MENA’s leading everyday app launches Open Door, connecting early-stage companies with real business challenges and opportunities to pilot, prove and scale their solutions across the region

Dubai, UAE, 09 September 2026 — talabat, the leading everyday app in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), today announced the launch of Open Door, its startup enablement programme designed to connect early-stage companies with real business challenges across talabat’s regional and local operations.

Open Door gives startups an opportunity to test their solutions within a live commercial environment, work directly with talabat teams and build a pathway from initial pilot to longer-term partnership and regional scale. The programme will operate across talabat’s eight markets, with its next UAE cohort launching in this month, followed by Oman and Bahrain later this year.

The programme reflects talabat’s broader commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and strengthening the technology ecosystem across MENA by giving emerging companies access to the operational scale, expertise and market exposure required to turn promising ideas into proven solutions.

May Youssef, Regional Senior Director of Corporate Affairs at talabat, said: “The region has an incredibly ambitious startup community, and one of the most valuable assets established companies can offer is an opportunity to solve real problems at scale. Through Open Door, we are creating a clearer pathway for startups to engage with our business, test their ideas in a live environment and, where there is a strong fit, grow alongside us across the region. With this initiative we are creating meaningful value for our business while contributing to a stronger and more connected innovation ecosystem across MENA.”

Through Open Door, talabat has signed an MoU with QuikBot in UAE, a Singapore-headquartered deeptech company building autonomous delivery robots for high-rise buildings. The pilot will run at Dubai Digital Park in Dubai Silicon Oasis, where riders hand off orders inside the building and a robot completes the delivery to the customer’s door.

Open Door also reinforces talabat’s role as a catalyst for MENA’s economic growth by actively supporting UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 through sustainable entrepreneurship and job creation.

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