Abu Dhabi Family Business Council and Emirates Growth Fund Unite to Boost SME Scaling

Editorial Team

Last updated 9-12-2025

3 min

Abu Dhabi Family Business Council teamed with Emirates Growth Fund to aid family business expansion.

The partnership gives access to growth capital, advisory support, and market entry without unnecessary hassle.

Family enterprises significantly impact the UAE economy, generating 60% of GDP and employing 80% of workers.

Emirates Growth Fund targets promising SMEs in sectors like manufacturing and advanced tech.

This is part of Abu Dhabi's strategy to foster a knowledge-based economy and future entrepreneurs.

It’s not every day you see two major players in Abu Dhabi’s business scene joining forces, but that’s exactly what happened during Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025. The Abu Dhabi Family Business Council, which sits under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, signed a new agreement with the Emirates Growth Fund — the UAE’s flagship growth capital platform — to give family-owned enterprises a stronger push as they move into their next stage of expansion.

I’ve seen plenty of family businesses across the region struggle at that tricky point between being stable and wanting to scale, so this move feels spot on. The partnership aims to open up growth capital, offer advisory support, and help founders enter new regional and global markets without all the usual faff that comes with scaling. It also includes co-hosted events, capability‑building programmes, and knowledge‑sharing initiatives designed to keep these companies competitive and resilient.

During the signing, Khaled Al Fahim, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Family Business Council, highlighted just how central family enterprises are to the UAE economy. According to him, they generate 60% of the country’s GDP, employ 80% of the workforce, and account for nearly 90% of private‑sector activity. He said the agreement “supports ventures during their growth stages, strengthens competitiveness, and creates sustainable opportunities for future generations”, noting that around 60% of family businesses are preparing to launch new ventures in the next five years.

And believe it or not, that aligns neatly with the Council’s wider mission. Set up in 2024, it focuses on sustainability, governance, and smooth generational transitions—topics that come up often when speaking with founders in the Arageek community. Many tell me scaling a family enterprise can be a bit of a maze, especially when navigating succession and modernising old structures.

On the flip side, the Emirates Growth Fund brings something equally valuable to the table. Launched during the fourth Make it in the Emirates Forum, it invests in promising companies in priority sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, food security and advanced tech. The fund specialises in SMEs that have moved past the startup phase but aren’t yet large enough for traditional private equity. I reckon that mid‑stage gap is one of the most underserved segments in the region.

Khalifa Al Hajeri, the fund’s CEO, called the agreement “a strategic step in supporting family‑owned enterprises as they transition into scalable, competitive businesses.” He added that the partnership will help them identify high‑potential ventures early, invest growth‑stage equity, and back founders building what he described as resilient, future‑ready companies. He also noted that the MoU includes opportunities to develop training programmes and connect family enterprises with international investors and experts.

All in all, the initiative fits neatly into Abu Dhabi’s wider push to build a knowledge‑based economy and nurture the next generation of family entrepreneurs. And from what I’ve seen in the region, many of these family‑run SMEs are chuffed to bits when they finally get the right kind of support — even if scaling still feels like a bit of a hassel now and then.

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