Hub71's Life Sciences Programme Draws 58 Startups That Raised AED1.7 Billion in Its First Year

The programme was set up a year ago with the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Drug Establishment and HELM, the emirate's health, medicine and fitness cluster. Its stated aim is to move startups more quickly from research to clinical testing and then to commercial sales. The first-year numbers matter because life sciences is one of the sectors Abu Dhabi has singled out to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons, and HELM is expected to add about AED94 billion to the emirate's GDP by 2045, according to WAM.

The network of strategic partners has grown to 14. Johnson & Johnson has worked with startups building surgical products, offering expertise, mentoring and help finding commercial routes to market. Mediclinic Middle East's partnership has focused on cancer treatment, women's health and the management of chronic disease. Unilabs Middle East has added digital mental health services through a tie-up with the platform Takalam and partnered with GlycanAge on biological ageing and preventive care. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has hosted founders, and the investors Global Ventures, Nuwa Capital and Globivest have joined the programme's investment network.

Basma Ahmed Al Badi Al Dhaheri, who heads growth and value-added affairs at Hub71, said Abu Dhabi's healthcare infrastructure, regulation and partner network give startups room to develop and scale their products. She said the programme had made progress in linking startups with healthcare providers so they can validate their technology in clinical settings, run research and strike commercial deals, and that it would keep adding partners to speed up adoption.

Several companies in the cohort have reached clinical or commercial milestones. BioSapien, a biotechnology company, has received regulatory and research ethics approvals to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in Abu Dhabi of MediChip, a 3D-printed biodegradable implant designed to deliver chemotherapy directly into a tumour. The approvals followed a $7.5 million funding round led by Global Ventures.

BioTwin is working with the Abu Dhabi Biobank to apply artificial intelligence and genomic data to precision medicine research, while Nabd signed a memorandum of understanding with M42 that launched a "smart health mirror" project for early health assessment and preventive care. Ovasave, a fertility and hormonal health platform registered with the Department of Health, has signed partnerships with insurance brokers to serve more than 10,000 women and couples after raising $1.2 million.

The figures were released on the same day the UAE approved its 2026-2028 National Genomics Masterplan, which sets out how the country's population genome data will be used in clinical care and research. Hub71 said its life sciences programme will continue to recruit startups and investors as it enters its second year.