• • Dubai Harbour hosted 2,000 startups and 1,200 investors managing over US $1.1 trillion in AUM during the world’s largest startup and investor connector event*
• Korea’s AI security startup, AIM Intelligence, crowned Supernova Challenge 2.0 champion, with Chile’s Chucao Technology Consultants and Ecuador’s Aerialoop named runners-up
• Global fund launches, high-level dialogues, and next-gen innovations reaffirm the UAE’s leadership in shaping the world’s digital-economy future

, /PRNewswire/ – Expand North Star 2025, the startup showcase of GITEX GLOBAL, concluded its milestone 10th anniversary edition last month at Dubai Harbour, drawing record participation from entrepreneurs, investors, innovation leaders and tech delegations from 180 countries. Over four days, the event reaffirmed Dubai’s role as the global launchpad for technology entrepreneurship, bridging emerging economies and advanced markets across AI, climate tech, deep tech, digital health, and fintech.

AIM Intelligence (South Korea) wins the Supernova Challenge at Expand North Star, with ChucaoTech (Chile) and Aerialoop (Ecuador) placing 2nd and 3rd

Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre and hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, the 2025 edition convened 2,000 startups and 1,200 investors with combined assets exceeding US $1.1 trillion, catalysing partnerships, venture creation, and capital flow on an unprecedented scale.

The international showcase - featuring ApexBrasil as Country Partner and the largest participation of Latin American startups - also saw the largest gathering of over 40 international unicorns, including PsiQuantum (USA), a US$68 billion unicorn architecting the first fault-tolerant quantum system, Carousell (Singapore), one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing e-commerce platforms and the newly-minted US$ 1.5bn AI unicorn - Decagon (USA).

**Startups from Fast-Rising Digital Nations Shine Bright in Supernova 2.0 **

The 2025 edition of the Supernova Challenge 2.0 pitch battle spotlighted the world’s most promising founders vying for a total prize pool of US$300,000, with finalists shortlisted from South Korea, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Pakistan, Singapore, and the UAE.

South Korea’s AIM Intelligence was crowned the champion, claiming the US $100,000 top prize for its pioneering AI-safety platform recognised by Meta and Anthropic. Whilst Chucao Technology Consultants (Chile) and Aerialoop (Ecuador) earned runner-up honours for groundbreaking innovations in nanotechnology and drone logistics.

Speaking after their decisive win, Haon Park, Co-Founder of AIM Intelligence, shared: “We are absolutely honoured and excited to receive the first-place award. As an AI security and safety company, we are solving a very frontier challenge. We have a lot of clients in Korea, but now we are expanding globally, and through the Supernova Challenge 2.0, we will be able to expand into the Middle Eastern region. That means we need the talent, and we need the resources, so this prize money is important.”

Expand North Star 2025 also hosted a special session featuring six previous winners of the Supernova Challenge, sharing how the pitch competition propelled their growth trajectories. “For us, winning the Supernova Challenge 2.0 helped accelerate trust in the market and, because we primarily sell to public sector and enterprise organisations, trust is incredibly important. This takes a long time to build, but by winning Supernova Challenge 2.0, it accelerated this project and we’ve managed to secure clients in the region, and also here in Dubai with Dubai government, so it was critical for us,” said Alp Katalan, MENA Commercial Lead of Desolenator – an innovative modular tech water desalination company that won the top prize in 2022.

Million-Dollar Partnerships and Impact Ventures

At the event, Crescent Enterprises unveiled an AED 250 million investment programme to support home-grown ventures with global potential, reinforcing the UAE’s appeal as a magnet for digital talent and capital. Badr Jafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises, commented during the launch**: **“The UAE has become a launchpad for serious builders, and our collective vision is for the country to be known as the start-up capital of the world. With CE-Creates, our venture building platform, we’re helping entrepreneurs convert purpose into performance – locally proven, globally competitive.”

A wave of high-profile deals punctuated the event: Mobility Fintech Group (MFG) announced a US $2 million investment from AHOY Technology and new collaborations with Mawarid Finance, a leading Sharia**-**compliant Finance company, and Mazeed, advancing AI-enabled mobility and fintech across the region.

AI, Fintech and Purposeful Innovations Dominate Dialogues

The conference programme witnessed global investors, founders, and government leaders unpacking the next frontiers of innovation - from AI and digital assets to quantum computing and climate change.

At the newly launched GITEX Digital Assets Forum, thought leaders discussed tokenisation, institutional investment strategies, and the importance of democratising capital access. Val Malinovskiy, CEO of YPay, highlighted how digital assets are moving “from fringe experiment to financial foundation,” while panels featuring experts from Nvidia, Samsung Ventures, and Honda delivered insights on the urgency to increase deep-tech investments, government-backed research excellence and collaborations for AI and quantum growth.

Amandeep Singh Gill, United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General, urged startup founders from the Global South to target hard problems over easy wins, sharing: “Don’t go for the easy stuff that we’ve seen during the previous two generations of digital technologies. Go for societal challenges, such as improving productivity in agriculture and food production, or climate change resilience – get to the heart of these kinds of problems and avoid the low-hanging fruit.”

Reflecting on the UAE’s status as the global launchpad for tech entrepreneurs to scale faster and further, Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio, the UAE’s leading digital bank, shared, *“We are blessed to be in an ecosystem where the government builds a lot of capabilities, which help us grow. The place is buzzing, and for the next 10 years, I see hyper growth in the UAE.” *

Presight, a G42 company and the region’s largest big data analytics enterprise, shared the progress of its AI-Startup Accelerator launched at Expand North Star in 2024. The company reported 120 applications from AI startups worldwide, with Thomas Pramotedham, CEO, Presight, revealing, “The UAE, in particular Abu Dhabi, has become the AI capital – and this is where technology and innovation meet. With G42’s ecosystem and the UAE’s reach, we offer our cohorts not only compute and expertise but real business and growth worldwide.”

The 10th edition cemented Expand North Star as the world’s most influential platform for startup innovation and investment. The journey now advances to Expo City Dubai in 2026, where GITEX GLOBAL and Expand North Star will reunite to shape the next decade of the intelligent economy, from 8-10 December 2026.

For more information, please visit: expandnorthstar.com

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** * About Expand North Star: * ** Expand North Star is the startup showcase part of the world’s largest technology and AI event, GITEX GLOBAL. Organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), and hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, Expand North Star 2025, from 12-15 October 2025 at Dubai Harbour, is the world’s largest startup and investor connector event. The show convened over 2,000 startups, more than 40 unicorns, and 1,200 investors with a combined US$1.1 trillion in assets under management (AUM), with the highest percentage of growth and late-stage startups participating in any tech show. In parallel, GITEX GLOBAL celebrated its 45th edition this year, from 13-17 October 2025 at Dubai World Trade Centre, featuring over 6,800 exhibitors and participation from 180 countries. *In 2026, GITEX GLOBAL and Expand North Star reunite in a new home at the Dubai Exhibition Centre – Expo City Dubai, with a new format that begins on 7 December with the GITEX Scale Summit, followed by an immersive Exhibition from 8-11 December, and Expand North Star 2026 running in parallel from 8-10 December. Recognised as the world’s largest technology and AI event brand, GITEX now spans 14 cities across multiple continents. More information: *expandnorthstar.com

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