talented musicians and dancers. With an average acceptance rate of 9.9%, Trinity Laban is one of the most selective schools in Europe.

Today’s faculty offers classes for the local community as well as postgraduates and undergraduates. Trinity Laban’s facilities include 13 purpose-built dance studios, including eight with ballet barres, a 300-seat theatre, smaller performances spaces, studios, performances laboratories and a dance library.

The best measure of the company’s success is, of course, in its alumni. Notable performers to have trained at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance include world-famous conductors Howard Arman, Sir John Barbirolli and Barry Wordsworth, musicians Peter Arnold, Tom Misch and Eric Parkin, and choreographers Lea Anderson and Sir Matthew Bourne.

Established in 1958, Thrifty Car Rental has been on both sides of numerous acquisitions over the years.

Shortly after its IPO in 1987, it expanded drastically with the USD 40m purchase of Snappy Car Rental. Within the same year, it was once again the subject of a multimillion-dollar takeover, this time being acquired by the Chrysler Corporation for USD 263m.

Around ten years later, Chrysler once again established the company as a separate operation, launching an IPO under the name Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. By this time, the company had 872 locations across the United States and over 5,400 staff.

In the years that followed, Thrifty’s reach would increase significantly. By 1999, it had 124,000 vehicles over 149 locations. The latter figure hit 310 by 2003. In 2010, Thrifty was generating revenues of USD 1.5bn, leading to further expansion – up to 331 locations across the United States and Canada.

Two years later, Thrifty Car Rental was involved in another acquisition when the Hertz Corporation announced that it was buying the business for USD 2.3bn

Mainly catering to airport hire and budget-conscious travellers, Thrifty remains one of the largest car rental companies in the world, with over 1,000 locations and annual revenues of over USD 272m.

After discovering self-service grocery stores in the USA in the 1920s, Ruben Rausing set about forming a packaging company in Sweden with fellow entrepreneur Erik Åkerlund. Sensing that pre-packed food was the future of food retail, the pair quickly bought a rundown packaging factory to manufacture alternatives to the glass bottles and poorly administered paper wraps that were the norm in European stores at the time.

Over the following years, Rausing and Åkerlund set about designing a tetrahedron-shaped paper packaging carton, which, as well as inspiring the name of the company, would go on to transform the distribution of food around the world.

And that’s no understatement. Today, Tetra Pak operates in 160 countries through its 29 companies. By 2019, it recorded worldwide sales of EUR 11.5bn thanks in part to its most popular product, the Tetra Brik Aseptic, which has been a bestseller since the 1970s. By 2022, total sales had reached EUR 12.5bn – which amounts to 193 billion packages.

Despite changing the game in the 1940s, the company has continued to innovate ever since. Tetra Pak’s 25,000 employees remain committed to putting their skills and capabilities towards creating the world’s most sustainable food package, as well as developing all the systems and processes needed to support it. 

As part of this commitment, the company joined the European Alliance for a Green Recovery, setting goals to achieve net zero operations emissions by 2030 and net zero value chain emissions by 2050.

The two entities that now comprise Tata Steel date back to the early 1900s. Port Talbot Steelworks opened its doors in the UK in 1905, with India’s Tata Steel being founded in 1907. Fast forward one hundred years, and Tata Steel would acquire the Port Talbot operation along with all others carried out by the Corus Group.

Today, Tata Steel’s European operation is one of the world’s largest, delivering 9.3 million tonnes annually. It employs 20,500 people across locations in 26 countries, including Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain and Turkey. Globally, the company employs over 80,000 people across Europe, India and Southeast Asia. In 2022, Tata Steel produced 18 million tonnes of steel worldwide.

The company serves numerous industries, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering. Over the more than 100 years since its inception, Tata Steel and the wider Tata Group has remained committed to its vision that its activities should always benefit society. As a result, the company has been recognised for its workplace culture, support for marginalised communities and its environmental record.

Tata Steel’s UK operations are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Meanwhile, Tata Steel Nederland recently launched a new steel product, Zeremis Carbon Lite, which has an allocated carbon footprint reduction of up to 100%. The company also runs an annual competition. MaterialNEXT, which sees the world’s best engineers, designers and scientists compete to find the most innovative alternative materials beyond iron and steel.

Tata Steel’s global reach, longevity and continued commitment to innovation help it to bring in enormous returns. Revenues in 2022 hit USD 31bn.

SunPower Corporation is a company that’s always been ahead of its time. The brainchild of Dr Richard Swanson in the 1970s, its remit was to find an answer to the oil crisis, which was widely ignored by many at the time. Intrigued by the use of solar panels on satellites, he set out to make the cells more cost-effective for commercial and residential use.

By 1985, Dr Swanson had secured enough funding, thanks largely to the U.S. Department of Energy, to support his solar power explorations. As a result, SunPower was born.

The 1990s saw many successes. SunPower’s high-efficiency cells powered unmanned NASA aircraft and notably powered Honda to a first-place finish in the Race Across Australia.

Fast forward to the 2000s, and SunPower would begin breaking world records, first with its A-300 solar cells in 2001. By 2007, its newly record-breaking solar cell, averaging 22.4% conversion efficiency, was in mass production. Just one year later, the company broke their record again, producing a world-record monocrystalline silicon prototype solar cell with efficiency of 23.4%.

Today, SunPower offers a vast and diversified portfolio of leading residential and solar storage solutions, with exclusive access to the world’s highest efficiency solar panels featuring SunPower® Maxeon® cell technology. It is an industry leader in solar sustainability and social responsibility and has received more than 1,000 patents for solar innovation.

In recent years, SunPower has secured USD 1bn in funding for a ground-breaking residential solar and storage solution and has partnered with IKEA to sell directly to consumers through the Swedish retail giant’s U.S. stores. The company has also been crowned the number one commercial direct solar solutions provider in the U.S. for capacity for three years in a row.

And all of this has helped SunPower reach USD 1.3bn in annual revenues – with many financial analysts suggesting things are just getting started for this solar powering powerhouse.

Sephora emerged in 1970s Paris when it gained a reputation for its assisted self-service sales experience. Unlike most retail models at the time, Sephora cosmetics locations encouraged shoppers to test out products before purchasing.

Over the next two decades, the company continued to expand its enterprise before opening a flagship branch on the Champs Élysées in 1997. With the world’s eyes now on the brand, Sephora was sold to the fashion giant LVMH later the same year.

Further expansion followed. The company opened its first US store in New York in 1998, followed by its first Canadian store in 2004, and its first Australian store in 2014. Just a few years later, Sephora would open its largest location in Herald Square, New York City. Spanning over 11,000 square feet, it features over 13,000 products as well as an interactive workshop.

Here in the Middle East, Sephora UAE and KSA have been operating as regional divisions of the parent company since the region’s head office was opened in February 2006. There are now over 30 Sephora locations across the UAE, KSA, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

Sephora UAE and KSA also provide make-up and skincare products from notable brands including Christian Dior and Laura Mercier. Such is the company’s success in the region that its Dubai Mall location is currently ranked as its number one store worldwide.

Across all of its global locations and divisions, Sephora’s growing portfolio of products, including cosmetics, skincare, fragrances and beauty products, generates annual revenues of USD 10bn.

The story of multinational engineering and energy management giant Schneider Electric begins in 1830s France. When brothers Adolphe and Joseph-Eugene Schneider took over an iron foundry in 1836, they could not have known where it would lead. After early years spent switching focus between steel production, shipbuilding, and weapons development, the company turned its attention to the electricity sector in the 1980s.

Fast forward all the way to the mid-2000s, and we will find that the energy giant is snatching up other energy giants – as it completes a USD 6.1bn deal to buy energy giant American Power Conversion, followed by a USD 2.73bn takeover of Arevea’s transmission and distribution business.

Organic growth and growth by acquisition would continue for Schneider Electric into the first decades of the new millennium, as its dominance sees it ranking high up on the Fortune Global 500. It’s one of the world’s biggest employers, with almost 130,000 staff around the globe, and one of the world’s largest revenue earners, with an annual top line of EUR 35bn.  

Today, the company specialises in the digital transformation of energy management, automation, and cybersecurity. It provides end-point to cloud integration connecting products, controls, software and services, and delivers capabilities to help its clients shift from site-to-site to integrated company management. Behind the company’s continued success is its commitment to safety, reliability and innovation.

To further its purpose of “empowering all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all,” Schneider Electric invests hundreds of millions of dollars into research and development activities every year. Through training, expert support, tools, and solutions, the company has also helped its 1,000 suppliers deliver on their climate-positive goal to reduce CO2 emissions by half by 2025.

Formed by the Kewalram Chanrai Group in 1989, Olam Nigeria Plc was established to facilitate a non-oil-based export operation to bring hard currency earnings into the group to meet the foreign exchange requirements of its other companies.

However, the operation was such a success that Olam International was born to export many more goods, from cashews and shea nuts to cotton and cocoa. Within a few years, the company had expanded across Africa and into South Asia.

Today, the company is a global leader in these export fields and many more. Now headquartered in Singapore, Olam International ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in the country in terms of market capitalisation. It is also a Fortune Global 500 company and is included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, an internationally recognised benchmark for environmental, social and governance metrics.

This commitment to ethical trade has also seen Olam International implement rigorous tractability and reporting systems to reduce child labour in agriculture. At the time, it was the first such initiative of its scale. The company is also one of the founding members of the Sustainable Rice Platform, which promotes resource efficiency and sustainable trade flows in the global rice sector.

For initiatives like these, Olam International has received an Impact Award for digital innovation and was recognised at the Reuters Responsible Business Awards and The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry Sustainable Agriculture Awards.

On top of its work in the area of ethical trade, Olam International also generates impressive financial returns. Revenues in 2021 exceeded SGD 47bn.

The Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis AG was born out of the 1996 merger of two organisations – Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in history.

The company has stayed at the top of its game ever since. It continues to manufacture many drugs in widespread use, including clozapine, carbamazepine, valsartan, imatinib mesylate, cyclosporine, letrozole, and methylphenidate – to name just a few.

Today, Novartis is the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world based on revenue from prescription drugs. It is also a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

It has built this global reputation largely thanks to its innovation in several key therapeutic areas. Novartis is heavily invested in early interventions and the development of pioneering treatments of cardiovascular disease, from prevention to management, as well as the creation of innovative access models.

Haematology is another area of specialist focus. Together with its research partners, Novartis led the era of targeted therapies in blood cancer and in investigating how these medicines could transform patient outcomes.

Novartis is also heavily focused on immunology. It has helped transform the standard of care for children and adults suffering from conditions such as psoriatic disease and axial spondyloarthritis, chronic urticaria, and several rare autoinflammatory diseases. Novartis companies have also been pioneering new treatments and tackling neurological conditions for more than 80 years.

This long-standing commitment to innovation and patient care has seen the company receive many accolades. Most notably, Novartis has won a Reuters Responsible Business Award and features in the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies, as well as Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies lists.

The pharma giant’s financials are just as impressive. In 2022, Novartis posted annual revenues of over USD 50bn.

Nature’s Bounty has been trusted by health-conscious consumers around the world to provide supplements and wellness support for over 50 years. The company’s dedication to quality, consistency and science-backed products has seen it gain an unrivalled reputation in the world of vitamins and nutritional supplements.

All Nature’s Bounty supplement production is overseen by its team of scientists, manufacturing specialists and quality experts, with each one dedicated to maintaining the highest possible standards and efficacy. The company only uses ingredients in its supplements that meet stringent quality assurance and GMP standards.

Every Nature’s Bounty product is also subjected to numerous stringent tests and assessments throughout the manufacturing process to verify its purity and potency. It is this commitment to quality that has seen the company grow its reputation as the go-to brand for men’s and women’s health, eyecare, digestive health, bone and joint support, sleep, stress and mood supplements, and much more. 

Nature’s Bounty sells its vast product catalogue online via its website as well as through multinational retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, CVS and Walgreens.

A relatively small but highly successful company, Nature’s Bounty employees number about 50, and revenues are estimated to be around the USD 20mn mark.

IBM was established in 1911 under the name Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, changing its name to International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924. Born from the merger of four New York State companies, IBM employed over 1,000 people from its inception. Today, the company is one of the world’s largest employers, with almost 300,000 staff across 170 countries.

Over the years, IBM has been behind many notable firsts in the technology industry, including the ATM, floppy disk, hard disk drive, magnetic stripe card, SQL programming language and the UPC barcode. The company also pioneered the use of multipurpose computers, which led the way for home PCs, and is responsible for significant progress in advanced computer chips, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.

Behind such incredible advancements are 19 research facilities across 12 countries, making IBM the largest industrial research organisation in the world. Such is its success in this regard that its employees and alumni have been recognised with numerous accolades for inventions and scientific research, including six Nobel Prizes and six Turing Awards. The company also holds the record for the most patents held by a single business.

In recent years, IBM has led the way with pioneering cybersecurity solutions, having invested USD 4bn into this area. Today, its IBM Security Services division delivers advisory, integration and managed security solutions to customers across a wide range of industries, offering an advanced and integrated portfolio of enterprise security products and services infused with AI. Its global team of experts and market-leading technology combine to transform security into a business enabler.

In all, across its computing, software, cloud infrastructure and security businesses, IBM posted revenues of USD 60.5bn in 2022.

Gift Village sells thousands of products from its Dubai locations and ecommerce store. While its physical stores are popular with tourists looking for a keepsake or present to take home, its online store is best known for its deal of the day, a limited-time-only discount on a chosen item.

The company stocks everything you can imagine and more, from foot massagers and hair diffusers to jewellery and kitchen appliances. As well as its extensive product catalogue, the company is popular due to its worldwide free shipping service and its helpful customer support line.

Gift Village follows the model of placing a pricing cap on items, with most of its in-store products coming in under the 10 AED range. Look no further than its online reviews to see just how popular the stores are, with devoted customers raving about “being able to find just about anything you are looking for” and “at incredibly affordable prices”.

It’s an example of a highly creative and practical store that exemplifies the innovativeness of the UAE trade culture.

The success of Emirates Steel Arkan parallels that of the UAE itself. In 1998, the Abu Dhabi Government’s General Holding Corporation actively began efforts to diversify the local economy. As a result, the Emirates Iron and Steel Factory (EISF) was born, starting out to reroll imported steel billets and produce rebar for the UAE market.

Demand quickly outstripped capacity, and by 2001, the company, now known as Emirates Steel, built its first dedicated rolling mill, with a capacity of 500,000 metric tonnes per year. This decision would transform the region’s steel industry and help to kickstart the rapid development of Abu Dhabi and surrounding emirates.

Now on the world map as a leading steel supplier, the company expanded its operations in 2006 to include the Emirates Cement Factory, which would soon make it the largest cement manufacturer in the UAE. It was not until the 2021 merger of Emirates Steel and Arkan Group to create the region’s largest listed steel and building materials company that it would adopt the name we know today: Emirates Steel Arkan.

As well as steel and cement works, Emirates Steel Arkan also operates Emirates Blocks and Pavers, which provides a broad portfolio of concrete products from regular blocks used for the construction of villas, buildings, and retaining walls to high-end architectural pavers for landscaping. Another company subsidiary is Anabeeb Pipes which supplies U-PVC pipes for applications such as sewerage, irrigation, drainage and fittings for manholes.

Unlike many UAE businesses, Emirates Steel Arkan is a publicly listed company, posting annual revenues of AED 9.5bn in 2022, up 10% on the previous year.

Founded in the early 1920s, the Economics Laboratory, as it was then known, first went to market with a revolutionary product designed to quickly clean hotel room carpets. Before long, the company launched dishwasher soap and a range of other residential and industrial cleaning products. By the end of the 1940s, the Economics Laboratory was generating annual sales of over USD 5m.

Following a series of acquisitions, the company changed its name to Ecolab and secured listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the years that followed, the company’s portfolio of services continued to evolve. Today, it helps organisations to treat water for use in the food, healthcare and hospitality industries. It also offers food safety services and consulting to restaurants, hospitals, food retailers, and food and beverage manufacturing facilities.

The company’s service expansion is driven by a long history of innovation. Ecolab’s team of over 1,200 scientists, engineers and technical specialists create best-in-class solutions that are responsibly sourced and developed with close attention to human and environmental impact.

With expertise in core technologies, including antimicrobials, dispensing and monitoring, personal and environmental hygiene, polymers, surfactants, solid chemistry, water management and data analytics, it helps its clients improve operational efficiency, product quality and safety. To date, the company has registered more than 10,000 patents.

Today, Ecolab employs more than 47,000 associates over three million customer locations, including 26,000 sales-and-service team members and 1,100 scientists, engineers and technical specialists. This large and expert team generate considerable financial returns for the company, with annual revenues reaching almost USD 15bn.

Deutsche Bank has been a pioneer in foreign trade and forex since its inception in 1870. Established initially to finance German exports around the world, the company knew it would need an international presence before it could have an impact on the world stage.

Facing difficulties opening its own branch, the company instead founded the German Bank of London in cooperation with the private bank Gebr. Sulzbach, Frankfurt, Mitteldeutsche Creditbank, Meiningen, and the U.K. banks Dennistoun and Ferd. Rodewald to take its place in the world‘s premier financial and banking centre.

Soon afterwards, in 1871, Deutsche Bank opened its first branch in Bremen, a major foreign-trade centre. Within a year, the company had issued capital increases to expand its enterprise, opening branches in Shanghai in 1872 and across South America between 1874 and 1886.

Fast forward to the present day, and Deutsche Bank employs over 80,000 people across more than 1,709 branches in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Region.

Today, the company continues to be an industry-recognised leader in the foreign exchange business. Deutsche Bank’s long-standing client-centric approach helps it serve the needs of its customers across the entire product spectrum, from basic liquidity provision in the spot market to innovative derivative solutions for both asset and liability managers.

Such is its success in the field that Deutsche Bank ranked as the Overall FX Market Leader by market share in the 2022 Euromoney FX Survey. In the same report, the company also took the top spot for options market share, overall Electronic FX market share and banks market share. In 2022, Deutsche Bank posted revenues of over EUR 27bn.

Over a span of 25 years, Day to Day has established itself as one of the most well-known and trusted brands in the UAE. With a laser focus on the needs of the customer, the company continues to deliver the best shopping experience on the market, giving great value for every dirham spent.

Today, the company is the country’s leading discount retailer, offering everything from clothing and cosmetics to household items and groceries. Day to Day caters to the entire family and has created a massive customer following over the years that includes the young and the old and everyone in between.

As one of the biggest stores in the UAE selling gifts and everyday items, the company stocks many big names alongside local and boutique brands.

Known for its combo packs and incredible discount offers, Day to Day is one of the longest-running bargain stores in the country. Having opened its first store in 1998, it now has 11 branches across the UAE with stores in prominent locations in, among others, Karama, Al Barsha, Al Nahda 1 Dubai, Sharjah -Abu Shagara and Ajman.

With an eye on the future, Day to Day plans to expand its reach across the wider GCC, delivering the best products to its customers at the best possible price – whether online or in store.

Berklee Abu Dhabi opened its doors in March 2020, making it the first Middle East presence of the world-famous Berklee College of Music. The college’s original incarnation in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. While known for its contributions to jazz, it also delivers courses in everything from hip hop and reggae to salsa and rock, counting Quincy Jones and John Mayer among its alumni.

Abu Dhabi Berklee boasts Grammy-winning music producer and engineer Gael Hedding as its Director, and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Mayssa Karaa as Artistic Director. In partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, the college offers courses in music production, song writing, vocal coaching, dance and theatre.

Berklee Abu Dhabi also offers educational experiences through workshops, masterclasses, courses, ensembles and labs, all led by world-renowned artists and instructors. The Abu Dhabi outcrop teaches from the UAE Pavilion’s newly renovated 42,000-square-foot arts education centre on Saadiyat Island. It comprises a performance space, a recording studio, rehearsal studios, practice rooms, ensemble rooms and a multimedia tech lab.

While Abu Dhabi Berklee is a fee-paying institution, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi also operates the Berklee Abu Dhabi Fund, which provides scholarships for promising students to Berklee’s US campuses in Boston and New York, and Valencia, Spain. This is part of its much broader goal to transform arts education in the Middle East and “create the region’s next generation of artists and inspire them to better our world.”

In all, Berklee College of Music works with over 6,400 students around the world, representing more than 100 nationalities. Its alumni have won 310 Grammy Awards, more than any other college, along with 108 Latin Grammy Awards, 34 Emmys, seven Tonys and eight Oscars.

The British banking giant Barclays traces its history back to two renowned goldsmith bankers, John Freame and Thomas Gould, who began trading in London in the 1690s. James Barclay, from whom the bank takes its name, would come on board in the 1730s. By 1896, the bank was officially established as Barclay and Co after the merger of twelve existing institutions.

Over the many decades that followed, Barclays was behind a number of firsts. In 1938, the company acquired the first Indian exchange bank, the Central Exchange Bank of India. In 1958, it was the first UK bank to appoint a female bank manager. And in 1966, it launched the UK’s first credit card. Just a year later, Barclays opened the world’s first ATM.

A lot has changed since. Today, Barclays employs over 80,000 people in 40 countries and is Europe’s fifth-largest bank by total assets. It also operates over 4,750 branches in 55 countries around the world.

On top of its vast branch network, Barclays also offers a wide range of foreign exchange (FX) services, including online FX and dealing capability through Barclays.Net or Barx Corporate. The company’s cash and liquidity specialists work with clients to develop a tailored approach for both transactional and strategic requirements.

Two of Barclays’ industry-leading FX solutions include its Book Rate facility, which allows traders to book a live exchange rate for payment or transfer, and its online FX dealing application, which offers an immediate, self-service solution for foreign exchange dealing.

Across its vast service portfolio, Barclays posted revenues of almost GBP 25bn in 2022.

Appster Solutions has built a reputation for reliable software development services. The company’s small and efficient team outperforms many other larger organisations thanks to its modern tech stack, streamlined development process, and its focus on delivering an engaging user experience.

Appster specialises in custom-built solutions, designed and developed to meet the needs and specifications of each individual client. The company prides itself on working together with its clients to drive innovation, overcome common business challenges and grow bottom lines.

The company offers three highly effective software outsourcing solutions: mobile app development, web development and product design. Along with development and build services, Appster also provides the robust engines and software solutions needed to run reliable and engaging platforms at scale.

To achieve these aims as cost-effectively as possible, Appster has created a time-tested framework built for collaboration throughout the development process. This full-cycle app development process starts with ideas and evaluation, taking the form of a comprehensive assessment of the client’s business, market and customers.

Next is definition and building whereby Appster’s team set out the objectives required to achieve the desired result – before then moving on to setting the plan in motion. After testing, all that’s left is deployment to the intended market and analysis to ensure the process was successful!

Apple’s incredible rise to global domination began in 1976 when friends and college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak set out to design a user-friendly computer. They did just that later the same year, when the Apple I went on sale for USD 666.66 (around USD 3,500 in modern prices).

However, it would be the Apple II, with its world-first colour graphics, that would revolutionize the computing industry. Such was its impact that just two years after launch, Apple sales hit USD 7.8m. By the time the company went public in 1980, this figure was USD 117m.

In the years that followed, Apple continued its success with the launch of its Macintosh computer. With a USD 1.5mn advert during the 1984 Superbowl, it also took its first foray into high-end advertising, something which now garners the company almost as much attention as its products.

Its quest for world domination would be complete a couple of decades later following the launch of the iPod and subsequently, the iPhone, both of which have revolutionized the way we live and work.

Today, Apple is the world’s largest technology company by revenue, the world’s biggest company by market capitalization, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales, and the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

The eye-watering stats don’t stop there. Apple has sold over 1.3 billion phones since launch, its physical stores welcome over one million shoppers per day, and its App Store features nearly two million apps with more added daily. 

In 2020, Apple became the first American company to reach a market cap of USD 2tr. Just two years later, it became the first to exceed USD 3tr. In the same year, its annual revenues were over USD 394bn.

As one might expect from one of the region’s leading and most trusted law firms, Al Tamimi & Company’s path to astronomical success was measured and methodical. Founded by Essam Al Tamimi in Sharjah in 1989, the company was first supported by just one legal secretary. Later the same year, another office was opened in World Trade Centre Dubai to support its growing team of five lawyers.

By 1994, Al Tamimi & Company employed ten lawyers with an additional office in Abu Dhabi. Ten years later, in 2004, the company expanded outside the UAE, opening an office in Doha, Qatar. In the years that followed, Al Tamimi & Company opened offices in Amman, Jordan, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. By this time, they also had operations in Dubai International Financial Centre and Qatar Financial Market.

And this growth story has continued to this day. By 2013, the company had 16 Middle East offices, with 330 lawyers working across nine countries. Those figures have now increased to 17 offices, ten countries, 82 partners, over 350 lawyers, 450 legal professionals, and more than 850 total employees.

Al Tamimi & Company offers a broad range of services, with practices covering banking, capital markets, commercial and competition. It supports businesses and individuals in the education, finance, healthcare, real estate and technology industries – among many others.

Unlike many of its international competitors, Al Tamimi & Company is able to practice local law in each of the jurisdictions in which it is present, with rights of audience before local courts and licensed litigators present in each of its offices. As a result, the firm has advised on some of the most complex legal issues in the Middle East and continues to be at the forefront of its industry regionally and globally.

From humble beginnings in the 1960s, the Al Naboodah Construction Group has grown to become one of the most respected businesses in the region. Formed by two brothers of the renowned Al Naboodah family, the company now employs over 16,000 people.

Established as a specialist in civil engineering, building and MEP, the Al Naboodah Construction Group is now a leading name in these fields and more across the GCC. The company has worked on numerous high-profile projects, including Palm Jumeirah, Business Bay, Yas Island, Dubai Water Canal Project, Dubai airports, Parallel roads, and Expo2020.

The company’s continued success is built on its commitment to excellence, its strong customer-first focus and its roadmap for sustainable and profitable growth. In other words, sustainability and quality customer service run through the veins of everything the company does. To reduce its impact on the environment, the Al Naboodah Construction Group follows strict policies to save water, reduce, reuse and recycle waste, and use energy as efficiently as possible across its premises and job sites.

This market-leading approach has not gone unnoticed. Al Naboodah Construction Group has scooped numerous awards over the years, including Health & Safety Initiative of the Year, Worker Welfare Impact of the Year, Subcontractor of the Year, Sustainability Initiative of the Year, and MEP Contractor of the Year.

The Al Abbar Glass and Trading Company was founded in 1986 by the Al Abbar family to support the needs of the growing construction sector in the Middle East. After completing a highly successful aluminium and glazing project for the Al Wasl Hospital in 1986, a separate division was created, focusing on the growing facade sector.

Before long, this new division, Al Abbar Aluminium, was awarded the contract to provide the high-security glazing for the new parliament for the Ruler of Dubai. Other specialities were soon added to the company’s portfolio, from manufacturing and installation to consulting and project management.

And so the Al Abbar Group was born. The company now comprises separate businesses focusing on aluminium curtain walls, coatings, architectural glass and stainless steel, with all entities complementing one another on every project as required.

Today, Al Abbar Group is the largest architectural envelope and glazing contractor in the Middle East and one of the world’s leading facade solutions providers with 5,000 employees across offices in the Middle East, Asia, North America and Europe.

Over more than 50 years, the Al Abbar Group has engineered more than 500 building facades, including iconic constructions such as the Burj Al Arab, the Dubai International Airport, and the Burj Khalifa. This incredible work and more has seen the company generate an annual turnover of USD 300mn across its five separate manufacturing and global supply facilities.

The origins of the company now known as ArcelorMittal date back to 1976. However, it was not until the USD 33bn takeover of European steel maker Arcelor by Indian-owned multinational steel maker Mittal Steel in 2006 that the company took its name. The resulting firm would become one of the largest companies of its type in the world, producing around 10% of all global steel.

By 2007, ArcelorMittal’s revenues hit USD 105bn and, just a year later, the company employed over 320,000 people in 60 countries. It is now the second-largest steel producer in the world and the largest producer in Europe and the Americas, with an annual production of over 88 million metric tonnes. The company ranks 197th in the Fortune Global 500, has a market cap of USD 25bn and owns total assets worth more than USD 100bn.

ArcelorMittal has kept its place among the industry leaders by promoting steel as a vital component of the future circular economy. ArcelorMittal strives to build a better world with smarter steels. Its steels are cleaner, stronger and reusable, produced using innovative processes to use less energy and emit significantly less carbon.

The company employs over 1,500 researchers across 11 research centres to achieve this aim, with over 100 R&D programmes currently in operation. As a result, ArcelorMittal has trademarked 200-plus products across over 700 active patent families. Just last year, the company launched 41 new products and solutions.

Its financial returns place it among the world’s largest companies, with revenues for 2022 coming It at just under USD 80bn.

Founded in 2005 under a decree by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, former President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, ADNEC initially set out to develop and construct a venue to replace the old Abu Dhabi International Exhibition Center. In just a few short years, it has grown to form part of one of the largest international venue development and business management companies in the world.

The ADNEC Group now comprises some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Al Ain Convention Centre, ExCeL London, Capital Gate, Andaz Capital Gate Abu Dhabi, Aloft Abu Dhabi, Aloft London ExCeL, DoubleTree By Hilton London ExCel, and Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Abu Dhabi Resort.

Naturally, such an incredible portfolio of venues has seen the company earn an international reputation for world-class events. Its venues host hundreds of shows a year, winning ADNEC numerous awards for its operations. Notable accolades include Best International Venue, Best Meetings and Conference Centre, Exhibition Venue of the Year, and Best Purpose Built Venue.

ADNEC is also a vital pillar of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 and Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, which aim to deliver significant direct and indirect impact on the emirate’s economy to drive further diversification. And it has undoubtedly played its part in this regard. Since the company’s launch, it has contributed an estimated AED 37bn to the local economy and created almost 30,000 job opportunities. In 2019 alone, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre and Al Ain Convention Centre hosted 500 events and welcomed 2.3 million visitors to the UAE.

It’s fair to say the company that we now call 3M was not an instant success. Following a failed attempt to mine corundum in 1902, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company changed hands and re-strategised. By 1905, it was producing sandpaper products. By 1916, it was finally financially stable.

There is no doubt, however, that this unsteady footing is long behind it. 3M is now a multinational conglomerate offering services across diverse industries, including worker safety, healthcare and consumer goods.

Today, the company employs around 95,000 staff in more than 70 countries and produces over 60,000 products across its various brands. Popular lines include adhesives, laminates, personal protective equipment, dental and orthodontic products, electrical and electronic connecting and insulating materials, and medical products.

In recent years 3M has generated on average around USD 35bn in annual sales and featured in the Fortune 500 list.

This astronomical success can be attributed to the company’s unwavering commitment to problem-solving, innovation and sustainability. Listed as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for nine years in succession, 3M is focused on helping its customers to be safe, productive and efficient. Such is the company’s commitment to innovation that it generates one-third of its revenues from products that didn’t exist five years ago.

Naturally, this global operation has attracted a lot of attention and many accolades. In recent years, 3M has been recognised as one of the Top 100 Global Innovators, ranked in the Best Global Brands, and was a finalist in the World Changing Ideas competition.

Bruce Henderson established the company now known as Boston Consulting Group in 1963 to advise clients of his other business, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. In its first month, the company billed USD 500. By 1966, it had opened its first international office in Tokyo, Japan.

Within 20 years, Boston Consulting Group was one of the largest firms of its type in the world. Today, it is a member of the ‘Big 3’ management consulting companies alongside McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company. It now has offices in over 100 cities in 50 countries, employing more than 30,000 staff worldwide.

As well as offering business resilience, organisation strategy, and risk management and compliance services to its vast client base, the company made its name by introducing two consultancy tools that are still relied on to this day.

The growth share matrix, created in 1968, helps companies decide how to prioritise different businesses by their degree of, and potential for, profitability. The concept of time-based competition model, first introduced by BCG in the 1980s, is a demonstration of the power of time management.

Such ground-breaking ideas have seen Boston Consulting Group amass a high-profile global client base that includes the most innovative companies in all regions around the globe, with many ranking among the world’s 500 largest corporations.

Naturally, this global impact has attracted much recognition over the past 60 years. Boston Consulting Group has been recognised by numerous prestigious organisations, including Fortune, Forbes and more, for the quality of its work, strength as an employer and impact of its consultants.

Boston Consulting Group’s financials are as impressive as you might expect. In 2022, the company posted revenues of USD 11.7bn.

Uber’s story is well-known around the world. After baulking at the cost of private driver hire, founder Travis Kalanick launched the company in 2009 to make it easier and cheaper to find and book direct transport. Just four years later, Uber was operational in 65 cities.

Today, Uber vehicles can be hailed in over 10,500 cities across 70 counties around the world. Its app has more than 130 million active monthly users and generates an average of 23 million trips every day.

Not content with revolutionising the transportation industry, Uber turned its attention to the luxury sector. The result, Uber Black, is an executive ride service that offers premium drives in high-end cars.

The Uber Black service also promises professional drivers on every trip, with a minimum accepted rating of 4.85 stars out of five. Users can also set ride preferences to customise their trip, tailoring everything from music choices and back seat temperature to the level of conversation with the driver.

Pickups are much more flexible, too. Uber Black riders are afforded a five-minute window before any waiting fees are applied. And should a customer experience any kind of issue, Uber Black support is on hand 24/7 to put it right.

This dedication to its customer base is the driving reason behind the company’s phenomenal success. Uber is among the youngest businesses in the Fortune 500, with a market cap of USD 76.82bn. In 2022, it posted revenues of USD 31.8bn.

Launched in 2007, TASC Outsourcing took just four years to be recognised as the fastest-growing company in the Middle East. Over that time, the company amassed a client base of almost 3,000 and began working with some of the largest and most renowned companies in the region.

In the years that followed, TASC Outsourcing was ranked in the top 100 SMEs in Dubai, listed among the most influential brands in the UAE, and received the prestigious Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award in 2016 and 2018. More recently, the company won a LinkedIn Talent Award for Top Innovation Staffing Agency in 2019 and a Dubai Quality Appreciation Award in 2020.

Today, the company is one of the region’s leading recruitment, staffing and HR service providers. From its locations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, TASC Outsourcing offers its services across 27 countries and has helped to build teams for over 200 companies within the GCC.

The company’s comprehensive suite of people-power services covers everything from contract staffing and permanent recruitment to HR management, payroll outsourcing, and offshoring – all of which has been honed over the years to increase efficiency and lower costs for its customers.

TASC Outsourcing also operates TASC Temp, the GCC’s first online temporary staffing agency, and Top Talent, a recruitment agency specialising in oil and gas staffing services in Abu Dhabi. In all, these divisions have seen TASC Outsourcing report revenues of over USD 100m.

On 11 March 1744, bookseller and Sotheby’s founder Samuel Baker arranged an auction of ‘several hundred scarce and valuable books in all branches of polite literature.’ He raised £826 and, with it, put in motion a business blueprint that would revolutionise auctioneering, transform the modern art market and set the standard for auction houses around the world.

With a global reputation for trust, authenticity and professionalism, Sotheby’s network of specialists across 40 countries are leading experts in contemporary art, modern and impressionist art, old masters, jewellery, watches, wine and spirits, among many other areas. The company hosts more than 600 auctions every year as well as offering an enormous range of goods for immediate purchase online and in-house.

Sotheby’s success is built on an array of record-breaking and headline-grabbing sales. From the 1980s through the 2000s, the auction house listed and sold Picasso’s Garçon à la pipe for USD 104.2m, Andy Warhol’s Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) for USD 108.4 million, and Peter Paul Rubens’ The Massacre of the Innocents for GBP 49.5 million.

The company has led the way with many other firsts across its 280-year history, too. Sotheby’s was the first auction house to host sales in Asia, the first to hold the now standard ‘Evening Sales’, the first to bridge the Atlantic with offices in New York and London, and the first to use satellite technology to facilitate simultaneous bidding across these locations. Today, it has over 80 offices worldwide and generates annual sales of over USD 7bn.

As well as leading the way in the global auctioneer industry, Sotheby’s operates the only scientific research department of its kind. From state-of-the-art labs in New York and London, its expert team investigate paintings, sculptures, furniture, bottles of wine and more to help guide and test attributions and provenance.

The company we now call Siemens started its existence in a German courtyard workshop. Founders Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske established the company in 1847 to manufacture and sell its needle point machine, designed to ease the translation of Morse code.

This commitment to developing technology that simplifies experiences and improves lives has guided the company ever since. Over the last 175 years, Siemens has pioneered countless innovations to advance a wide array of fields.

The company was the first to introduce ground-breaking products, solutions and services in the IT, telecoms, power generation and distribution, and transportation industries, among many others.

Today, Siemens is largely split across four vast divisions: Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, Healthcare (Siemens Healthineers) and Financial Services. In all, the company employs over 311,000 people across 190 countries.

The company has continued to spearhead the global digital and technological revolution, all the while striving to reduce its impact on the planet and the communities in which it works.

In 2007, when net zero was merely a concept, Siemens’ products and solutions had helped to save its customers 114 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide while the company posted revenues of EUR 17bn. By 2014, revenues had reached EUR 29.9bn and CO2 reduction had risen to 317 million tonnes.

Today, alongside its most recent revenues of almost EUR 72bn, Siemens has reduced its total emissions by 46% and pledged to reach carbon neutrality across its operations by 2030.

The company’s success has seen it receive much recognition. Siemens has won multiple prestigious awards for innovation, engineering excellence and workplace culture.

When five IBM engineers began working on a project to build an in-house IT system in 1971, they could not have known they were laying the foundations for the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software.

Having officially separated from IBM in 1972, the company now known as SAP embarked on a period of rapid growth and acquisitions, adding punch card systems and mainframe programs for payroll and accounting to its service portfolio.

Today, the five-person team has expanded to over 100,000 in more than 180 countries, making it the world’s largest non-American software company. SAP now offers over 100 cloud solutions, including ERP, cloud-engineered systems, human capital management, customer relationship management, product lifecycle management, and supply chain management to over 24,000 partner companies and 280 million users.

This incredible solution portfolio, along with 55 data centres in 15 countries, makes SAP one of the largest and most comprehensive cloud vendors on the planet.

Its global client base is just as impressive, generating 87% of total global commerce ($46 trillion). It also counts 99 of the world’s top 100 largest companies and 97 of the world’s top 100 greenest companies as customers.

SAP leads the way in innovation, too. With 100 development centres worldwide, the company invests 20% of its revenues into research and development, oversees more than 50 transformational AI use cases, and invests billions in emerging and disruptive startups.

Unsurprisingly, the company’s industry-leading performance has been recognised on numerous occasions. SAP is featured among the Forbes Most Valuable Brands list and Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies rankings. It has also won numerous awards for its innovation, workplace and software solutions.

The company’s financials often take the headlines, too, with annual revenues closing in on the USD 35bn mark.

Paytm was founded in 2010 as a prepaid mobile and direct-to-home television recharge platform. Within three years, the Indian company added debit card, postpaid mobile and landline bill payments to its portfolio of services, attracting a high-profile investment of USD 10m from Sapphire Ventures, one of the world’s most successful venture capital firms.

Over the next four years, Paytm would add its now ubiquitous Paytm Wallet, count Indian Railways and Uber as customers, and amass over 100 million users. By the time parent company One97 Communications went public in 2021, it had reached a valuation of USD 20bn, making it the biggest-ever IPO in India.

Today, Paytm is India’s largest ecommerce site, facilitating mobile payments for everything from utility bills to movie, travel and event tickets. The platform also facilitates peer-to-peer transfers domestically and internationally and offers a fast and secure way to purchase flights and insurance.

Through its wealth management arm, Paytm Money, Indian citizens can purchase stocks, contribute to pension schemes and invest in mutual funds digitally with 100% paperless verification.

Credited with spearheading India’s digital revolution, the company now boasts 20 million merchants and over 300 million users on its platform. With many more innovative financial solutions and products in the pipeline, Paytm aims to bring 500 million currently under-served Indians into the mainstream global economy.

At the same time, the company has expanded its reach overseas. In 2014, Paytm Labs was formed in Toronto, Canada, to provide a risk management model for fintechs and marketplaces with a high transaction value. Four years later, Paytm formed a joint venture with SoftBank and Yahoo Japan to launch PayPay, a QR-based payment service.

Paytm’s rapid expansion and growing customer base have seen it take record revenues in recent years, touching on USD 1bn in FY22/23.

In 2015, Saudi entrepreneur Abdulaziz Al Jouf sketched the concept of an affordable payment gateway on the back of a Starbucks napkin. He laid out his vision to deliver a secure online payments solution for merchants in the MENA region.

In the same year, a six-member team was formed to turn this concept into a reality. Offices in Riyadh and Dubai soon followed, and by 2016, PayTabs was crowned the Most Promising Saudi Startup by Forbes Middle East. Much more recognition has followed since. The company was also listed among Forbes’s Top 100 Startups in the Arab World and the Top 20 Fintech Startups in the Middle East.

Today, PayTabs provides a host of B2B ecommerce solutions, including PayTabs Touch, the first soft point-of-sale solution to launch in the MENA market. Other offerings include an invitation-only self-service payment portal called Private Label, and PayTabs Market, an express payment platform for handling multiple sellers and vendors.

In recent years, several key events have cemented PayTabs’ place as a global leader in the end-to-end payments space.

In 2021, the company partnered with financial services giants Visa and Union Pay International to provide a platform for merchants to accept contactless payments via their Android smart devices. Around the same time, the company launched SwitchOn, a market-leading, integrated and turnkey payment solution for payment processors, retailers, banks and other financial institutions.

PayTabs’ international success story shows no signs of slowing. In early 2023, the company announced the acquisition of OGS PayLab, one of the world’s leading transaction processing services and Switch solutions providers.

Started by a then-unknown Larry Ellison in 1977, Oracle wasted no time taking its place as one of the largest software companies in the world. By the end of the 1980s, the company was posting annual revenues of USD 584m, with USD 82m profit.

Today, the company serves more than 430,000 customers in 175 countries, offering over 100 cloud services across 42 public cloud regions. These services include database software and technology, cloud-engineered systems, and enterprise software products – such as enterprise resource planning software, human capital management software and customer relationship management software.

To achieve this incredible reach, Oracle has invested over USD 110bn in more than 150 acquisitions, formed relationships with 20,000-plus partners around the world, and employed 20,000 implementation consultants, 48,000 developers and engineers, and 15,000 service specialists speaking 29 languages.

Underpinning this rapid growth is a long-standing commitment to innovation. SAP has invested over USD 64bn in research and development since 2012, operates the world’s first and only autonomous database, has 18,900 registered patents, and boasts a developer community membership of over six million.

Its investments in sustainability and community projects is equally impressive. SAP has donated more than USD 20m to 7,000 non-profits across 62 countries and achieved its target of reducing its emissions by 47% by 2020. At the same time, SAP employees have volunteered over 15,000 hours to various education and development projects around the world.

On the financial front, Oracle posted USD 42bn in revenue in 2022, up by almost 5% from the previous year.

After witnessing what he saw as inefficiencies when working for the United States Army Ordnance Department, James O. McKinsey took matters into his own hands. Launched in 1926, McKinsey’s aim was to offer advice on management and accounting tools.

Soon, the company expanded its portfolio to include all manner of management consultancy and talent services, including process redesign, automation, advanced analytics, business process outsourcing, and digital transformation. 

Fast forward to the late 1950s, and McKinsey helped to structure the establishment of NASA as well as many other high-profile organisations. Around the same time, McKinsey opened its first international office in London, England. Within ten years, it would have a presence in eight countries across three continents.

Today, McKinsey & Company has a truly global reach, with office locations in 135 cities across 67 countries and more than 30,000 staff. It is also a long-standing member of the ‘Big 3’ consulting firms alongside Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group.

The company’s continued success is driven by a commitment to innovate and break new ground. McKinsey & Company was among the first firms to employ female consultants, address climate change, air pollution, and other public health concerns, and embrace big data analytics, AI and machine learning.

In 2015, McKinsey & Company pooled over 2,000 of its consultants, developers, designers, IT architects, data engineers, agile coaches, and advanced analytics experts from around the world to launch Digital Labs. The first of its kind, the initiative helps clients create real and lasting value with the latest digital technologies.

This commitment to progress continues to this day. McKinsey spends over USD 200mn a year training its people and more than USD 600mn per year on capability building and knowledge development.

The company’s financial returns are a reflection of its achievements in supporting its clients around the world, with 2022 revenues of over USD 10bn.

Few companies can claim to have transformed the retail landscape in the UAE quite like Jumbo Electronics. Formed in 1974 by the late Mr M R Chhabria, the company has led the way in the country’s consumer electronics landscape ever since.

To this day, Jumbo Electronics is guided by its founder’s philosophy to create a future where everyone has access to the best technology the world can offer. To deliver on this promise, Jumbo has driven the tech retail industry forward in the UAE, adapting from a bricks and mortar vendor to an omnichannel retailer providing a seamless shopping experience, whether online or in-store. Today, it has 17 stores across the Emirates, including its flagship in The Galleria Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.

For almost 50 years, Jumbo has held its place as the country’s most trusted retailer, offering one of the broadest ranges of electronics on the market. The company is the go-to brand for customers looking to buy everything from mobile phones, laptops, TVs and home theatres to cameras, gaming and lifestyle products, accessories and telecom services.

It can continue to provide this service thanks to its strategic partnerships with industry leaders as well as its close work with smaller brands. Jumbo Electronics operates an IT distribution business in collaboration with Compaq, HP and IBM, is the UAE’s authorised service provider for Bose, and owns Sony and Dyson franchises, among others.

As well as offering technology goods for sale, it also operates Jumbo Serve, the largest service centre in the UAE, and offers home setup and installation support through its Jumbo UnwiredCrew service. This is alongside its Jumbo Salama gadget insurance products, a pioneering 3D manufacturing facility, workforce outsourcing and HR support, and supply chain and logistics solutions.

Robert Wood Johnson began his professional training at age 16 as a pharmaceutical apprentice. Less than 15 years later, in 1886, having developed a new kind of medical dressing with his brothers, he established a company through which to sell it: Johnson & Johnson.

Soon, the company amassed a team of 15 to manufacture and sell surgical supplies, including sutures, absorbent cotton and gauze. In 1888, it published its first medical guide, “Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment”, distributing 85,000 copies to doctors and pharmacists across the USA. By 1894, Johnson & Johnson employed more than 400 staff across 14 locations and began producing its game-changing product, Johnson’s Baby Powder. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Johnson & Johnson is one of the largest pharmaceuticals and consumer goods companies in the world, with operations spanning 250 subsidiaries in 60 countries. Its products are now sold in 175 countries, generating annual income of more than USD 90bn.

Over the years, the company has launched many more household name products, including the original Band-Aid, Neutrogena skincare, Tylenol medications, and Acuvue contact lenses. Alongside consumer products, Johnson & Johnson offers a vast MedTech, orthopaedics and surgical equipment portfolio. Its notable products include sutures, staplers, energy devices, haemostats and surgical robotics.

Behind the company’s ongoing success stories is continuous innovation. In 2022, Johnson & Johnson invested over USD 14bn on research and development programmes, among the highest in its industry and a significant increase on the USD 7.6bn spent ten years previously.

JLL formed from the USD 435m merger between American real estate firm LaSalle Partners and London-based auctioneer Jones Lang Wootton in 1999. Within just a few years, the new organisation, JLL, has expanded its global reach with locations in over 80 countries.

Today, the company’s 103,000 employees provide commercial real estate management, brokerage and investment services to corporations and high-net-worth individuals, as well as a range of technology products through its JLL Technologies division. Its corporate client base spans tech startups to global firms across industries including banking, energy, healthcare, law, life sciences, manufacturing and technology.

The company’s rapid growth has been propelled by its commitment to combining innovative technology and data intelligence with world-renowned in-house expertise. JLL helps buy, build, occupy and invest in various assets for its clients, including industrial, commercial, retail, residential and hotel real estate.

In all, JLL manages 4.6 billion square feet of property and has completed 37,500 leasing transactions, translating to 1.07 billion square feet leased.

At the same time, the company has spent 97,957 hours volunteering in local communities, donated USD 5,325,935 in charitable contributions and conserved 239,749 metric tonnes of CO2, securing its place on Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list.

Other notable awards for JLL include a place in the Global Outsourcing 100 and appearances among Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies list from 2017 to 2023. This impressive reputation and global influence translate to impressive financials, with reported revenues of USD 20.8bn last year.

The roots of J.P. Morgan Global Trade can be traced back to the late 1700s and the establishment of The Bank of the Manhattan Company. This is the oldest institution in the collection of companies which, over the years, have converged to create JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Others include The Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., Chemical Bank, The First National Bank of Chicago, National Bank of Detroit, and The Bear Stearns Companies Inc.

Each of these banking brands was, at the time, considered to be at the forefront of transformational innovations in the financial services industry, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. has long continued this trajectory. Today, the company is the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation, the largest investment bank in the world by revenue, and ranked 24th in the Fortune 500.

The company’s investment arm, J.P. Morgan Global Trade, operates across more than 50 countries in six regions and has also built a reputation as an industry pioneer. Its suite of core trade solutions helps clients to minimize risk, access short-term funding and count on cost-efficient debt support.

Through a strategic alliance with fintech disruptor Cleareye, J.P. Morgan Global Trade also offers market-leading technology to help investors futureproof their transactions while remaining compliant with changing regulation.

In all, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported revenues of over USD 128bn in 2022.

The concept for banking giant HSBC dates back to Hong Kong shortly after the First Opium War, where the goal was to fulfil the needs of British merchants trading in the region. After raising what at the time was an absolutely astonishing amount – at HK$ 5mn – The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation began operations in 1865.

Rapid expansion soon followed, with new branches opening in Bangkok, Manila and Shanghai in the early 1920s. The company’s first branch outside Asia was opened in 1955 in California, USA.

Today, HSBC Holdings plc is the largest bank in Europe by total assets, with over USD 10tn in assets under custody. It serves 40 million customers across 64 offices in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America.

On the back of a long history of financial innovation, HSBC recently brought a new game-changing solution to market. In 2022, HSBC Trade Solutions launched to offer a one-stop e-platform for safe, secure, and flexible management of global transactions of guarantees, trade loans for sellers and buyers, import bills and import documentary credit.

HSBC Trade Solutions will make trade faster, safer and more straightforward. The platform drastically reduces document exchange time and provides real-time status tracking, so traders can focus on growing their businesses and capturing more opportunities. Such is the platform’s influence that it is set to form the foundation of HSBC’s industry-leading trading services portfolio, which currently supports over USD 800bn worth of transactions every year.

In all, HSBC Holdings plc reported revenues of USD 51.7bn in 2022, ranking it among the largest companies in the world.

The history of Hays stretches back to 1867 when it was established as an operator of wharves and warehouses on the south bank of the River Thames in London, England. Following decades of acquisitions, rebrands, pivots and an IPO, the company formally announced its intention to reposition itself as a specialist recruiter in 2003.

Today, the Hays group has operations across 33 countries, including the UK, Ireland, Continental Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific regions. It also has offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Now recognised as a global expert in qualified, professional and skilled recruitment, the company’s 13,000 employees fill an average of 1,300 job vacancies every day.

Hays credits its success to its ability to specialise at scale. Its regional, industry and specialism experts truly understand the local market as well as the job roles and companies in which they place candidates. This expertise extends across numerous fields, including technology, accountancy and finance, construction and property, engineering, life sciences, sales and marketing and banking.

Naturally, this global success has seen the company scoop several prestigious awards. Notable accolades include Best Large Recruitment Company, Best Candidate Experience, Best Recruitment Agency and Best Specialist Recruitment Business. Hays has also been recognised as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

Even as the recruitment process has evolved over the years, Hays has held its place at the forefront. In 2012, the company filled 83,750 permanent roles, and 250,000 temporary positions, up considerably from the respective 59,090 and 220,000 the previous year. This incredible success saw Hays record revenues exceeding USD 8bn in 2022.

Epic Games, today synonymous with some of the world’s most popular games, was started by founder Tim Sweeney on his parent’s computer in 1991. Sweeney created his first game, ZZT, in the same year, and needed an organisation through which to sell it.

And sell it he did. Using online bulletin boards, Sweeney sold several thousands of copies, shipping them out himself. On the back of this success, the founder moved into the company’s first studio and changed its name from Potomac Computer Systems to the one we know today: Epic Games.

The American video game and software developer is now one of the largest gaming studios in the world, publishing internationally successful titles such as Fortnite, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade. In 2014, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine was named the “most successful videogame engine” by Guinness World Records.

The Epic Games Store, the company’s digital video game storefront for Microsoft Windows and macOS, now boasts over 180 million users, with gamers spending more than USD 700m per year within it. Registered users of the company’s flagship title, Fortnite, total over 350 million worldwide.

The company’s journey from a relatively unknown studio to one of the world’s most famous developers has seen it generate incredible returns. As of 2022, Epic Games had an equity valuation of USD 32bn, with annual revenues of around USD 6bn.

Founded in 2004, Emirates Auction is the largest online auction platform in the Middle East for cars and other machinery. It primarily facilitates the sale of new and used vehicles, providing a shipping and delivery service to allow its customers to achieve the highest sale price without visiting a showroom.

As well as automobiles, the company specialises in the sale and transfer of vehicle license plates, real estate and properties, VIP mobile numbers, jewellery, time-sensitive items, and heavy machinery, plant and construction equipment.

Emirates Auction conducts over 200 auctions annually, with customers bidding from the GCC, MENA region and Europe. The company also operates three large physical venues for customers that wish to buy and sell in person.

Emirates Auction has pioneered the online auction concept in the Arab world, providing new and innovative ways to put listings before a large audience while offering sellers a high level of security and incredible ease of use. Such is the company’s reputation that it is a trusted member of the National Auctioneers Association, the world’s largest association for the auctioneering profession.

The company has appeared in global headlines several times over its almost 20-year existence for breaking ten Guinness World Records. These record-breaking achievements include facilitating the sale of the most expensive vehicle registration plate, oil tanker, and horse riding saddle ever auctioned. Emirates Auction also holds the record for the world’s largest digital property sale at AED 102m.

On top of achieving incredible returns for its sellers, Emirates Auction has also made considerable charitable contributions, raising AED 150,000 for the Philippines disaster relief and AED 89.8m for the Al Jalila Foundation.

While its origins can be traced back to Austria in the early 1910s, DB Schenker was born from the acquisition of the international shipping firm Stinnes AG and its associated brand Schenker by the German rail operator Deutsche Bahn. The companies were added to the Deutsche Bahn portfolio to extend its rail freight services to land, sea and air and compete on the world stage. And it has certainly achieved this aim.

DB Schenker is now one of the world’s leading logistics providers, transporting goods across its vast land, air and ocean freight network. The company operates two key divisions. Its contract logistics arm provides efficient and innovative solutions for every stage of the value chain, from procurement and production to distribution logistics and after-sales service. This operation spans eight million square feet across 725 warehouses, with more than 24,000 employees in 60 counties.

DB Schenker’s largest division is its freight operation. This arm of the company connects the most important economic regions in more than forty European countries, with a network of about 32,000 regular scheduled services for general cargo per week. It also operates 1,200 chartered flights a year to 800 global locations.

This international impact is felt much closer to home here in the UAE. DB Schenker was the first logistics firm to offer electronic cargo documentation for freight to Dubai. Since 2018, shipping documentation can be submitted electronically for UAE import and customs processes, eliminating the need for the submission of physical shipping paperwork from overseas. This e-freight approach saw a drastic improvement in the region’s supply chain and logistics processes.

Thanks to innovations like this, along with a growing international customer base, DB Schenker recorded revenues of almost GBP 49bn last year.

Cognizant was launched in 1994 with a team of 50 in Chennai, India, to implement large-scale IT projects for its parent company. Less than ten years later, it posted revenues of USD 229m.

Driven by rapid growth and acquisitions in the late 1990s and 2000s, Cognizant has led technological transformation across 20-plus industries, helping its clients become modern, digital and future-proof enterprises. And these are not just any clients. Cognizant works with 29 of the top 30 pharma companies, nine of the top ten European banks and seven of the top ten internet companies.

Today, Cognizant is one of the largest global professional services companies in the world, with more than 355,000 employees. It posts revenues of over USD 19bn and sits at number 194 in the Fortune 500.

Needless to say, this colossal rise has not gone unnoticed. Over the years, the company has been featured among Fortune’s Most Admired Companies, listed in the Forbes Global 2000, and won several C100 Awards, which recognise organizations that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology.

Here in the Middle East, Cognizant helps the region’s businesses to modernise technology, reimagine processes and stay ahead of the competition from its offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

As well as continuing to grow its vast operation, Cognizant is committed to making a positive impact on its communities. Through the company’s Go Green initiative, it has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030. At the same time, it works to create educational opportunities for children and underserved communities and improve the lives of disadvantaged segments of society in India and North America through its Cognizant Foundation.

Formed as W. S. Atkins & Partners in 1938, the company now known as just Atkins set out to provide civil and structural engineering design services to London’s businesses. Before long, the firm was one of the country’s leading names in town planning, engineering sciences, architecture and project management.

Following its listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1996, Atkins turned its attention to the international market, adding many more services to its portfolio, including aerospace and high-speed railway capabilities.

In 2016, Atkins took its place as the UK’s largest engineering consultancy, as well as the 11th largest global design business. At this stage, the company employed around 18,000 staff across 300 offices in 29 countries. Today, as one of the largest engineering and project management consultancies in the world, it now employs 50,000 people and has expanded to 50 countries.

Atkins has a long-standing reputation for pioneering engineering and market-leading design. By putting data and technological innovation at the heart of every project, Atkins helps its global clients make even the most complex projects a success. And it indeed boasts many successes.

Atkins has assisted in the design, planning or project management of many world-renowned constructions, including the Tianjin World Financial Center in China, the Hoover Dam Bypass bridge, and several runways at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Here in the Middle East, the company has played a role in the construction of the Bahrain World Trade Centre, Dubai’s Burj Al Arab and Light Rail Transit system, and the Makkah Metro in Saudi Arabia.

Naturally, as one of the world’s most trusted consultancies, Atkins posts impressive financial returns, with a billion dollar revenue stream and healthy profits to go along with it.

Launched in 2010, AliExpress started life as a business-to-business portal for buying and selling a wide range of goods. Over the years that followed, it grew to become a multifaceted organisation offering business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer trade, along with cloud computing and payment services.

Originating in China as part of the Alibaba Group, it is now the most visited ecommerce site in Russia and the 10th most popular in Brazil. Such is its international reach that AliExpress.com is now available in 17 languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Russian.

Unlike Amazon and other competitors, AliExpress does not sell any products. Instead, it acts as an ecommerce platform for its customers. Many of those offering goods on the site offer dropshipping services for ecommerce businesses. The company also operates an affiliate programme whereby its partners are paid a commission on sales for referring visitors to the site.

Most of the businesses selling on the AliExpress platform are based in China and Singapore, with most buyers based outside Southeast Asia. Thanks to this global reach and international popularity, the company posts impressive returns, with its owner Alibaba showing annual revenues up from USD 109.5bn in 2021 to USD 129.2bn in 2022.

To complement this financial success, AliExpress strives to meet ambitious sustainability targets. Since 2020, all new company buildings must meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Standard. Meanwhile, its parent company, Alibaba, is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and has pledged to cut 1.5 gigatons of carbon emissions throughout its ecosystem by 2035.

At the same time, AliExpress has publicly stated its goal to serve two billion global customers, increase profitability for 10 million companies and create 100 million jobs by 2036.

Al Ghurair Foods was formed in the UAE in 1960 when pearl trading and fishing were the backbones of the local economy. Over the past six decades, it has woven itself into the fabric of the nation, becoming a household name in the Emirates and beyond.

Today, its parent company Al Ghurair Investment is one of the largest family business groups in the Middle East. As well as food trading, its operations span six other sectors: resources, properties, construction, energy, mobility and ventures.

Thanks to its extensive and diversified portfolio, the Al Ghurair family name has become synonymous with enterprise, development and prosperity across the Middle East. Now headquartered in Deira, in the heart of Dubai, the group’s operations span over 20 countries and it employs more than 28,000 people.

Under its parent company’s guidance, Al Ghurair Foods has evolved into a world-leading manufacturer and supplier of high-quality food products. The company’s most popular products include eggs, oats, flour and semolina.

Al Ghurair Foods is the region’s leading flour miller with over 40 years of experience and an annual capacity of more than 1.5 million metric tonnes. The company has operational silos of over 230,000 metric tonnes across its wheat milling assets alone.

It is this vast operation that drives Al Ghurair Foods continued success, helping it live up to its long-standing motto: “Part of every plate, every day.”

Adobe was formed in a garage in Los Altos, California, in 1982. In the same year, founders Charles Geschke and John Warnock turned down a USD 5m offer from Steve Jobs to buy the company.

But while the decision to reject this proposal was met with raised eyebrows, Adobe has seen nothing but admiring glances ever since. Less than 20 years later, the company posted revenues of over USD 1bn, a figure which rapidly increased to USD 4bn by 2012.

Today, Adobe employs almost 30,000 people, while its Adobe Suite software package is ubiquitous among creative teams around the world.

A look at the numbers behind the company’s leading applications lays bare its global reach. Over 90% of the world’s creative professionals use Adobe Photoshop, while its online creative community, Behance, has over 30 million members. In the last year, over 400 billion PDFs were opened with Adobe Document Cloud, and its Adobe Scan app has assisted in the creation of 2.5 billion documents.

The Adobe suite’s industry recognition is just as impressive as its reach. The company’s numerous accolades include awards for Best Global Brand, Most Innovative Company, Best Culture and the World’s Most Admired Companies.

Naturally, impressive returns follow such success. In 2022, Adobe reported year-end revenues of USD 17.6bn. The company helps its customers boost their bottom lines, too. Documents created, signed, shared and stored in Adobe Document Cloud translate to 90% cost savings.

At the same time, its digital operation drives a 95% reduction in environmental impact compared with paper-based processes, saves 105 million litres of water and 31,000 trees, and removes the equivalent of 2,300 cars worth of carbon emissions per year.

The business now known as Accenture was once a division of Kentucky-based accounting firm Arthur Andersen. But after conducting a feasibility study for General Electric’s pioneering UNIVAC I computer, the consultancy arm began to make a case for becoming a standalone organisation.

It would take around 30 years for Anderson Consulting to launch as a separate entity and another 20 before the company would adopt the name we are familiar with today. In 2001, Accenture launched with much fanfare on the New York Stock Exchange, raising almost USD 2bn on the first day of its IPO.

Today, Accenture’s solution portfolio has expanded to include four divisions: Accenture Strategy and Consulting, Accenture Song, Accenture Technology and Accenture Operations. In all, the company employs over 738,000 people worldwide, serves 9,000 clients across 49 countries and oversees an ecosystem of more than 249 partners.

Here in the UAE, Accenture offers its industry-leading capabilities and solutions in digital, cloud and security to more than 40 industries. The company was also chosen by the Central Bank of the UAE to develop and support the country’s national payments infrastructure. Accenture’s platform now supports next-generation, real-time payments throughout the region, 24 hours a day.

Naturally, Accenture’s international impact has seen it receive numerous awards and accolades over the years. The company has been featured in the Fortune Global 500 for 21 years in a row, the Forbes Global 2000 for 19 years in a row, and the Brand Finance Most Valuable IT Services Brands list for five years in a row.

The company has also spent 16 consecutive years on the Ethisphere World’s Most Ethical Companies list, thanks in no small part to its countless community development and sustainability projects. With annual revenues of USD 61.6bn last year, its financial returns are just as remarkable.

Abacus Tax & Accounting is dedicated to providing exceptional tax and accounting services to individuals and businesses. With more than 2 years of experience in the industry, we have helped our clients achieve their financial goals by offering a wide range of customized solutions that cater to their unique needs.

Our team of skilled and knowledgeable professionals comprises certified public accountants (FCCA, CMA, UAECA, ACCA, AFPA), tax advisors, and other finance experts who are committed to delivering accurate and timely financial advice. We understand that every client is different, and so we tailor our services to meet their specific requirements.

At Abacus Tax & Accounting, we prioritize client satisfaction, and we go the extra mile to ensure that our client’s financial affairs are in order. Our services include tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll management, financial planning, and consulting, among others. We use cutting-edge technology and industry best practices to deliver efficient, cost-effective solutions that help our clients save time and money.

As a trusted partner, we work closely with our clients to provide strategic guidance and support throughout the year. Whether you are an individual looking for tax advice or a business seeking comprehensive financial management, we are here to help.

OUR SERVICES

We offer the following comprehensive set of services to help us clients excel while staying compliant:

Accounting:

• Bookkeeping
• Regular
• Virtual Finance

VAT:

• VAT Return
• VAT Consultancy
• VAT Reconsideration
• VAT Registration
• VAT De-Registration
• VAT Amendment

Compliance

• ESR
• AML/CFT
• Corporate Secretarial Services

Corporate Tax

• CT Consultancy
• CT Registration
• CT Filing
• Transfer pricing

You can learn about us and our services by visiting www.abacusta.ae

In August 1907, budding Seattle-based entrepreneurs James E. Casey and Claude Ryan borrowed USD 100 to start the American Messenger Company. In its early days, most deliveries were made on foot, with longer journeys by bike. Little did either man know that they were on a trajectory which would see their startup become UPS, one of the world’s largest shipping couriers.

By 1930, the company had expanded coast to coast, moving its corporate office from Los Angeles to New York City. This would be the springboard for its nationwide operation. Over the next 55 years, UPS would expand to offer next-day delivery to every US state along with Puerto Rico. In 1985, the company launched its intercontinental air delivery service between the US and Europe.

Global domination quickly followed. Today, UPS is the world’s largest courier by revenue, outperforming fellow giants DHL and FedEx. It is the largest private employer in the US, with over 500,000 staff, and its Kentucky cargo hub is the fifth busiest in the world.

Each day, UPS delivers an average of 24 million parcels across its international network spanning more than 220 countries and territories. This vast global operation translates to equally significant returns. The company reported revenues in 2022 of USD 100.3bn.

On top of its impressive financials, UPS is committed to delivering on its promise to protect the environment. The delivery giant already drives over one million cleaner miles every day, has purchased 162 million gallons of alternative fuels, and invested USD 1bn in green technologies. By 2050, the company aims to be entirely carbon neutral.

Sutherland has been a pioneer in the digital transformation space for over 35 years. Built for the future, the company helps its clients drive growth and provide better experiences for their staff and customers.

Known for its digital-first service through the innovative use of human-centred design, real-time analytics, AI, cognitive technology and automation, Sutherland is an early adopter of robotic automation. It leverages vast experience in cutting-edge and emerging technologies to deliver relevant, instantaneous, predictive and frictionless experiences.

With decades of developing best-in-class processes behind it, Sutherland works with some of the world’s most experience-native companies to add a human element to their digital transformation efforts. The company has a support network across a wide range of industries, including banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, media and entertainment, technology, travel and hospitality, and logistics.

The Sutherland team of about 40,000 professionals is spread across 61 delivery centres and 144 countries, handling more than 43 million transactions every month. The company has locations in North American, APAC, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.

Here in MENA, Sutherland has been behind many regional firsts, including implementing voice biometrics in Arabic, Hindi and English for a leading UAE bank. The company is also instrumental in many organisation’s Emiratisation efforts and has set up and managed an Emiratisation centre of excellence for a leading UAE Airline, among others.

Such pioneering work translates into considerable revenue, topping USD 2.4bn in 2022.

Founded in 1926, Publicis Groupe took little time to expand from a French startup to the third-largest communication group in the world. As one of the key drivers behind France’s post-war economic boom, it was an internationally recognised brand before the end of the 1940s.

The 1950s saw incredible success thanks to two pioneering campaigns, the Green Giant and the Marlboro Cowboy, both of which are now ingrained in the cultural landscape of America and beyond. Having opened an international office in New York in 1957, it took just 30 years for the company to be named on the list of the world’s Top 20 Communications Groups.

Today, Publicis Groupe employs almost 100,000 staff in more than 100 countries and is one of the ‘Big Four’ agency companies alongside WPP, Interpublic and Omnicom.

The company is organised into four hubs: Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis Sapient, and Publicis Health. Together, these divisions help businesses around the world to overcome their key challenges, keep pace with disruptive competitors and innovate faster at a lower cost.

Publicis Groupe applies this approach across the UAE from its office in Dubai Media City. This team of commerce specialists, data analysts, and content professionals help regional clients to transform their online businesses across marketplaces, direct-to-consumer and omnichannel.

As MENA’s leading commerce agency, Publicis Groupe leverages its global reach and local expertise to shape the future of the industry across the region.

Along with its continued drive to support its global clients and deliver annual net revenues of over USD 12.5bn, Publicis Groupe is committed to sustainability.

The company is working towards an ambitious target to become carbon neutral by 2030, has aligned itself with the Paris Agreement, and recently launched the A.L.I.C.E. (Advertising Limiting Impacts & Carbon Emissions) calculator to help clients assess the environmental impact of their campaigns and projects.

Nadia Training Institute launched in Abu Dhabi 40 years ago with a mission to become the leading training and recruitment consultancy in the GCC. Not only has it achieved this aim, but it has been breaking boundaries ever since.

In 1997, Nadia Training Institute became the first UAE recruiter to offer an online registration process. Just a year later, it would become the first recruiter to partner with Gulf News to advertise vacancies and search for candidates. Six years after that it took the honour of being the first UAE recruiter to amass a 750,000+ candidate database.

Fast forward to 2023 and Nadia Training Institute still holds the top spot as the number one training and recruitment consultant in the GCC, having placed over 350,000 professionals in their roles. Today, the company has a candidate database of over 1m, has trained over 260,000 workers, and has delivered 52,000 courses.

With offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Nadia Training Institute helps clients across the region to upskill their staff and find the very best talent for a wide range of roles. Its customisable corporate training programmes also help candidates and employees supercharge their career advancement and expand their capabilities.

Today the company also supports clients and candidates across the wider region and internationally, offering its services in Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Poland, Singapore, Uzbekistan and the Philippines.

Founded by childhood friends in 1975, Microsoft set out to develop a simple interpreter for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. By 1981, its 16-bit operating system was installed as standard on all IBM personal computers. Just eight years later, the company released the first incarnation of the Office program that over 345 million people still use around the world today.

The rest, as they say, is history. From here, Microsoft would go on to release its game-changing operating system, Windows 95, pioneer widespread use of the internet and enter the gaming arena with the Xbox.

Along the way, it would take its place as one of the largest companies in the world by revenue. Not to mention becoming the world’s largest software maker and at one point the most valuable publicly traded company. Today, Microsoft has the fourth-highest global brand valuation behind Amazon, Google and Apple.

As the world of technology has evolved dramatically over the past 50 years, Microsoft has maintained its position at the forefront. A pioneer of early computing, today it does the same in the world of data analytics and machine learning. Its Azure cloud service gives powerful ML capabilities to businesses for whom it was once out of reach.

Microsoft’s ML products enable data scientists, engineers and other professionals to train and deploy custom learning models directly into their workflows. Meanwhile, almost all Microsoft software, from its cybersecurity solutions to design and coding packages, incorporate AI to reduce manual processes and increase the speed of innovation.

Arguably the world’s most enduring tech company, its Azure software is used by over 70% of global organisations and 95% of the Fortune 100. Four in five Fortune 500 companies also use Office 365. At the same time, Windows runs on 1.6bn devices, and its Teams platform is used by 270m people every month.

Naturally, this global ubiquity translates into enormous returns, with reported revenues of USD 198bn in 2022.

IBM Watson was initially designed to answer questions on the US quiz show “Jeopardy!”. In 2011, it did just that, scooping the USD 1m prize pot. But this would be far from its most remarkable achievement.

Having started its existence as a question-answering computer system, IBM Watson would go on to transform business automation, healthcare and international IT infrastructures in less than 15 years.

Fresh from its gameshow success, IBM Watson’s first commercial application was announced in 2013. The system would utilise management decisions in lung cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

In the years since, IBM Watson Health has helped build smarter health ecosystems worldwide. Its industry-leading data, analytics and AI capabilities help providers, payers, governments and life science companies to modernize operations and get more value from their health data. In 2022, IBM Watson Health reported revenues of USD 1bn.

Due for release this year, IBM Watson’s latest incarnation, Watsonx, is also expected to take the business world by storm. Designed to help manage organisational complexity and improve performance, IBM reports that it can achieve six times faster customer conversion and up to 470% ROI in under six months.

HubSpot is a shining example of a modern startup success story. Founded in 2004 by MIT graduate students Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah to provide sales and marketing support software, the company generated revenues of over USD 250,000 in its first year.

By 2010, HubSpot’s revenues exceeded USD 15m. Just four years later, the company raised over USD 140m by going public on the New York Stock Exchange, selling shares for USD 25 each. In 2021, HubSpot stock reached an all-time high of $841 per share. In the same year, the company reported revenues of over USD 1bn.

Behind this incredible success is HubSpot’s focus on inbound marketing and valuable content. Its founders spotted ahead of time that consumers were growing tired of being sold to directly. Instead, they wanted help solving their challenges. HubSpot’s mission, therefore, was to stop interrupting and instead start helping – by putting the customer at the centre of every interaction.

This fiercely customer-centric approach still drives the company today. HubSpot now offers several solutions, including its CRM Free product that helps track and manage customer interactions. This is on top of its hugely successful Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Operations Hub and Service Hub. Each is packed with resources, tools and software – much of it free – designed to help its clients deliver incredible experiences and add value to their customers.

Today, HubSpot serves over 177,000 customers across more than 120 countries. And its revenues are equally impressive. The company generated USD 489m from subscriptions and USD 12m from its other solutions in Q1 of 2023 alone, up almost 30% on the previous year. Total revenues for last year exceeded a whopping USD 1.73bn.

In 1965, Frederick W. Smith was asked to draw up a new business concept for his term paper at Yale University. The idea he submitted, for a safe way to deliver time-sensitive shipments, would set the blueprint for one of the largest delivery services in the world.

Within a decade of that university project, Smith launched Federal Express, the first overnight delivery company.

On its first night of continuous operation, the company, now known as FedEx, sent 14 jets to deliver 186 packages across 25 cities throughout the US. Just ten years later, in 1983, FedEx reported USD 1bn in revenue, making it the first US-based business to do so without merger or acquisition.

Over the years that followed, the company expanded operations to Europe and Asia, and has been in the Middle East via a Dubai operations centre since 1989.

Today, FedEx’s international service spans 1,950 locations across more than 220 countries. Its fleet of almost 700 planes, serving 650 airports, makes it one of the largest civil aircraft fleets and the largest full-service cargo airline in the world. And with an average of 16.5m packages delivered daily, it carries more freight than any other airline.

To offset this enormous transport network, FedEx is committed to ambitious sustainability targets. The firm aims to be carbon-neutral by 2040 and has invested USD 2bn in a range of energy-saving initiatives to achieve this objective. FedEx also plans to have an all-electric ground fleet by the same year.

FedEx’s delivery services are now just one arm of its growing portfolio. The company also offers shipment tracking software, website support, customer service portals and drop boxes. In all, this vast operation returns annual revenues of USD 93bn.

When University of California student Larry Hillblom accepted a job as a courier in the 1960s, he could not have predicted that within a few decades his business would revolutionise the global logistics industry.

DHL was formed in 1969 to operate a business-to-business delivery service between Honolulu and San Francisco for a single client. By the early 1970s, the company was international and had already taken its place as the third-largest domestic courier behind rivals FedEx and UPS.

Today, DHL employs almost 400,000 people across 220 countries and delivers an incredible 1.8 billion parcels every year. The company’s overnight parcel courier service is now just one of many global divisions. Others include its rapid shipping service, DHL Express, plus DHL Freight, DHL Supply Chain, and the DHL ecommerce platform.

Another of its largest operations, DHL Global Forwarding, specialises in international enterprise shipping via air, rail and sea, inclusive of insurance and customs support. This division alone has moved 2.1 million air freight tonnes and 3.1 million ocean freight tonnes for its more than 167,000 customers around the world.

Due to its vast international transport network, DHL has taken considerable steps to reduce its impact on the environment. The company now completes over 100 million last kilometre deliveries with e-vehicles, gets 86% of its electricity from renewable sources, and has employed 70,000 certified GoGreen specialists to help its customers reach their sustainability objectives. As a result, DHL hopes to be globally carbon-neutral by 2050.

The company’s returns are just as impressive. Having reported record-breaking revenues of almost USD 82bn in 2021, it saw a 15% year-on-year increase, reaching over USD 94bn in 2022.

When University of California student Larry Hillblom accepted a job as a courier in the 1960s, he could not have predicted that within a few decades his business would revolutionise the global logistics industry.

DHL was formed in 1969 to operate a business-to-business delivery service between Honolulu and San Francisco for a single client. By the early 1970s, the company was international and had already taken its place as the third-largest domestic courier behind rivals FedEx and UPS.

Today, DHL employs almost 400,000 people across 220 countries and delivers an incredible 1.8 billion parcels every year. The company’s overnight parcel courier service is now just one of many global divisions. Others include its rapid shipping service, DHL Express, plus DHL Freight, DHL Supply Chain, and the DHL ecommerce platform.

Another of its largest operations, DHL Global Forwarding, specialises in international enterprise shipping via air, rail and sea, inclusive of insurance and customs support. This division alone has moved 2.1 million air freight tonnes and 3.1 million ocean freight tonnes for its more than 167,000 customers around the world.

Due to its vast international transport network, DHL has taken considerable steps to reduce its impact on the environment. The company now completes over 100 million last kilometre deliveries with e-vehicles, gets 86% of its electricity from renewable sources, and has employed 70,000 certified GoGreen specialists to help its customers reach their sustainability objectives. As a result, DHL hopes to be globally carbon-neutral by 2050.

The company’s returns are just as impressive. Having reported record-breaking revenues of almost USD 82bn in 2021, it saw a 15% year-on-year increase, reaching over USD 94bn in 2022.

Since opening its first office in 1845, Deloitte has grown to become the largest professional services company in the world, in terms of both revenue and number of accredited employees. Today, it is a long-standing member of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms alongside EY, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The trajectory has spanned almost 180 years, and the company’s growth has been consistent throughout. From its first office in London, the company went on to establish a presence in major cities around the world, from New York to Buenos Aires and beyond. This international footing has been the foundation of Deloitte’s success.

Today, the company employs around 350,000 people across 150 countries and territories. Here in the UAE, Deloitte has over 1,000 professionals supporting the audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory and tax needs of the region. The team is spread across five offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, and Sharjah.

Deloitte’s full service UAE division works with leading enterprises and institutions in banking and financial services, real estate, leisure and hospitality, construction, public sector activities, trading, manufacturing, telecom, retail and energy and resources.

The company launched an International Tax Center of Excellence in Dubai in 2009, which was ranked tier one in tax services in the International Tax Review’s World Tax briefings just a year later.

Deloitte’s unique position as a global powerhouse with a distinctly local approach is undoubtedly the key to its continued success. The company has garnered much recognition for its work, regularly ranking in Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, being named the Number One Accounting Firm by Inside Public Accounting for ten years in a row, and consistently being a Gartner leader for Security Consulting Services.

Needless to say, this high standard translates into considerable annual revenues – topping almost USD 60bn in 2022.

Databricks started life as a project in academic and open-source communities, growing out of the AMPLab project at the University of California. On its official launch in 2013, it became the world’s first lakehouse platform in the cloud. It remains the only solution of this type today.

By combining the best aspects and capabilities of data warehouses and data lakes, Databricks provides an open and unified platform for analytics and AI. Its web-based solution for working with Apache Spark — a unified analytics engine for big data and machine learning – was transformational in bringing reliability to data lakes for machine learning and other advanced data science uses.

Today, Databricks is trusted by over 7,000 organisations around the world to enable massive-scale data engineering, full-lifecycle machine learning, business analytics and collaboration across data sciences. High-profile customers include ABN AMRO, Condé Nast, Regeneron and Shell.

Along with its headquarters in San Francisco, Databricks has 28 global locations across the US and South America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Its team of over 4,000 employees work with hundreds of partners from Microsoft and Amazon to Capgemini and Booz Allen to simplify and democratise complex technology.

Such is its global success that Databricks has received numerous prestigious accolades over the years. It is a Gartner Leader in both Cloud Database Management and Data Science and Machine Learning. It also features in Forbes’s AI 50 and Cloud 100 lists and was named one of the Most Innovative Companies in the World by Fast Company.

As well as rewards and recognition, Databricks’ phenomenal success is reflected in its financials. Over its ten-year lifespan, the company has raised USD 3.5bn over ten funding rounds, reaching a valuation of USD 38bn in 2022. Annual revenues for the same year topped an incredible USD 1bn, up from USD 600m in 2021.

Launched in 2010, Azure rose quickly to become the cloud platform of choice for most organisations around the world. The Microsoft solution has almost one billion users and is trusted by 95% of the Fortune 100. Globally, Azure’s cloud computing market share stands at 21%.

Originally developed to provide access, management, and development of applications and services through global data centres, it has expanded to include more than 200 products with thousands of capabilities from software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) support to AI and machine learning (ML).

Its Azure Machine Learning solutions are instrumental in bringing advanced, business-critical ML models to the mass market at scale. It is used by thousands of data scientists, developers, and engineers to build, deploy, and manage high-quality models faster and more reliably.

Azure Machine Learning is credited with making the complex simple. It allows users to evaluate ML models with reproducible and automated workflows to assess model fairness, explainability, error analysis, causal analysis, model performance, exploratory data analysis and much more – capabilities that were, until its launch, out of reach for all but the largest data science and analytics organisations.

Microsoft is committed to rolling out Azure to as many markets and territories as possible. In 2018, it was the first primary cloud provider to open a facility in Africa, bringing its reach to 54 global regions. A year later, Microsoft announced the establishment of two new cloud regions in the UAE to make it easier for businesses here to further embrace the opportunities of cloud technologies.

Such is its international reach and continued adoption that Azure generated around USD 75bn of Microsoft’s 198bn annual revenues in 2022.

The platform that would become Amazon Web Services (AWS) started life as an in-house development project in the early 2000s. Amazon set out to scale its engineering capabilities and speed up the improvement of its operating software.

By 2002, the idea of an ‘internet operating system’ was born. In 2003, AWS released its first web services solution, opening up the platform to developers beyond Amazon. The platform quickly evolved to include database, storage and computing capabilities and just four years later, its first ground-breaking release, Amazon S3 cloud storage, was available to all.

Today, the AWS portfolio includes over 200 services from data centres worldwide. It is the most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform in the world, supporting millions of customers, from startups to multinational conglomerates and government agencies.

More recently, AWS has been leading the charge in the widespread adoption of AI-powered technologies. Its pre-trained AI Services provide ready-made intelligence and can be easily integrated with in-house applications.

By far the most transformational benefit of AWS AI Services is that it does not require machine learning experience. Essentially, AWS has put advanced, continuously-learning APIs in the hands of its users, whatever their technical capabilities.

AWS’s global market domination has seen it recognised as a Gartner Leader for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services for 12 years in a row. It is also credited as being the most flexible and secure cloud environment, with more services and customers than any other provider.

This global reach translates to out-of-this-world revenues of USD 80bn in 2022, with an operating income of USD 22.8bn. Here in the UAE, the recent establishment of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is estimated to support 6,000 jobs and bring over AED 20bn in investment to the country.

In 1997, friends Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph sent a DVD in the mail to see if it would survive the trip intact. It did – and the idea for Netflix took a step closer to reality.

Just five years later, the company went public, selling shares at $1, and it wasn’t long before its movie-by-mail service had five million subscribers. For many businesses, this would be the peak of its success, but for Netflix, it was only the beginning.

The introduction of the company’s streaming service in 2007 would accelerate the process of Netflix becoming the global behemoth we know today. Within just two years of going fully digital, subscriber numbers surpassed 10 million.

Over the years that followed, Netflix would launch in more than 190 countries, from the UK and Ireland in 2012 to France, Germany and Switzerland in 2014, and the UAE and many more in 2016. In the time since, the EMEA region would overtake the US and Canada as the company’s largest, with over 77 million subscribers.

Netflix is not just a business success story. It is a cultural phenomenon. Now an integral part of the world’s film, television and streaming industries, it produces content in more than 20 languages and has won multiple Oscars, Emmys and more for its original productions.

A truly global operation, the streaming giant has offices in the US, UK, Canada, France, Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea, as well as several production hubs around the world.

Today, Netflix is ranked 115th in the Fortune 500 and is the second-largest entertainment and media company in the world by market cap behind the Walt Disney Company.

With more than 230 million people worldwide subscribing to its digital streaming service, the company generates revenues in excess of USD 30bn per year.

Launched in 2005, Sharaf DG took just five years to develop from an idea to one of the region’s leading electronic retailers. In the years since, it has gone from strength to strength, expanding from one store in Dubai to dozens across the wider UAE as well as Bahrain, Egypt and Oman – with more in the pipeline.

Offering over 25,000 products, from local manufacturers to international brands, Sharaf DG is now a household name in the UAE and the Middle East. The company prides itself on the expertise of its staff, and that’s undoubtedly the reason why so many customers come back again and again for advice and guidance, as well as electronics.

Sharaf DG aims to offer the widest range of electronics available at the best value in each of its locations. To bolster this claim, it offers a no-quibble ‘Product not available, claim free’ promise. Put simply, if an item is not in store, Sharaf DG will get it within 24 hours, or it’s free. This is on top of its Best Price Guarantee, which allows customers to claim back the difference if they find an item cheaper at another power retailer.

Initiatives like these contribute to Sharaf DG’s reputation for customer satisfaction and have gone a long way in securing the retailer numerous accolades over the years. As well as bagging the prestigious Superbrand prize every year from 2011 to 2017, the company has also scooped awards for Best Retailer, Most Admired Retailer, and Store of the Year.

Today, over one million customers visit Sharaf DG stores every month, cementing its place as one of the UAE’s most popular – not to mention most successful – retailers.

In 1997, friends Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph sent a DVD in the mail to see if it would survive the trip intact. It did – and the idea for Netflix took a step closer to reality.

Just five years later, the company went public, selling shares at $1, and it wasn’t long before its movie-by-mail service had five million subscribers. For many businesses, this would be the peak of its success, but for Netflix, it was only the beginning.

The introduction of the company’s streaming service in 2007 would accelerate the process of Netflix becoming the global behemoth we know today. Within just two years of going fully digital, subscriber numbers surpassed 10 million.

Over the years that followed, Netflix would launch in more than 190 countries, from the UK and Ireland in 2012 to France, Germany and Switzerland in 2014, and the UAE and many more in 2016. In the time since, the EMEA region would overtake the US and Canada as the company’s largest, with over 77 million subscribers.

Netflix is not just a business success story. It is a cultural phenomenon. Now an integral part of the world’s film, television and streaming industries, it produces content in more than 20 languages and has won multiple Oscars, Emmys and more for its original productions.

A truly global operation, the streaming giant has offices in the US, UK, Canada, France, Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea, as well as several production hubs around the world.

Today, Netflix is ranked 115th in the Fortune 500 and is the second-largest entertainment and media company in the world by market cap behind the Walt Disney Company.

With more than 230 million people worldwide subscribing to its digital streaming service, the company generates revenues in excess of USD 30bn per year.

Launched in 1999 by Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma, Alibaba rose quickly to become the leading platform for global wholesale, serving millions of customers around the world.

Within 20 years, Ma would become one of the wealthiest people on the planet, and his platform would have changed the international trading landscape. As well as being one of the largest ecommerce platforms, Alibaba is the world’s fifth largest AI company and the second largest financial services group behind only Visa. All of which translates to a market valuation in excess of USD 200bn.

Behind this phenomenal success is the company’s driving mission to make it easy to do business with every corner of the globe. Through its ecommerce, technology and financial services network, Alibaba gives suppliers the tools they need to reach an international audience while putting buyers within easy reach of millions of products in more than 190 countries.

Outside of its vast ecommerce, finance and tech divisions, Alibaba also provides a number of entertainment services, including ticketing, content creation and event management. The company also operates Alibaba Pictures Group formed after the USD 803m acquisition of the giant ChinaVision Media Group.

Alibaba is a communications powerhouse, too, having acquired Yahoo! China and launched DingTalk, an enterprise comms and collaboration platform.

In recent years, the company has taken great strides to expand its presence here in the UAE. Having signed an agreement with the emirate’s rulers in 2016, Alibaba opened its MENA regional headquarters in Dubai.

Since then, Alibaba has invested in several Emirati-based businesses, including logistics firm Aramex and retailer Daraz. In 2019, Alibaba signed a partnership agreement with the UAE government to develop the country’s ecommerce industry and help local businesses seize more international trade opportunities.

Julius Baer Group has been trusted to manage its clients’ wealth, prioritising protection, growth and inheritance for over 130 years.

Over more than a century, the company honed a world-renowned five-step investment approach designed to manage risk and generate returns in a systemic and sustainable way.

From its boutique beginnings as a Zurich-based private bank, it has expanded to over 60 locations across 25 countries. As well as its Swiss headquarters, Julius Baer Group has offices in all major financial centres, including Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Since opening its regional office in the UAE some 20 years ago, the company has greatly expanded its presence in the Middle East. In 2020, Julius Baer Group opened a 28,000-square-foot premise in Dubai Financial Center to enhance its global coverage and better serve customers in the MENA region.

Just two years later, it was granted a license by the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority to open its third advisory office in the Middle East in Doha.

With privacy and confidentiality at its core, Julius Baer manages assets worth over USD 480bn for individuals, companies and funds around the world. It is the largest pure-play private bank in Switzerland and the country’s third-biggest bank behind global giants UBS and Credit Suisse. This vast portfolio sees the firm bring in annual revenues of over USD 4bn.

As well as working to grow the wealth of its clients, Julius Baer Group supports local communities around the world in a number of ways. On top of ongoing contributions to sustainability and charitable projects, it invests in promising artists, athletes and others to help reduce wealth inequality.

Founded in the UAE in 1976, Etisalat has grown to become one of the world’s leading telecoms corporations with a market cap of AED 329bn and annual revenues of over AED 50bn.

Since launching the Middle East’s first mobile network in 1982, the company has gone on to serve more than 155 million subscribers in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. During this time, Etisalat achieved another transformational first – launching the Middle East’s inaugural 5G LTE network.

Today, the company offers 3G and 4G mobile internet, broadband, dial-up and cloud gaming services, as well as a range of digital, streaming, video and lifestyle applications. To reflect its broader portfolio, the company announced a new brand identity, e&, in 2022.

Still headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Etisalat is now a global network hub, providing connectivity to other networks in the Middle East and operating more than 500 roaming agreements across 186 countries.

This vast network makes it the twelfth largest carrier of voice traffic in the world and the largest in the Middle East.

Throughout its phenomenal success, Etisalat has maintained a local, customer-first mindset. The company is committed to improving the lives of those that use its networks as well as helping businesses grow while enhancing the competitiveness of the UAE on the world stage.

And it has undoubtedly made its mark. Etisalat is ranked 140th in the Financial Times Top 500 Corporations for market capitalisation, is the sixth largest company in the Middle East based on capitalisation and revenues, and is the biggest contributor to UAE federal government development programmes outside of the oil and gas industry.

Founded in 1997 during the relative infancy of the internet, GoDaddy took just over ten years to post revenues in excess of USD 500m.

By 2001, the company had caught up with its rivals in the domain space, Dotster and eNom, and by 2005 it was officially the internet’s largest ICANN-accredited registrar. Fast forward to 2018 and GoDaddy was the world’s largest web host based on market share, having registered over 62 million domains. That figure now stands at over 84 million.

Today, it is the world’s largest service platform for entrepreneurs, with more than 20 million customers in almost every country on the planet. Offering domain registrar, web hosting, SSL certificate and website building services, GoDaddy gives its customers the tools they need to launch and thrive online.

Priding itself on the personal touch, GoDaddy is unusual in the domain space as it offers 24/7 human support. Its ‘GoDaddy Guides’ are on hand to answer queries and take calls in offices around the world, from Amsterdam and LA to Shanghai and Sydney. The company also has a significant presence here in the UAE, with Dubai serving as its main hub for the MENA region since 2012.

Unsurprisingly for a company of its size and success, GoDaddy has scooped numerous awards for its services. Notable accolades include the 2022 Stevie Award for Sales and Service, the Comparably Award for Best CEO, and several Indigo Design Awards for Animation, Branding and Website Design.

In 2021, the company generated revenues of over USD 1bn in a single quarter for the first time in its history. The following year, total annual revenues exceeded USD 4bn.

Established in 1890, the Kanoo Group is one of the largest and longest-standing family-run companies in the Gulf region. Based in the UAE, the company made its name in the world of shipping, disrupting the market share long held by British firms in the Arabian Peninsula.

Kanoo Shipping is the largest local shipping agency in the Middle East, and overseas it operates in more than 20 countries – with over 20,000 port calls every year across its network from the Suez to Sri Lanka. It also works with shipping partners from Egypt and Jordan to India, Kenya and the Seychelles.

Over the last 130 years, the company has expanded to include many more divisions across travel, machinery and rentals, energy, cranes, capital services, steel reinforcement, real estate, logistics, chemicals and other retail and commercial activities.

Kanoo Travel is one of its longest-running divisions behind shipping. Launched in the late 1930s, its early operations included refuelling services for long-haul airlines. By 1947 it became the first IATA agency in the Middle East and was also the first to receive ISO certification. Today, Kanoo’s travel arm operates in 180 IATA locations and has built a global presence through its partnership with American Express Travel Services.

Despite its international success, the Kanoo Group remains dedicated to enhancing the UAE and the surrounding region. Through its corporate philanthropy initiative, it invests in the development of local communities through the arts, education, health, social welfare and the environment.

In its commitment to the latter, the company is close to achieving its aim of replacing all company lighting with energy-saving alternatives, as well as installing smart sensors and timers to reduce waste and unnecessary emissions.

Established in 2016 to provide a digital marketplace for products and services built and used in the MENA region, Noon is now valued at over USD 1bn – making it one of the few ‘unicorns’ in the Arab world.

Owned in partnership by Emirati entrepreneur Mohamed Alabbar and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Noon quickly gained traction to become the region’s leading ecommerce platform, offering over 20 million products to customers in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt.

As well as selling electronics, toys and games, and fashion and homeware, Noon also has a grocery platform which delivers everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to kitchen and household items within the UAE. And having built on the success of its online platforms, it is now one of the region’s foremost experts in fulfilment, logistics and payment services.

The ecommerce giant’s portfolio also includes NowNow, an on-demand platform that facilitates hyperlocal delivery of goods within minutes of ordering, and Noon Pay, a digital payment service that offers a secure and convenient way to send money to individuals or pay for goods online.

Its fashion arm, SIVVI, is one of the region’s fastest-growing clothing retailers, offering high-quality apparel at affordable prices. Noon added to this rapidly expanding division in 2023 with the USD 335m acquisition of Namshi, the Middle East’s leading fashion and lifestyle ecommerce platform.

Today, Noon employs around 10,000 people in the Middle East and is soon set to take on many more. In 2022, the company broke ground on what is to become the UAE’s largest fulfilment centre. The 252,000 square metre site is due to open in 2024 and will offer storage and fulfilment services to over 5,000 of the region’s small and medium-sized businesses.

Launched in Seoul, South Korea, under the name Gold Star, the company now known as LG brought the first mass-produced radio, refrigerator and TV to the domestic market in the aftermath of the Korean War.

In the more than seven decades since, LG has expanded its portfolio to include hundreds of products across four core business divisions: home entertainment, mobile communications, home appliances and vehicle components.

Today, the company employs over 80,000 people across 128 global locations. As well as a commitment to creating high-quality, innovative electronics, LG has always been driven by a desire to create a happier, better life for its staff, customers and communities.

The tech giant has held a strong presence in the UAE for more than two decades, gaining a reputation among the nation’s savvy consumers for cutting-edge yet affordable technology with a commitment to customer satisfaction. LG is also a pioneer in the UAE’s air conditioning industry, bringing smart, powerful and energy-efficient units to the mass market.

As a result of its incredible work around the world, LG has received numerous awards, including the prestigious ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award on multiple occasions. Others include the Red Dot Design Award, iF Design Award, and IDEA Design Award.

In recognition of its responsibility as a major global manufacturer, LG is fiercely committed to sustainability. It uses eco-friendly materials to make products and packaging, and recycles reusable parts of old appliances. The company is over 40% of the way towards its target of carbon neutrality by 2030 and is also aiming to use 100% renewable energy by 2050.

All the while, LG’s commercial success continues unabated. The company generated revenues of over USD 63bn in 2022 and saw the highest earning quarter in its history in Q4, bringing in USD 17.6bn.

Few stores transcend to become bona fide tourist attractions. But that’s exactly what happened with The Fresh Market Dubai. On the outskirts of the city, the sprawling market is usually packed with locals and visitors alike taking their pick from the masses of fresh fruit, vegetables, juices and prime cuts of meat.

Within the market is the 4,000 square metre Vegetable Souk, offering hundreds of products, from berries and bananas to spring onions and zucchinis. It also sells pet supplies, household items and everything you would expect from a supermarket – but it’s a lot more fun to peruse!

With a customer base that includes over 60% of the Global 500 and private funds representing 75% of global equity, Bain & Company is a trusted authority on the world stage. Its 15,000 employees in 64 offices across 39 countries work as a team to help its international clients thrive.

The Fresh Market Dubai also offers a range of flexible leasing options for its traders. As well as cold-storage facilities and dry-store warehouses, businesses can rent office space and a choice of stands within the souk.

Thanks to its unwavering focus on providing only the finest and freshest produce, coupled with its impeccable service, The Fresh Market Dubai has succeeded in creating a destination supermarket.

Founded in Dubai in 2021, Concept+ is a cutting-edge workspace and business incubator designed to help startups and individual entrepreneurs thrive in the Middle East and beyond.

Its Concept Incubator was created to enable innovation and help the next generation of entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses in the UAE. The incubator works with startups that have the ambition to solve global challenges and offers support at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey.

The Concept Incubator team focuses on turning brilliant ideas into amazing MVPs through a pioneering six-circle model: coworking, incubator, cocreate, academy, community, and capsule. Within this are all the tools and support a business needs to see success, from legal work, training, and consulting to marketing and social media.

As well as tailormade support programmes and access to a vast partner network, Concept+ offers startups and entrepreneurs access to up to AED 500,000 in funding. On top of this, its Concept Hub is a base for startups that contains all the essentials needed to run, build and improve a business, such as a workspace and on-site support facilities.

And its coworking facilities are as extensive as its support services. Concept+’s 6,000 square foot space is home to hot desks, meeting rooms, soundproof pods and brainstorming corners – not to mention a library, pantry and coffee shop. There’s also plenty of space to unwind between ideas, with lounges, sofa sections, TV rooms and reading nooks.

Ultimately, the key to Concept+’s continued success, and that of its clients, is co-creation. Its team of startup experts are masters in their fields, and when you work from Concept Incubator, they’re part of your team as well.

The brainchild of American entrepreneur William Worthington Bain Jr., Bain & Company grew from a one-location investment firm to one of the Big Three management consultancies in under 30 years. Formed in 1970, it had 700 staff and annual revenues of over USD 220m near the turn of the millennium.

Today, the company supports global leaders across varying industries with strategy, marketing, operations, information technology, digital transformation, mergers and acquisitions and much more.

With a customer base that includes over 60% of the Global 500 and private funds representing 75% of global equity, Bain & Company is a trusted authority on the world stage. Its 15,000 employees in 64 offices across 39 countries work as a team to help its international clients thrive.

Here in the UAE, the firm’s Dubai office is the largest in the Middle East and serves as its regional hub for consulting services.

Bain & Company also prides itself on being as committed to its people as it is to its clients, and as such it regularly receives workplace awards. Most notably, it was recognised in Fortune’s Top 100 Places to Work. The company was also named one of Fortune’s Best Places to Work for Women and was featured in Mogul’s Top 100 Workplaces for Diverse Representation 2021.

To say Bain & Company transformed the management consultancy industry is an understatement. The company has developed time-tested strategies to deliver results – not just reports – to its clients. And its pioneering “tied economics” client arrangements allow the company to better align financial incentives and deliver game-changing outcomes.

Needless to say, this approach delivers results in all areas, with Bain & Company reporting annual revenues of almost USD 6bn.

Moderna has been producing life changing vaccines since 2010, focusing on RNA and mRNA therapeutics. But recent events have made the company a household name worldwide.

Moderna was instrumental in Operation Warp Speed, the programme which accelerated the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. After its development in early 2020, Moderna went on to produce over 300 million doses of its mRNA vaccine.

But while many may know this side of the story, the company’s pioneering use of AI technology should garner much more attention.

Moderna’s visionary belief in AI, even above that of many of its innovative competitors, has undoubtedly fuelled its success. The company has led the way in viewing mRNA as a drug, leveraging its power to produce proteins and fight disease and infection.

In a world where AI-powered biotechs will drive the future of medicine, Moderna’s position as an early adopter is already seeing them take a definitive lead over their competitors.

And while the success of the vaccine programme is in the rollout of a lifesaving treatment to millions around the world, on the business front, it’s worth mentioning that Moderna reported USD 18.4bn in vaccine sales in 2022 with projections of USD 5bn for 2023.

Julphar was established in 1980 under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Saqr Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi. By 1984, the company had obtained approval to sell 30 pharmaceutical products to the market. Over the years that followed, Julphar launched numerous additional medicines as well as a range of holistic and diabetes solutions.

Today, the company is a household name in the UAE and one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Middle East and Africa.

Through its three core business divisions, diabetes solutions, general medicines, and direct-to-consumer, Julphar’s pharmaceuticals target a number of key therapeutic areas, including the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), respiratory, pain management, wounds and scars, anti-infectives, anaemia, gynaecology, dermatology, erectile dysfunction, and cardiology.

In its commitment to clinical excellence, Julphar also runs a division dedicated to pharmacovigilance – the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem.

Julphar continually assesses new and emerging safety data as it becomes available and undertakes regulatory action as required. In addition to contributing to the safety profiles of existing drugs, these pharmacovigilance activities help to improve the knowledge set and contribute to the breadth of available epidemiological data.

To serve this vast international market, the company employs 2,500 people and distributes products to more than 50 countries on five continents. Across its 13 internationally accredited facilities in Africa and the Middle East, Julphar produces over a million boxes of medicine a day.

This colossal output saw the company become one of the world’s largest producers of insulin in 2012, thanks to its state-of-the-art UAE-based biotechnology facility.

Having expanded from its Ras Al Khaimah base into Saudi Arabia, Julphar’s growth story shows no signs of slowing. In 2022, the company reported a 41% increase in year-on-year revenue, reaching USD 440m.

Having started operations in Jordan, Aramex quickly headquartered in the UAE and has since expanded to become one of the world’s leading global logistics providers – all in just over 40 years. Since the early days of launch, Aramex has had one goal: to connect the world by bridging the gap between East and West and enabling growth and wealth for its customers.

Over the years since, it’s exceeded this aim with an unmatched portfolio of logistics and transportation solutions. This includes domestic and international express delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfilment solutions, road, air, and sea freight services, supply chain management, consumer retail services, technical support, and much more.

Today, the company sits at the heart of an international global logistics network of over 17,000 employees across more than 600 offices in over 65 countries. Its customers include multinational businesses across e-commerce, SMEs, healthcare, and oil and gas.

Aside from a steadfast dedication to its customers, Aramex is also firmly committed to the planet. It was the region’s first logistics company to develop a sustainability report that highlights its green credentials, such as reducing carbon emissions by 20% since 2020 and reducing fuel by 46% per shipment.

Aramex has also reduced electricity usage by 55% per shipment and increased recycling by 17% – as it can continue to connect the world while reducing its environmental impact.

In recent years, Aramex saw its courier business increase by 10%, and its freight-forwarding revenues grow by 22% to achieve record revenues of AED 6.1bn in 2021. To cap off this recent success, almost a quarter of the company’s shares were purchased by GeoPost S.A, the parent company of Europe’s largest parcel delivery company DPD Group. This saw the logistics giant expand its stake to almost 30%.

The UAE’s rising number of expatriates has seen a huge influx in another kind of resident – pet dogs. In recent years, the Emirates has become a nation of pup lovers, with all manner of businesses popping up to meet the many needs of our furry friends.

One of the most notable success stories in this field is Shampooch. Famous for its bright pink and yellow vans that can be seen all around Dubai, the company started out as a mobile dog groomer. Shampooch’s to your door, expert one-on-one pooch pampering service quickly led to a reputation for luxury with a personal touch.

Over the 14 years since the business has expanded to include many more services in its impressive portfolio.

Shampooch now has a dedicated daycare play space designed especially for the entertainment and care of four-legged friends. Staff are committed to helping dogs socialise, learn new tricks, and, most importantly, stay safe while their human owners are otherwise occupied.

To ensure all dogs get the very best experience, Shampooch’s expert team offers temperament evaluations. This simple “meet and greet” style service allows the team to assign dogs into suitable playgroups depending on size and personality.

The company also now offers salon grooming for those who prefer to drop off their pet rather than book a home visit. The fully stocked salon offers everything that a pampered pooch could ever desire, from hand scissored grooming to all natural shampoos and conditioners.

As if this were not enough for the UAE’s spoiled pets, Shampooch’s Boutique Dog Hotel promises a canine staycation to match your vacation, with spacious kennels, advanced technology air filtration systems, and all the treats, cuddles, and exercise a pup could ask for.

Shampooch’s success is a shining example of what can happen when you follow your passion as an entrepreneur. The family-run business believes that dogs deserve the very best care – and that is reflected in every single service on offer.

Formed in Dubai in 2013, REPs UAE set out to raise standards across the country’s training industry. In the decade since the company has grown to become the trusted public register for the qualifications and expertise of fitness professionals in the region.

REPs provide a transparent system of regulation for instructors and trainers, ensuring that they meet the government’s Fitness Occupational Standards. Its ultimate goal is to protect the clients of fitness professionals by offering peace of mind that registered trainers have the knowledge, competence, and skills to perform their roles effectively.

REPs adhere to the standards of the Dubai Sports Council and are part of a global network of fitness registers now operating around the world. It is also a member of ICREPs, the global confederation for fitness registers.

REPs applies its standard across a range of fitness disciplines, including personal training, aqua fitness, gym instruction, Pilates, and yoga. By working with employers, training providers, and public bodies, the company furthers its mission of promoting the health and wellbeing of UAE residents and citizens.

To remain registered, fitness instructors are required to demonstrate that they can continue to learn and develop throughout their careers. All registered professionals must obtain 20 Continuing Professional Development points (CPDs) every two years through the REPs training course.

For those new to the industry, REPs offer entry qualification courses through its pre-approved training partners. Training providers must complete at least one recommended entry course to be eligible for REPs membership.

For those new to the industry, REPs offer entry qualification courses through its pre-approved training partners. Training providers must complete at least one recommended entry course to be eligible for REPs membership.

First opening its doors in 1870s London, KPMG is now one of the largest professional services companies in the world and a firm fixture among the big four global accounting organisations. Today, the company has its headquarters in the Netherlands and employs over 250,000 people across 145 counties. It serves its international clients with audit, tax, law, cybersecurity, and all manner of consulting services.

KPMG’s UAE member firm forms part of KPMG Lower Gulf along with the firm in Oman. This division comprises 1,700 staff, including almost 200 partners and directors. Once again, the company provides audit, tax, and advisory services, this time tailored to businesses and individuals in the Gulf region.

Outside of the UAE and Oman, KPMG has many more locations within the Middle East, with multiple offices in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Jordan.

In its commitment to serving this part of the world, the company runs a series of Emiratization initiatives to build relations with the local community. KPMG also supports the UAE government’s nationalization program and runs both graduate schemes and internships for UAE nationals.

KPMG’s level of service and dedication to the region has not gone unnoticed. In recent years, the firm has been awarded Best Audit Services at the MENAIR Insurance Awards 2016-2020, Forbes Middle East Top 50 Expat CEOs in the UAE, the International Tax Review World’s Top Tier Firm – GCC Region, and Service Provider of the Year at the Middle East Insurance Industry Awards, to name just a few.

This commitment to each of its territories is undoubtedly behind the company’s incredible annual turnover. Last year, KPMG generated record revenues of almost USD 35bn, up by around USD 2.5bn from the previous year.

Nas Daily was born from a leap of faith taken by their CEO Nuseir Yassin when he decided to leave his job at Venmo after graduating from Harvard University.

His new journey was based on one mission; create 1000 videos in 1000 days. While it may have sounded simple enough, it was anything but. A grueling yet fulfilling mission that amassed him a social media following in the millions.

Today that social media following has been incorporated into a full-fledged social media production house that specializes in creating impactful, engaging and informative short-form videos for social media. The name Nas Daily is recognized across the globe, with their reach stretching from North America to South East Asia.

The uniqueness of Nas Daily’s mission, “Bringing People Together”, and content has grown their following to over 62 Million, with multiple global campaigns for influential individuals and companies such as Bill Gates, The United Nations, DP World, Etihad Airways, Binance, and so many more.

What started as one creative production house has now evolved into The Nas Company, comprising Nas Daily Studios, Nas Academy, Nas io, Nas News Arabia, and Emirates Loves.

All built on a simple mission to bring people together, Nas Daily has grown into a mass revenue-generating business. Proving that a successful business can be built on a foundation of doing what you love with people that love what you do.

From the days of its first store, West Zone Fresh has always placed the emphasis on its customers, analysing demands to provide solutions in the most cost-effective way possible. This approach has helped the company create a brand synonymous in the UAE with high quality and freshness.

The company launched its inaugural store in Mirdif, Dubai, on UAE National Day, 2005, and has had the country at the heart of its operations ever since.

The trajectory of West Zone Fresh over the past 17 years has been nothing short of stratospheric. The single Mirdif store was quickly joined by many others, and before long, supermarkets were just one part of the West Zone Fresh portfolio.

Today, the billion-dollar company operates hypermarkets, malls, hotels, food and beverage outlets – and even has building contracting, real estate and fashion divisions.

With over 150 locations throughout the country, West Zone Fresh is now a household name in the UAE. The company is trusted to serve citizens, tourists and residents alike with over 500 products, including its own brands alongside local and global names in groceries, confectionary, and more.

During the recent difficulties caused by the pandemic, the company donated 50,000 meals to affected communities in the UAE, as well as illuminating 50,000 lights on the World’s Tallest Donation Box at the Burj Khalifa.

But while West Zone Fresh is forever proud to call the UAE its home, Chairman Naresh Kumar Bhawnani has ambitious global plans for the business. In the coming years, the group will continue to spread its presence further throughout the UAE, into the GCC and beyond.

But no matter how far West Zone Fresh grows from its Mirdif beginnings, Bhawnani says the company will always stay true to its focus on the three Ps – People (Customers), Power (Employees) and Price (Affordability).

Infosys is one of a growing number of multinational conglomerates to build a strong base in the UAE, with four offices across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

Incredibly, the company was established in India in 1981 with capital of just USD 250. Over the next 40-plus years, Infosys has been the catalyst behind the technological advancement of the country, helping it become the global destination for software services talent – and eventually the first IT company from India to be listed on the NASDAQ.

The company’s employee stock options program also created some of India’s first salaried millionaires.

Today, Infosys has grown to generate revenues in excess of USD 17bn with a market capitalisation of approximately USD 75bn. During this time, the company has built a global reputation as a leader in next-generation services and consulting, supporting clients across 50 countries in navigating their digital transformation.

It achieves this through its AI-powered core model, which can help deliver agile digital at scale, drive continuous improvement and power the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from its ecosystem to that of its 1,850 clients.

Alongside digital transformation support, the company offers a wide range of additional services to its clients, including cloud, blockchain, DevOps, cybersecurity and digital marketing solutions.

And its success story shows no signs of slowing. In 2022, the company was recognised as the Fastest-Growing IT Services Brand by Brand Finance and one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere.

In the UAE, Infosys has collaborated with several government and private organisations to develop innovative solutions that help drive the country’s digital innovation. This strong partnership has helped the country establish itself as a digital-first hub, attracting entrepreneurs and business owners from every corner of the globe.

Amer Centers operates throughout the UAE providing simple and fast visa and immigration application procedures to make life easier for residents and visitors across the country. Its Amer 247 Center is the only one to operate 24 hours a day.

Established in 2017 in collaboration with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Amer 247 provides a range of vital services that includes issuance, renewal and cancellation of visas and entry permits, PRO Cards, Emirates IDs, medical fitness applications, health insurance assistance and much more.

Through its online presence and branches across the UAE, the company has established a reputation as the country’s leading provider of government transaction support.

Ultimately, Amer Centers acts as a one-stop-shop for all manner of government services and application assistance. In addition to operating the only 24-hour government service center, Amer is also the only one to open on Fridays and public holidays, offering unrivalled service to its customers.

Like many semi-government organizations in the UAE, the success of Amer Centers is down to its focus on service. The company is constantly striving to improve its offering and has implemented several initiatives to enhance the customer experience.

For one, Amer Centers has invested heavily in technology to ensure that its services are as digital, up-to-date and efficient as possible. This approach has led to long-term relationships with many high-profile clients, including Garhoud Hospital, Al Mimzar Constructions, Carrefour and Standard Chartered Bank.

While it has roots in the mid-1800s, the modern PwC was formed in 1988 following the merger of Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse.

Today, PwC is the second largest professional services network in the world and a cornerstone of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms. With offices across more than 700 locations in 157 countries, the company regularly posts annual revenues in excess of USD 50bn.

As well as accountancy, PwC offers audit, consulting, forensics, legal, restructuring, risk and tax support to hundreds of thousands of customers around the world.

The company has won a host of awards over the years for everything from its office culture to its green credentials. It regularly features in the Top 100 Graduate Employer of the Year and Times Top 50 Employers for Women lists, and has been ranked among the World’s Most Valuable Brands by Forbes.

PwC is a truly global enterprise. America accounts for around half of its operations, followed by Europe and Asia. The MENA region is the company’s smallest market, yet still accounts for 12% of its network.

Here in the Middle East, PwC has been a key player in helping the region emerge from the pandemic and drive the next stage of its transformation.

Through its “New Equation” strategy, PwC supports governments and businesses to earn trust across a wide range of topics that are critical to customers and stakeholders. The company also helps businesses in the region to change faster and more thoroughly to continue to attract capital, talent and customers.

To support this aim, PwC has a large number of offices across the region – in Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and four here in the UAE. This 8000-strong team bring the talent, technology, expertise and strategy to help solve MENA’s most pressing challenges.

The concept of Airbnb was born when two hosts opened up their San Francisco home to three guests in October 2007. In March 2008, the company took its first official bookings, and by August of the same year, demand was such that the founders developed a bespoke payment platform – which has since gone on to handle over USD 70bn in guest and host transactions.

Today, Airbnb is a household name with rentals on offer in almost every country in the world. The company lists over four million hosts and has handled more than 1.4 billion guest arrivals over the past 16 years.

As well as rooms, guesthouses and apartments, Airbnb now lists boats, caves, castles, treehouses, planes, igloos and much more. All this is on top of a broad range of attractions and experiences.

The UAE has played a significant role in this success story. The abundance of attractive, high-quality real estate out here is perfect for both hosts and guests alike. As a result, Dubai now ranks in the top ten destinations for total active Airbnb rentals, with almost 16,000 on offer. This puts the emirate in the company of London, Paris and New York, which took the top three spots.

Dubai is also the most profitable location in the world for Airbnb landlords, ahead of Hilo in Hawaii, Hanoi, Nairobi and Niagara Falls. Apartments in the area surrounding the Burj Khalifa achieve average nightly rents of USD 1,150.

Airbnb’s meteoric rise to the top of the global hospitality industry shows no signs of slowing any time soon. In 2022, the company posted record revenues of USD 8.4bn, up 40% from the previous year. Meanwhile, all-time host earnings tipped USD 180bn in 2021, with the average host in the US generating USD 13,700 over the year.

LuLu opened its first supermarket in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 1995. The company pioneered the chain convenience store concept in the region, quickly opening more outlets across the emirate and neighbouring Dubai.

In 2000, Dubai would also be the location of the first LuLu Hypermarket, which would spearhead the company’s rapid expansion strategy that continues to this day. Before long, the LuLu brand was international, with stores opening across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Qatar.

Soon this network would extend beyond the Middle East with the opening of LuLu’s first hypermarket in India. This location would be joined by further international expansion, with others following in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Before long, the company gained a global reputation for high-end stores, exceptional products and dedicated customer service. Awards and recognition soon followed, further putting LuLu on the world map.

LuLu’s stores are known for their extensive ranges covering everything from groceries and household items to clothing and electronics. As well as shops and malls, the LuLu group owns many prestigious hotels in the region, including the Grand Hyatt in Kochi, India, and the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Still headquartered in Abu Dhabi, under the stewardship of founder and renowned UAE-based entrepreneur M. A. Yusuff Ali, LuLu now boasts a business portfolio ranging from hypermarket operations and shopping mall development to manufacturing, hospitality and real estate.

From its humble convenience store beginnings, LuLu has grown into a multi-national conglomerate with strategic locations across 23 countries throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA.

This incredible expansion has made the LuLu Group a key contributor to the Gulf region’s economic standing, delivering annual turnovers in the region of USD 8bn. On top of these impressive revenues, LuLu is well-regarded for its contribution to charitable, social and environmental causes in the Middle East and beyond.

Founded as MEMAC by legendary communications entrepreneur Edmond Moutran, Memac Ogilvy put the Middle East on the global advertising map.

From a single office in Beirut in 1984 via acquisition by one of the largest advertising firms in the world, Memac Ogilvy now proudly refers to itself as the most local of international agencies. And with good reason – the wider Ogilvy organisation has 11 offices within the MENA region as well as 120 more across 93 countries.

Throughout these years, the company has helped some of the world’s most successful brands enter new markets, connect with wider audiences and navigate uncertainty – helping them adapt and stay relevant.

As a result, Memac Ogilvy quickly gained a global reputation for its ability to operate, innovate and create across multiple advertising and marketing disciplines, from collaboration and ideation to strategic planning and execution.

The company’s offering has also expanded considerably over the past four decades. Today, Memac Ogilvy is a market leader across five core services – advertising, consulting, experience, health and PR.

Thanks to its roots in the culture of the region, Memac Ogilvy has delivered unparalleled impact for its clients, supporting numerous public and private sector organisations to deliver transformational change across the Middle East and North Africa.

Memac Ogilvy was behind the marketing campaign that attracted tens of millions of visitors to the UAE for Dubai’s Expo 2020. As well as various UAE ministries and departments, other clients include American Express, Coca-Cola, IKEA, Nestle and Unilever.

Today, Ogilvy is recognized as the world’s leading creative agency and regularly ranks as one of the most effective networks globally. Among an annual stream of awards for design, copywriting, creative campaigns and much more, the company topped the prestigious WARC Effective 100 rankings in 2021, finishing in second place the following year.

KOTRA first opened its doors in Korea in 1962 with the aim of contributing to the development of the national economy. As the national trade investment promotion agency, the company focused on trade promotion, investment between domestic and foreign companies, and support of industrial technology.

Over the years, the service portfolio has evolved to include further international development cooperation, global business training, and support for SMEs in overseas markets. But the goal of strengthening economies and attracting foreign investment has remained steadfast.

In the 1970s, leaders at KOTRA spotted many similarities between the rate of development in Korea and the UAE. With this in mind, KOTRA opened its first office in Dubai in 1976, laying the foundation for a solid and fruitful relationship that remains in place to this day.

In the years since, KOTRA’s Dubai office has become the company’s MENA headquarters – overseeing 14 others in the region. At the same time, Korea would go on to become a top trading partner of the UAE, thanks in no small part to the close bond formed by KOTRA between the two countries.

Over the last five decades, KOTRA has pioneered several industry-leading initiatives, including launching an online portal for investment in Korea back in 2003 and KOTRA Academy, one of the first professional learning centres of international business.

Another game-changing offering from KOTRA is its Seal of Excellence, developed to denote organisations that score highly across three vital criteria – quality, technology and trustworthiness. The Seal, which helps companies identify the best companies, products and services in Korea, is now globally recognised and been awarded to over 430 organisations.

Today, KOTRA has 127 trade centres in 84 countries, including 16 headquarters, 33 department offices, and strategic business support centres in Silicon Valley, Dubai and Hanoi.

As of 2020, the organisation has assisted in attracting almost USD 12.9bn to Korea across more than 1,400 foreign direct investment projects.

Arton Capital was founded in 2006 to bring innovation and service excellence to the global investor migration industry. Opening its first office in Canada, Arton began by offering the Federal and Quebec Immigrant Investor Programs.

The company quickly gained a reputation for its simple, bespoke and specialised service experience, and was soon called on to advise the Bulgarian government on its own citizenship and investment offering.

In the years that followed, Arton Capital cemented its position as an industry leader, playing a critical role in empowering governments, consultants, legal and financial professionals, and investors to meet their goals efficiently, effectively, and responsibly.

Shortly after launching its pioneering Global Citizen Magazine in 2011, Arton began its long relationship with the UAE, advising the country’s governments, partners and businesses on global residence and citizenship programs.

This relationship was further strengthened in 2014 when Dubai’s Burj Khalifa played host to the inaugural Global Citizen Forum event. Just a year later, Arton launched the Passport Index, which quickly became the go-to metric for passport strength.

Upon the UAE’s victory in clinching the top spot in the 2018 Global Passport Ranking, the country’s passport index listing was displayed on the side of the Burj Khalifa, attracting headlines worldwide.

Today, Arton offers 14 citizenship and residency-by-investment programs across the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and North America. As part of the Arton Group, it comprises an internationally-respected, fully licensed banking, financial advisory, and investment consulting firm tailored to the needs of global citizens.

As a founding member of the Global Investor Immigration Council (GIIC), Arton also leads the way in implementing best practices and sustainable and responsible industry governance. The company now serves its international client base with 17 locations, which help to attract over USD 4bn in foreign direct investment for countries around the world.

The roots of this particular success story runs way back to the late-1800s America. A young med-school dropout, Caleb Davis Bradham, opened a drug store and started work developing an elixir to sell to his patrons.

“Brad’s Drink” was made from a combination of water, sugar, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg and a few other natural ingredients. It didn’t take long before word spread about this delicious new beverage, and Caleb was soon manufacturing it en masse under the name Pepsi Cola.

Despite long-standing rumour, the drink never contained pepsin, but instead got its name from the term dyspepsia as Caleb believed it to aid digestion. While hard times would befall the Bradham family during the First World War, the legend of Pepsi would live on long into the future.

After many years of splits, sales and mergers, Pepsi bolstered its standing in the global consciousness during the 1980s Cola Wars and has seen little but success since.

In recent years, parent company PepsiCo has amassed a variety of brands, each generating annual revenues of over USD 1bn. These include Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Doritos, Cheetos and 7UP. The company is also a regular fixture among the world’s largest and most respected brands.

Here in the UAE, the Pepsi success story has been driven largely by Dubai Refreshment (DRC). One of the leading food and beverage manufacturers and distributors in the Gulf region, DRC introduced Pepsi to the local market in the 1960s.

Shortly afterwards, it became the sole franchisee and distributor for all PepsiCo brands. The company is located at Dubai Investment Park in the new industrial hub midway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

This strong relationship has helped PepsiCo become part of the cultural fabric of the UAE, with many of its brands now household names throughout the country.

Alsayegh is a creative marketing and live experience agency based in the UAE. Led by founder and renowned local entrepreneur Abdullatif Alsayegh, the company has pioneered the concept of layerless-integration to solve client problems and keep brands relevant.

Alsayegh is fiercely independent and proudly Arab-owned. The company embodies the spirit and drive of the UAE through its work with clients in the region and beyond. The diverse international team is famous for tackling each project with a local heart and a global mindset.

But while local in spirit, Alsayegh is garnering an international reputation, with many recent projects attracting attention from around the world.

In 2019, the company helped promote one of the most exciting events to take place in Abu Dhabi, UFC 242, which saw world champion Khabib Nurmagomedov take on Dustin Poirier. To get eyes on the event, Alsayegh created a brand identity for the launch, planned and delivered over 80 activations across a seven-day period, and reached millions around the world.  

The team was also behind the Sheikh Zayed Festival, ranked among the top five cultural events in the world. Alsayegh captured and promoted the setting of two iconic Guinness World Records at the event – the world’s largest Sarood, a handwoven spiral placemat made from palm trees; and a 30-minute fireworks show, the world’s biggest and longest display.

As well as events and activations, Alsayegh offers strategy and consultation services to identify new opportunities to enhance its clients’ brand identity and recognition. The company also offers a wide range of PR services to build and cement the reputations of brands through targeted press campaigns.

Other services include branding and design, social media campaigns, media planning and buying, and video and animation.

Today’s CBRE has its roots in 1900s San Francisco. Opening its doors in 1906, it rapidly expanded to become one of the largest real estate companies in the western USA by the 1940s.

Over the next several decades, the firm expanded its service portfolio and geographic presence across the United States. After listing publicly on the stock exchange, the company, CB Commercial, began an aggressive acquisition campaign, taking on leading firms in investment banking, mortgages, corporate facilities management and capital markets.

Upon acquiring REI Limited of London in the late 90s, the company changed its name to the one we know today, CBRE.

Several acquisitions later, CBRE became New York and London’s leading real estate services firm and was added to the S&P 500 in 2006. In the years that followed, the company would enhance its reputation as a leader across multiple sectors, including technical engineering, workplace solutions, and advisory services.

CBRE now operates in over 100 countries worldwide, including in the UAE, where it has long offered its range of services – property management, valuation, leasing, investment management, and more – to the local market.

The firm is respected in the Middle East and beyond for its comprehensive solutions across all real estate and property management sectors, covering corporate, industrial and residential. These services are supported by a world-leading research and analysis team that monitors market trends to deliver timely and accurate data on global real estate markets.

This incredible offering has seen CBRE attain numerous awards and recognitions. In 2020, the company was crowned the Most Admired real estate company for the second year in a row, a World’s Most Ethical Company for the seventh year in a row, and ranked by The Lipsey Company as the top real estate brand for the 19th consecutive year.

Founded in 2004 by a small group of aspiring entrepreneurs, Talabat started with a simple concept – it put hungry food lovers in touch with local restaurants and handled every aspect of the logistics along the way.

Diners filtered by cuisine to browse the menus of hundreds of potential takeaways online or via a dedicated app. With an order placed, Talabat’s fleet of thousands of drivers set about picking it up from the restaurant and delivering it to the door – allowing customers to track their meal every step of the way.

Restaurants large and small pay a flat delivery fee, and Talabat takes care of the rest. By handling driver recruitment, ordering, delivery and more, the company helps customers instantly add a new revenue stream at a low cost – a concept that quickly delivered transformational results.

Over the years that followed, Talabat expanded with offices in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan and bagged several prestigious industry awards. Today, it is one of the largest food delivery services in the GCC and has its sights set on becoming the market leader in the MENA region.

To achieve this aim, Talabat has expanded its offering to include grocery and non-food item delivery, opening more than 30 tMart stores across the Emirates in the process.

In 2021, non-food orders grew by over 100%, total orders increased by more than 60% and the company reported two million new downlands of its app. The following year saw continued success as well, and at the end of 2022 Talabat launched its revolutionary quick-commerce-as-a-service (Q-CAAS) concept, a delivery-only store operation management solution.

Today the company shows no signs of slowing down. Ever at the forefront of industry innovation, Talabat is currently piloting ‘talabots’ – food delivery robots serving the gated communities of Dubai Silicon Oasis.