Rapid Growth of UAE‑Registered Companies and Foreign Investment
UAE Company Growth & Investment Surge
The UAE’s corporate landscape continues to expand at pace, fuelled by record foreign investment and an increasingly open business environment. This surge in registrations reflects growing international confidence — but also a rising need for reliable data and verification.
The UAE’s corporate landscape has expanded rapidly over the past four years. According to the UAE’s National Economic Register, there were about 405,000 companies registered at the end of the first half of 2020, reflecting the period when business activity slowed during the pandemic. By mid‑2024 the number of registered companies had more than doubled to 1.021 million, an increase of 152 %
This surge has been accompanied by record foreign investment AED 112 billion (US$30.5 bn) in 2023 and 1,323 new foreign direct investment projects, demonstrating international confidence in the UAE’s.
While this growth signals opportunity across sectors, it also raises due‑diligence challenges: investors and partners must now screen a much larger universe of potential counterparties, analyse creditworthiness, and verify legal and beneficial ownership to avoid fraud and regulatory breaches.
