DIFC Announces New DIFC Venture Studio Regulations for Consultation

Jacques Visser

Published: 23/02/2023

"The introduction of global first-of-its-kind DIFC Venture Studio Regulations will add further depth to the DIFC’s thriving innovation ecosystem. The proposed regulations provide a legal framework that enables the scaling of businesses; the ability to develop, test and launch new start-ups; and which supports venture builders, entrepreneurs and investors. DIFC is committed to providing a robust regulatory environment for businesses to operate with confidence and certainty, including in new and developing sectors.”
– Jacques Visser, Chief Legal Officer at DIFC

Dubai, UAE, 23 February 2023: Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading global financial centre in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, proposes to enact new Venture Studio Regulations to establish the first global legal framework for the regulation of venture building. The proposed regulations seek to enable, enhance and promote venture building from within DIFC.

In April 2022, DIFC announced the launch of the first global “Venture Studio Launchpad” to assist with the growth of DIFC’s financial ecosystem (see press release: link). In particular, DIFC aims to be a growth partner and business enabler to venture builder studios, allowing them to set up and scale from the Centre. In doing so, DIFC also further supports entrepreneurs and the growth of start-up businesses in and from the Centre.

Jacques Visser, Chief Legal Officer at DIFC, said: “The introduction of global first-of-its-kind DIFC Venture Studio Regulations will add further depth to the DIFC’s thriving innovation ecosystem. The proposed regulations provide a legal framework that enables the scaling of businesses; the ability to develop, test and launch new start-ups; and which supports venture builders, entrepreneurs and investors. DIFC is committed to providing a robust regulatory environment for businesses to operate with confidence and certainty, including in new and developing sectors.”

The key benefits of the proposed Venture Studio Regulations include providing the world’s first legislative framework for venture building and in doing so, establishing legal certainty for the venture building model. It will also provide certainty on how venture studios, entrepreneurs and spin-off entities deal with each other and the wider market. Additionally, it will facilitate the ease of doing business within the venture studio model, with specific operational measures implemented to enable the incubation of new business ideas, sponsorship of entrepreneurs and reduced costs for the scaling of new businesses. The proposed regulations will form tailored ecosystem for venture building, entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors.

Furthermore, it allows forming a tailored ecosystem for venture building, entrepreneurs, start-ups and investors.

Further details about the proposed Venture Studio Regulations can be found in Consultation Paper No 1. of 2023, available here: link The proposed regulations have been posted for a 30-day public consultation period with the deadline for providing comments ending on 19 March 2023.