India grows a great deal of coffee, yet it is rarely the origin named on the bag. That is the gap Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters walked into in July, when it opened its first UAE café at BurJuman Mall.

The menu is built around single-estate coffees from Indian farms, alongside signature blends, seasonal offerings and a range of brewing methods. It is a quietly ambitious idea for a city with no shortage of flat whites.

The numbers suggest the timing is right. India is the world’s seventh-largest coffee producer, and Coffee Board data shows its exports crossed $2bn for the first time in 2025. The UAE already takes about 5 per cent of those shipments. What Dubai hasn’t had is a café brand telling the Indian origin story on its own terms.

“India has an incredible coffee-growing heritage, but Indian speciality coffee is still relatively underrepresented internationally as an origin and Dubai allows us to take that story to a very global audience,” says Shivam Shahi, Blue Tokai’s co-founder and COO.

Blue Tokai started in 2013 as a small roasting operation. It now runs more than 250 cafés and three roasteries in India and works directly with more than 80 coffee farms, according to the company’s launch announcement. It also has a café presence in Tokyo.

Scale taught Shahi something that spreadsheets don’t. “The biggest lesson from our expansion in India is that scaling a café business is not just about replicating stores; it is about replicating the experience while staying relevant to each market and neighbourhood,” he says.

The company learnt about site selection, team building and operating processes along the way. But processes only go so far. “Coffee is ultimately a people business, and the quality of the barista, the interaction with the customer and the consistency of what is in the cup matter enormously.”

So the discipline travels. The template doesn’t. “As we enter the UAE, we are taking that operating discipline with us, but we are not assuming that the India playbook can simply be transplanted here,” Shahi says. “The objective is to create a strong, scalable foundation rather than pursue store count for its own sake.”

Why Dubai first

Few cities drink coffee the way Dubai does. The UAE coffee market is worth more than Dhs12bn (about $3.2bn), and roughly 93 per cent of coffee spending happens out of home, in cafés and restaurants. That is one of the highest shares in the world, according to figures released ahead of World of Coffee Dubai 2026.

For Shahi, the city was the obvious first stop in the Gulf. “Dubai felt like a very natural first step for us because it is one of the most diverse and experience-driven café markets in the region,” he says. Customers here already know speciality coffee, and they are open to brands they haven’t tried.

There is a home crowd, too. More than 4.3 million Indians live in the UAE, and India’s ambassador has said more than half of them are in Dubai. Shahi is careful not to lean on that. “There is also a natural connection to India, given the size and diversity of the Indian community in the UAE. But we see the opportunity as much larger than serving only the Indian diaspora.”

The bigger prize is everyone else. “The city’s diversity and openness to new concepts make it an exciting gateway into the GCC.”

Blue Tokai is coming to the Gulf through Ambrosia, which holds the master franchise for the GCC. The brand joins a regional portfolio that already includes Biryani By Kilo and Furn Beaino. The partnership also covers Blue Tokai’s packaged coffee for hotels, restaurants and direct-to-consumer sales.

Shahi won’t put a figure on the investment. He describes the UAE as a long-term market and talks about the near term in terms of brand building, not openings. “Our immediate priority is to establish the brand through product, storytelling and category education, understand the customer and build the right operating model.”
There is a target, though. “We have plans to build a meaningful café network in the UAE, with more than ten cafés planned across the region over the coming year.”

Ten cafés is modest for a company with 250 at home, and that is deliberate. “We are deliberately taking a measured approach to expansion. For us, the quality of each location and the economics of the business are more important than simply moving quickly.”

The coffee does the talking
Dubai is not short of speciality coffee, local or imported. Shahi knows another roaster with good branding won’t move anyone. “What we are bringing is a very specific point of view on single origin speciality coffee from India.”

That point of view starts on the farm. Indian coffee grows mostly in the Western and Eastern Ghats, across Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Smallholders account for nearly 99 per cent of holdings and about 70 per cent of output, according to an Indian government statement. The Coffee Board expects a record crop of 403,000 tonnes in 2025-26.

Blue Tokai buys directly from estates and controls sourcing, roasting and brewing itself, which Shahi describes as “representing one of the handful of full stack coffee companies across the world.” Indian coffee will stay at the centre of the UAE menu. “Expanding internationally should strengthen those relationships rather than dilute them.”

The economics are harder here. “Logistics, duties, real estate and operating costs all have an impact on pricing,” Shahi says. The aim is to absorb those realities without cutting corners on the coffee or the sourcing model.

And he is clear that a flag on the menu won’t win regulars. “But we don’t expect customers to choose us simply because we are an Indian brand. The coffee has to be exceptional, the experience has to be warm and approachable, and the overall proposition has to earn the customer’s loyalty.”

Same soul, local menu
The coffee, the training and the emphasis on traceability won’t change. Almost everything around them can. Shahi lists elements of the food menu, the pricing architecture, store formats and the overall customer experience as open to adjustment for UAE habits and occasions.

He sums it up in one line. “The balance we are looking for is consistent brand philosophy, locally relevant execution.”

Dubai is also a test bed. Saudi Arabia alone has more than 5,100 branded cafés, close to half of all branded cafés in the Middle East, and drinks more than 36 million cups of coffee a day. Shahi sees the UAE as the place to learn the region’s consumers, real estate, talent and operating environment first. “If we build the right model here, Dubai can become a strong platform for expansion into the wider GCC.”

He won’t set a store count for that, either. For now, the test is simpler, and it happens one cup at a time at BurJuman. “We want customers to come back because they genuinely love the coffee and the brand, and then discover the story behind it.”

Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute has announced the postponement of the tenth edition of its flagship investment conference, originally scheduled to take place in Riyadh from October 26 to 29, 2026.

The event, FII10, themed “The Power of Legacy”, will now be held in 2027, with organisers expected to announce revised dates soon.

In a statement, HRH Princess Dr. Maha Bint Mishari Al Saud, CEO of the FII Institute, said the decision was taken to ensure the landmark edition meets the expectations of its international community of investors, business leaders and policymakers.

“Because this is our landmark tenth edition, we want to ensure it delivers the full scale, extraordinary quality, and unforgettable impact that our community has come to expect and truly deserves,” she said.

“A decade of partnership and shared vision deserves nothing less than our absolute best.”

The institute confirmed that all existing registrations and partnerships will remain valid despite the postponement.

Organisers will contact registered delegates, partners and other stakeholders directly over the coming days to provide further assistance and address queries regarding the revised arrangements.

“We are profoundly grateful to our community for your continued trust, patience, and friendship. We cannot wait to welcome you home to Riyadh in 2027 for a truly special and memorable FII10,” Princess Maha added.

The annual FII conference, also known as ‘Davos in the Desert’, has emerged as a major platform for international investment discussions, bringing together sovereign wealth funds, global financial institutions, corporate executives and government officials to explore investment opportunities and economic transformation.

The conference is closely associated with Saudi Arabia’s efforts to attract international capital, diversify its economy and strengthen its position as a global investment destination under Vision 2030.

The postponement comes amid escalating security concerns in Saudi Arabia following a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group.

Recent attacks, including a deadly strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, have disrupted air travel and raised concerns among international investors and business executives planning to visit the kingdom.

The Gulf Business Investment Summit 2026 will take place on October 30 at the Grand Plaza Mövenpick Media City in Dubai, bringing together investment professionals, financial experts and industry leaders to examine the trends shaping global capital allocation.

Held under the theme ‘Where Capital Goes Next’, the summit will explore how investors are navigating geopolitical uncertainty, changing interest-rate dynamics, technological disruption and the emergence of new investment opportunities.

The half-day event will feature a series of panel discussions examining global capital flows, artificial intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, private markets and asset tokenisation.

Investment leaders to share insights

The summit will feature a lineup of confirmed speakers, including Wissam Breidy, Founder and CEO of BRDG House; Bader Al Sarraf, Research Analyst and Associate Director, Global Research at Standard Chartered; and Varun Kapur, Director at KAPITAL by KLEBER GROUP.

Other confirmed speakers include Alister Wellesley, CEO of EA MENA; Sapan Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy & Key Accounts at Frost & Sullivan; Salmaan Khawaja, Partner and Head of Financial Advisory at Grant Thornton UAE; and Raven Groom-Baker, Managing Director at Aquanow, and many more.

AI, private markets and tokenisation in focus

The summit will open with a keynote titled ‘Where Capital Goes Next’, setting the stage for discussions on the economic, geopolitical and technological forces influencing investment decisions.

The first panel, ‘The Great Capital Reset’, will explore how investors are repositioning portfolios amid shifting global markets, while ‘The Next Trillion-Dollar Opportunities’ will examine investment prospects across the AI ecosystem, including semiconductors, robotics, cybersecurity and enterprise applications.

Another session will focus on the infrastructure underpinning the AI economy, highlighting opportunities in data centres, energy, connectivity and digital infrastructure.

The programme will also examine the growing importance of private equity, private credit and alternative investments, alongside the potential for tokenisation to transform asset ownership, trading and accessibility.

The $1bn investment debate

A key highlight will be the closing session, ‘The $1bn Debate: If You Had $1bn to Invest Today…’, which will challenge five investment figures to allocate hypothetical $1bn portfolios across equities, credit, private markets, infrastructure, real estate, commodities, digital assets and cash.

Participants will defend their investment strategies and debate which asset classes could deliver the strongest returns over the next decade.

The Gulf Business Investment Summit 2026 will begin with registration and networking at 8am, followed by the main programme from 8.30am to 11.30am.

Find out more: https://bit.ly/4zlRek3

Event details: October 30, 2026 | Grand Plaza Mövenpick Media City, Dubai | 8am–11.30am.

A successful mobile banking login does not necessarily mean a customer’s session remains secure, cybersecurity company protectt.ai. warned on Monday, urging financial institutions to monitor risks continuously before money or sensitive data moves.

The mobile application security, fraud prevention and digital trust company said fraudsters were increasingly working around authentication by manipulating customers or compromising their devices after access had been granted.

A customer could use a bank’s genuine application on a registered phone and log in with valid credentials while a remote-access tool, screen-sharing application, overlay or another form of compromise allowed someone else to observe, influence or control activity during the session, it said.

The advisory comes as UAE financial institutions expand mobile-first services, instant payments and connected financial experiences. Protectt.ai said banks needed to reassess trust across the application, device and transaction throughout each session.

Fraud risk beyond the login screen

Research by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, conducted with Trend Micro and published on January 27, surveyed 1,000 UAE residents. One in three respondents reported losing money to scams in the preceding year, across digital and communication channels. The finding concerns scams broadly, rather than mobile banking fraud alone.

Separately, Gartner’s public abstract for its August 3 research, How to Enhance Application Security by Deploying Application Detection and Response, argued that application security testing and frontline controls alone were insufficient. It highlighted the need to protect applications while they are running.

“Authentication confirms that a recognised customer has entered the application. It cannot, on its own, confirm that the device and the session remain safe throughout the transaction. Banks need visibility into what is happening while the application is running so they can recognise risky conditions and intervene before fraud is completed,” said Manish Mimani, founder and CEO of Protectt.ai.

The company identified potential warning signals including remote-control or screen-sharing tools operating during banking sessions, rooted or jailbroken devices, screen overlays, application cloning, runtime hooking and attempts to tamper with application behaviour.

Such conditions can emerge or change after authentication, making a single security decision at login less reliable as a session continues, it said.

When a transfer needs another check

Protectt.ai recommended treating device integrity as part of transaction risk.

A high-value transfer from a device showing signs of remote control, tampering, or abnormal execution should carry a different risk profile than the same transfer on a healthy device, it said.

Banks should also connect security signals detected within applications to their fraud and transaction-monitoring systems.

Assessing those technical indicators alongside behavioural and transactional anomalies could help institutions decide whether to allow an action, request further verification, pause a transaction or suspend a session.

“Mobile applications are now the primary financial front door for many customers in the UAE. The challenge is to protect that experience without adding unnecessary friction. A risk-based response allows banks to intervene proportionately when the application or device shows signs of compromise while keeping routine journeys smooth for genuine customers,” said Pushkar Singh, country head, Middle East and Africa at Protectt.ai.

The company said visibility into applications while they are running complemented existing investment in secure development, identity, network defence, application programming interfaces and transaction monitoring.

Detecting manipulation or unsafe device conditions during use could allow a bank to intervene while a session remained active, rather than investigating only after a fraudulent payment had been completed.

Protectt.ai, which operates across India, the Middle East and North Africa, Southeast Asia and the US, said it covered more than 350 sensitive mobile applications and over one billion unique devices, had safeguarded more than 100 billion sessions and had prevented over eight billion threats.

Zamzam Al Hammadi is 18. She is the UAE’s first female professional MMA fighter, and she says that also makes her the oldest Emirati woman in the sport.

I’m the oldest in MMA now. I’m 18 years old only,” she says. In 2023, the year she became a jiu-jitsu youth world champion, she recalls feeling isolated: “I really didn’t have any friends.”

Each woman on the stage at Middlesex University Dubai‘s Knowledge Park campus on September 30 had faced some version of that. The session, titled We Emerge Stronger and Better: Identity, Heritage & the Next Generation, opened Women in Sport: Changing the Narrative and Breaking Boundaries.

The three-part series is run by the university’s London Sport Institute in Dubai, and its focus goes beyond medals: it asks how more women and girls in the region can take part in sport, keep progressing and build careers in the industry.

“Sporting achievements deserve to be celebrated, but it is just as important to look at the opportunities, support systems and pathways that make those achievements possible,” said Charvi Ajay Bhatt, sports partnerships and development executive at MDX Dubai, in a statement. “Through this series, we aim to create an ongoing conversation around how more women can participate in sport, continue progressing, and build meaningful careers across the sector.”

Emirati weightlifter and mental health advocate Amna Al Haddad moderated. With her were Al Hammadi, who also fights for PFL MENA; Maryam Alfarsi, the first Emirati woman to sprint at the Olympic Games; Maha Al Shehhi, the national team swimmer who competed at Paris 2024; and snowboarder Amenah Almuhairi, who has represented the UAE at the Asian Winter Games and the Youth Olympic Games. Gulf Business spoke to them on the day.

Starting from nothing

Some found their sport by accident. Almuhairi started because of her mother. She and her siblings learned to ski, and on a family trip to Bosnia, when she was seven, she switched to snowboarding. She started competing at 13.

“It’s not a very common thing to hear that a person from the UAE, especially, is a freestyle snowboarder,” she says. “But I think we do really need to set the standard that we can do whatever we set our minds to, no matter any challenges.”

When Al Shehhi started, she had no swimmers to look up to. “It’s been a challenge for me at the beginning because there was never anyone who did the sport, but now there are many youngsters who are starting to swim,” she says.

She trains in the morning and again in the afternoon, with gym sessions in between, and has done so for seven years. She says it changed her. “It changed me into a whole different woman, a whole different person that I am today. I became more mentally strong. I’m able to speak up for myself.”

Proving a point

When you represent the UAE in a sport nobody links with the country, you spend a lot of time explaining. For Almuhairi, that is the main downside of snowboarding: “having to constantly repeat myself in the way of showing my country in a different light to what a lot of people that don’t live in Dubai have an image of. But I love it.”

Al Hammadi works in a sport she calls male-dominated, and she carries the same sense of responsibility into every fight. “I’m not representing myself,” she says. She sees herself as fighting for her country and for Emirati women. She would also rather her record spoke than she did: “The achievement, it talks, not me.”

Her results are now drawing other girls in. She says 25 girls she helped train competed at world championships this year, and all of them won medals. “They were like, Zamzam, we joined because of you.”

Al Shehhi has heard similar things from young swimmers at competitions. One girl told her: “My father saw you and I told him I could swim.”

The athletes agree that things are better than they were, and that much of the change is recent.

Alfarsi ran the 100 metres at Paris 2024 aged 16. “I think the sports in the UAE have changed dramatically, and we have so much room to go,” she says. “We’re still new at this, so there’s so much more room for improvement here.”

Al Haddad names two changes: “There is more acceptance and more access, and that is a great step forward.”

What still needs to change

The bigger problem, Al Haddad says, is keeping athletes in sport long enough to reach their potential. “There is still no sustainability in retaining athletes in the region for the long haul,” she says. In her view, building an athlete takes decades, not a few seasons, and it needs funding, sponsorship, good coaches, proper facilities, sport science and sports psychology.

Funding is a constant worry. “As athletes, we chase funding a lot to pay for competition entries, to fund our flights, our training, our coach,” she says. Coaching can be hard to find as well. Al Haddad started weightlifting later than most. Coaches in the UAE were focused on younger athletes and didn’t know how to train her. “I personally had to travel abroad for a year and a half to train to get proper training in Olympic weightlifting,” she says.

Education came up too. Almuhairi studies at the London Sport Institute in Dubai, and on the panel she explained how a flexible timetable lets her fit her studies around training and competitions. The panel argued that young athletes shouldn’t have to choose between university and sport. Almuhairi came to the interview straight from a full day of classes.

She thinks girls in niche sports need the most help. “We really need to put an emphasis on support for girls, but especially girls in unconventional sports,” she says. “It is the only way that we’ll see any more upcoming female athletes.”

For Alfarsi, the answer is visibility. “The more that you see it, the more that people obviously don’t look at it as more of a stereotype, but more as a norm,” she says. “I think that’s very important for families to see here in the UAE.”

Families are also where Al Shehhi still meets resistance. “There’s still some close-minded here and there,” she says. Her message to parents is to let their daughters compete, “because you never know, maybe she’ll become world champion”.

For some of them, sport is only part of the plan. Alfarsi has started an edtech company with a co-founder and turns 19 in a few months. “I think my journey is getting started,” she says.

Al Hammadi wants to compete internationally at senior level, and she wants other women her age alongside her. “My mission now is to see someone who’s as old as me come and support me to pave the way more for women in sports.”

The series has two more sessions planned in the coming months. Women’s Health: Training Through Every Life Stage will cover wellbeing and exercise through different stages of life. Breaking Into the Game: Women’s Careers On and Off the Field will look at jobs for women across the sports industry, not only for athletes.

In their words

Asked what they would say to the next generation, each gave a short answer.

“If you can dream it, you can do it. There are no limitations other than your mind.” – Amenah Almuhairi

“Don’t confine yourself to other people’s expectations.” – Maryam Alfarsi

“If you have a dream, go for it and achieve it.” – Zamzam Al Hammadi

“You don’t need permission. Go for it… Do it because your story matters.” – Amna Al Haddad