There is a tendency, when people talk about healthcare in the Gulf, to start with the size of the market.
Fair enough. There is plenty of investment going into healthcare across Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But the more interesting story is what is changing underneath it.
Healthcare is moving upstream. Prevention is becoming more important. Digital health is becoming infrastructure. Genomics is becoming useful in everyday healthcare. And international companies are being asked to bring more than simply a product and a sales team.
1
Prevention is becoming commercially relevant
Most healthcare systems have historically been built around treating people once they are ill. By the time someone needs expensive treatment, much of the opportunity to prevent the problem has gone.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 healthcare transformation makes prevention and primary care central to its direction of travel.[1] Abu Dhabi is doing something similar through its Healthy Living Strategy and expanded preventive screening programmes.[2]
But prevention may be compelling, and somebody still has to pay for it.
Innovators need to show what their solution changes
Does it reduce downstream cost? Identify disease earlier? Improve outcomes?
That is where prevention stops being a nice idea and starts becoming a business.
2. Digital health is no longer the novelty
Not so long ago, “digital health” itself sounded innovative. Now it is becoming infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia’s Seha Virtual Hospital reported more than 16 million virtual appointments and medical consultations during 2025.[3] In the UAE, Riayati connects more than 3,000 healthcare facilities and links with Dubai’s NABIDH and Abu Dhabi’s Malaffi health information exchanges.[4]
But this raises a less glamorous question: who pays?
A digital intervention might benefit the patient, reduce pressure on a hospital and prevent a future claim for an insurer. Yet the organisation being asked to pay may not be the one receiving most of those benefits.
You have to understand where the value lands. Who benefits? Who controls the budget? Who saves money? Are those actually the same organisation?
A useful technology can still struggle commercially if nobody has worked out who has both the incentive and authority to buy it.
3. Genomics is becoming much more practical
Genomics has spent a long time sounding like the future. Increasingly, it is simply becoming healthcare.
Saudi Arabia’s National Biotechnology Strategy identifies genomics as one of four strategic priorities and links it directly to prevention, diagnosis and treatment.[5]
By March 2025, the Emirati Genome Program had collected more than 700,000 samples towards its target of one million.[6]
Who should be tested? What can we identify before somebody becomes ill? How do we turn a result into something useful over the next five, ten or twenty years?
Some of the most interesting businesses will emerge not from producing more data, but from making it useful.
4. You probably need partners before you need customers
Healthcare is not a market where people generally buy something important because they liked the pitch. Trust matters.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health reported more than 124 strategic agreements on the opening day of the Global Health Exhibition 2025.[7] Abu Dhabi’s HELM life sciences cluster similarly brings together government, healthcare providers, universities, investors and international companies.[8]
For companies entering the region, the first question may not be, “Who can we sell this to?” It may be, “Who should we build this with?”
A hospital can provide clinical validation. An insurer may provide access to a population. A local partner can help navigate relationships that are difficult to understand from outside.
A good presentation can get you a meeting
Local credibility still has to be earned.
5. Localisation is becoming a much bigger idea
There was a time when localisation could mean opening an office, hiring a country manager and putting the local flag on the website.
Saudi Arabia’s biotechnology strategy explicitly talks about localisation and capability-building.[5] Abu Dhabi’s HELM cluster brings research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation into the same ecosystem. It is projected to contribute US$25.6 billion to Abu Dhabi’s GDP, attract US$11.5 billion in investment and create around 30,000 jobs by 2045.[9]
Rather than asking, “How do we sell this product here?”, it may be more useful to ask, “What can we build here?”
That could mean research, clinical evidence, local talent, manufacturing, intellectual property or partnerships.
Before the raise comes the business
Healthcare companies understandably spend a lot of time thinking about investment. But fundraising can become a distraction if it starts too early.
Before asking which investors might be interested, there are more basic questions to answer.
Who actually needs this? Who benefits? Who pays? And are those the same people?
What evidence do they need? Where does the economic value land? How does the product fit into the healthcare system that already exists? What needs to be built locally rather than imported?
Those questions are not always as exciting as preparing an investor deck. They are much more useful.
Because enthusiasm can create interest, and a good story can open doors
But ultimately, it is evidence, commercial clarity and proof that give people the confidence to invest.
References
[1] Saudi Vision 2030 Annual Report 2024, Health Sector Transformation Program.
[2] Abu Dhabi Department of Health / Abu Dhabi Media Office, Healthy Living Strategy and IFHAS preventive screening expansion.
[3] Saudi Ministry of Health, Seha Virtual Hospital 2025 activity figures, published January 2026.
[4] UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention, Riayati National Unified Medical Record.
[5] Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, National Biotechnology Strategy.
[6] Emirates Genome Council / Abu Dhabi Media Office, Emirati Genome Program and precision medicine initiatives.
[7] Saudi Ministry of Health, Global Health Exhibition 2025 strategic agreements.
[8] Abu Dhabi Department of Health / Abu Dhabi Investment Office, HELM life sciences cluster.
[9] Abu Dhabi Investment Office, HELM economic impact projections.