Dubai Bets on Students to Drive Its Next SME Boom

For many university students, entrepreneurship often feels like something that starts after graduation — once the theory is done and the “real world” begins. Dubai’s latest initiative is trying to change that idea by bringing business building directly into the classroom.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Dubai SME), part of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, has launched a new programme called Founders of Tomorrow in partnership with INJAZ UAE. The goal is simple: connect Emirati students with real business challenges and help them turn ideas into viable companies while they are still studying.

Instead of working on hypothetical case studies, students will now be solving problems coming directly from government, semi-government and corporate organisations. That means entrepreneurship is no longer just academic — it becomes practical, market-driven and tied to real economic needs.

Bridging the Gap Between Study and Business

One of the biggest challenges young entrepreneurs face is moving from theory to execution. Founders of Tomorrow is designed to close that gap. Emirati university students and early-stage startups will work in teams on sector-specific challenges across industries, guided by mentors and industry experts.

INJAZ UAE will lead the hands-on side of the programme, supporting students through idea development, validation and solution building. The focus isn’t just on creativity, but on whether a concept can actually work in the market.

The strongest ideas won’t stop at presentations. They will enter the Dubai SME ecosystem, where founders get access to incubation, mentorship, funding facilitation, market access and even government procurement opportunities. In short, the programme doesn’t just help students think like entrepreneurs — it helps them become ones.

Aligned with Dubai’s Economic Priorities

Founders of Tomorrow also ties into Dubai’s wider economic plans under the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33, which aims to double the size of Dubai’s economy by 2033. A major part of that vision is growing the SME sector and encouraging more Emirati-owned businesses to scale sustainably.

Ahmad Al Room Almheiri, Acting CEO of Dubai SME, explained that the programme creates a practical pathway from education to enterprise. Rather than waiting for graduates to enter the ecosystem later, the initiative strengthens the pipeline of talent early and supports them as they move toward real business ownership.

Razan Bashiti, CEO of INJAZ UAE, added that connecting student innovation with live government and corporate challenges helps transform potential into measurable economic impact. The emphasis is on building solutions that are market-ready, not just theoretical.

Learning from Real Organisations

A key part of Founders of Tomorrow is industry involvement. Students will work directly with organisations that bring real operational challenges to the table. For the first cohort, partners include:

• American Hospital Dubai

• du

• Dubai Air Navigation Services

• Dubai Police

• Emirates Flight Catering

These partners provide sector expertise, mentorship and real-world problems for students to tackle. This approach allows young founders to understand how businesses actually operate — from logistics and healthcare to telecom and aviation — instead of learning only from textbooks.

The programme was launched at Dubai Founders HQ, where students met ecosystem stakeholders and took part in discussions on how public-sector and corporate challenges can become scalable business opportunities.

Building the Next Wave of SMEs

Dubai SME’s broader mandate is ambitious: support the launch of 27,000 new Emirati businesses by 2033 and help 8,000 SMEs grow and sustain themselves. Founders of Tomorrow fits into that long-term plan by starting early, inside universities, and guiding founders before they face the usual barriers of capital, access and market entry alone.

For SMEs, this signals a shift in how entrepreneurship is nurtured in the UAE — not as a post-graduation experiment, but as a structured pathway from education to enterprise.

Rather than producing graduates who later figure out business on their own, Founders of Tomorrow is about building companies alongside learning, grounding ideas in real needs, and preparing the next generation of Emirati founders for the realities of running and scaling a business in Dubai’s evolving economy.