Dubai Future Week Opens The Pitch to Startups, With a Shark Tank Finale Place
Applications are open for a competition that puts Dubai-based founders before investors and government partners, with on-stage funding at the Shark Tank Dubai Finale as the prize.
Dubai Future Foundation has opened applications for The Pitch, a competition that puts early-stage founders in front of investors, corporate partners and government entities during Dubai Future Week 2026. The strongest entrants earn a place in the Shark Tank Dubai Finale, where capital can be committed on stage.
The week runs from November 18 to 21, with programming split between the Museum of the Future and Emirates Towers.
Selected teams will set out their ventures and products to an audience of investors, corporate partners, government bodies and industry specialists. The ventures judged most promising move on to the finale.
Entry is limited to startups based in Dubai. Applicants need a working product, a prototype or a business concept with a credible claim on a market need in the UAE or the wider region. University spin-offs and projects built on research are eligible on the same terms.
Submissions are scored against set selection criteria. Shortlisted companies are then invited to present to prospective backers and partners.
Everyone who takes part gets feedback on their pitch. The foundation also points to mentorship, pilot projects and commercial partnerships as routes that open up through the programme. The best performers present in person to a panel of entrepreneurship leaders at the finale, pitching for an on-stage commitment of capital.
Abdulaziz AlJaziri, deputy chief executive of Dubai Future Foundation, said the programme is built to do more than stage a live presentation, with activations designed to create openings for collaboration, mentorship and investment. Founders will make their case directly to the investors, companies, government entities and strategic partners taking part, he said. The objective, in his description, is a lasting innovation network that answers the real needs of the entrepreneurial community.
More than 10,000 experts, founders, innovators and other participants from the UAE and abroad are expected across the week, which carries the theme "For the Human of the Future." Programming centres on emerging technology and on solutions to coming challenges across sectors, delivered through keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, competitions, exhibitions, immersive experiences and networking.
The week is arranged around eight platforms: The Big Stage, The Prototype Floor, The Pitch, The Policy Room, The Challenge, Offstage, 500 Future Minds and The District. They run alongside each other, so a company not shortlisted for The Pitch can still take part elsewhere in the programme.
The competition sits inside a wider push by the foundation to back entrepreneurship and connect startups to capital and business development. For a small company, the value of the format is the concentration of decision-makers in one place: the people who can write a cheque and the people who can sign a pilot are often in the same room, and a shortlisting decision is a route to both. A stage-based finale gives investors a filter as well, with a panel doing part of the assessment in public.
