Innovation City Breaks the Banking Bottleneck Holding UAE Founders Back

Innovation City, Ras Al Khaimah’s technology and innovation free zone, has become the first in the UAE to bring corporate banking into company formation through an integrated model managed directly with its banking partners.

Banking becomes part of the setup journey, with Innovation City taking ownership of the process that founders previously had to navigate themselves.

Eligible founders can begin the banking process before receiving an Emirates ID, and the entire journey, from licensing to banking, can be completed remotely, without being physically present in Ras Al Khaimah.

“Every free zone has been racing to issue a license faster. But if a founder gets a license in an hour and then spends three months waiting for a bank account, what have we actually solved?” said Paul Dawalibi, CEO of Innovation City. “You cannot build a business on a license alone. You need to get paid. You need to pay people. Until you can do that, your business is on hold. We went after the harder problem because that is where the biggest difference can be made.”

The significance extends beyond convenience. Every week spent waiting for banking is a week of delayed revenue, postponed commitments and capital sitting idle. For an entrepreneur launching a company, those weeks can determine whether momentum builds or disappears.

By managing banking setup directly through its partners, Innovation City brings responsibility for the process into the same journey as licensing. Founders gain a coordinated path towards an operational business, with banking addressed from the outset.

“The standard for this industry should be how quickly a founder can start doing business,” Dawalibi continued. “That is the outcome we are building around. Our responsibility extends beyond issuing the license to helping founders put their companies to work. If we want the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs to build here, we have to be just as ambitious about removing what stands in their way.”

For international founders, the model also changes how they can plan their launch. Eligible applicants can start banking setup while Emirates ID processing is still underway, and remote completion allows them to advance company formation from wherever they are.

This approach reflects Innovation City’s wider ambition: to build the infrastructure that helps companies launch and grow across AI, Web3 and digital assets, gaming, robotics, and health tech. That ambition demands solving the practical obstacles between a founder’s decision to start and their ability to operate.

Terms and conditions apply. Corporate banking services are subject to eligibility, applicable regulatory requirements, and the terms, conditions and approval processes of the relevant banking partner.