Deliveroo UAE has launched an in-app restaurant reservation service in Dubai, allowing users to browse real-time table availability and book restaurants directly through its platform, as the company expands beyond food delivery into dine-in services.

The new feature, Deliveroo Reservations, is powered by SevenRooms and gives customers access to a curated selection of restaurants across Dubai, including some of the city’s most sought-after dining destinations.

The launch marks Deliveroo’s latest move to broaden its offering and support restaurant partners beyond delivery by helping them increase in-store sales and attract new customers.

The rollout follows DoorDash’s acquisition of Deliveroo and SevenRooms in 2025 and represents the first major product integration since the companies came together.

The integration connects Deliveroo’s consumer platform with SevenRooms’ reservation technology, enabling restaurants to manage availability, bookings and cancellations through a single system that updates in real time without manual input.

SevenRooms provides customer relationship management, guest experience and marketing tools designed to help restaurants grow in-store sales and strengthen customer relationships.

Deliveroo Reservations to help connect with new audiences

Nick Price, general manager at Deliveroo Middle East, said: “The launch of Deliveroo Reservations aligns with our broader ambition to support the long-term sustainability and growth of the hospitality sector in the UAE, with Dubai leading as the first city to introduce the service. By expanding beyond delivery and into the dine-out space, we are creating new opportunities for our restaurant partners to drive in-store sales, optimise table occupancy, and connect with new audiences. This integrated approach allows restaurants to engage customers across both dine-in and delivery occasions, ultimately strengthening their visibility, resilience, and long-term success within an increasingly competitive market.”

Joel Montaniel, VP, head of SevenRooms and co-founder, said: “Restaurants thrive on the relationships they build with their guests. Bringing reservations into the Deliveroo app gives Dubai restaurants a new way to connect with diners and grow, while making it easy for consumers to discover and book great restaurants.”

The company said the reservations service builds on its expansion across food, grocery and retail categories and reflects growing consumer demand for integrated experiences that combine restaurant discovery, convenience and dining options within a single platform.

The service has initially launched in Dubai, with plans to expand across the UAE.

Deliveroo was founded in 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski and joined forces with DoorDash in 2025. Together, the companies operate in more than 40 countries.

SevenRooms, founded in 2011, provides reservation, marketing and operational technology to restaurants and hospitality venues and serves more than 13,000 dining, hotel, nightlife and entertainment venues globally.

Emirates has promoted two Emirati pilots to captain rank, marking the first time Emirati women have achieved the milestone at the airline.

Hanan Mohammed Jawad and Bakhita Al Mheiri, both graduates of the Emirates Group’s National Cadet Pilot Programme, have officially received their fourth stripes and now serve as captains operating the airline’s Boeing 777 fleet.

The promotions represent a significant milestone for the airline’s Emiratisation and talent development efforts, while highlighting the growing role of women in the UAE’s aviation sector.

Hanan Mohammed Jawad joined Emirates in 2008 through the cadet pilot programme and progressed through the ranks with the support of the airline’s training and fleet management teams.

Bakhita Al Mheiri began her Emirates career in 2011 as a cadet pilot and has since built a successful career within the airline’s flight operations division.

Hanan has accumulated more than 9,253 flying hours throughout her aviation career.

Speaking about her promotion, Hanan said: “When I was 14, I saw the UAE’s first female pilot on TV and was struck by her confidence and presence. From that point on, all I wanted was to become a pilot.”

She added: “Receiving my fourth stripe is a proud milestone, but I don’t see it as the destination. This is just the beginning, I don’t believe the sky is the limit. The path to command is built over time, and my years as a First Officer prepared me for this moment.”

Reflecting on her personal development, Hanan said: “You change as you grow, and that’s a strength. When I was younger, I loved drawing and reading. Today, I challenge myself in new ways. I’ve recently started skiing and I’m still a beginner, I enjoy being in that learning space. Balance matters to me now. I’ve moved from intense gym training to practices that build focus and calm yoga – aerial yoga, Pilates, and reformer. They support the clarity, discipline, and presence my role demands.”

Bakhita Al Mheiri highlighted the role mentorship played in her progression to captain.

She said: “My journey at Emirates has been deeply influenced by the mentorship and guidance I received from exceptional training captains and leaders throughout my flying and command journey. Their experience, professionalism, and willingness to share knowledge and experience not only strengthened my technical and leadership skills but also shaped me personally by teaching me the value of responsibility, discipline, and continuous learning. One of the most meaningful lessons I gained throughout this journey was the importance of passing knowledge and experience forward. With the opportunity and responsibility I have been given as a captain, I hope to carry forward the same values and mentorship that were invested in me, and to support and guide the younger generations beginning their own flying journey, so they too can continue contributing to the future and success of the UAE.”

Capt Hassan Alhammadi, divisional senior vice president Flight Operations at Emirates, said: “We are immensely proud of Hanan and Bakhita for becoming Emirates’ first Emirati female captains, a well-deserved achievement that reflects years of dedication, professionalism, and hard work, and underscores the airline’s ability to nurture Emirati talent from entry level through to the highest leadership roles.”

The promotions come as Emirates continues to invest in developing Emirati talent through its National Cadet Pilot Programme, which has produced numerous pilots for the airline and supports its long-term workforce development strategy.

AethexAI has emerged from stealth with a $3m pre-seed funding round and the launch of its enterprise voice artificial intelligence (AI) platform, targeting businesses across Africa and the Middle East.

The funding round was led by 4DX Ventures, with participation from Enza Capital, Dorm Room Fund, Mojo Ventures, 26 Fund, as well as strategic angel investors including Stanford faculty members, telecommunications executives and AI researchers from Anthropic.

The company said the capital will be used to expand enterprise deployments, grow its engineering and go-to-market teams, and deepen product capabilities across key regional markets.

AethexAI is targeting a market of approximately 1.5 billion people across Africa and the Middle East, where it believes existing voice AI solutions have struggled to operate effectively due to connectivity challenges, fragmented telecommunications infrastructure, high operating costs and difficulties handling local languages, dialects and accents.

The company has developed a voice AI infrastructure platform designed specifically for emerging markets, combining self-hosted, market-localised AI models with integrated telephony, orchestration tools and workflow management capabilities.

Delivered through a no-code interface and application programming interfaces (APIs), the platform enables enterprises to deploy and scale voice agents within existing workflows at lower costs than traditional providers.

The company was founded by Mariama Diallo and Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa, who said they identified significant gaps in the performance of existing voice AI technologies while working with businesses across Africa and the Middle East.

Diallo previously worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs before joining YC-backed Model ML as its first product and growth hire. Odemuyiwa studied computer science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), worked on engineering systems across aerospace and at Meta, and later attended Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The platform is powered by Kora 1, AethexAI’s proprietary family of voice models trained on licensed datasets from call centres, radio networks and content platforms. The company said the models are designed to perform reliably in noisy environments and support multiple languages and accents.

Pricing starts at $0.03 per minute, compared with more than $0.10 per minute for many competing solutions, according to the company.

Alongside the platform launch, AethexAI has also introduced a developer ecosystem that allows third parties to build voice applications for emerging markets through a single API.

Mariama Diallo, co-founder of AethexAI, said: “Voice is already how businesses operate across emerging markets, but the technology behind it hasn’t kept up. We kept hearing the same thing from customers: that existing tools simply didn’t work in their environments. That’s why we built our own model stack and infrastructure from the ground up, designed for how these markets actually operate. With this backing, we’re now scaling AethexAI into the leading voice infrastructure platform in these markets.”

Ayooluwa Odemuyiwa, co-founder of AethexAI, said: “Voice AI failed in these markets at every layer of the stack. Latency, cost, poor handling of code switching, and weak performance under packet loss, jitter, and low-bitrate audio in real telecom networks led these systems to break in production. The fix was not incremental. It required redesigning the entire stack. Kora 1 is our family of speech models, specialised by dialect and fully self-hosted. We built and own the data pipeline behind them. Telephony, interruption handling, and retrieval are native to the system, proven and refined through enterprise deployments, not bolted on.”

Walter Badoo, co-founder and managing partner, 4DX Ventures, said: “Voice AI adoption in emerging markets has been constrained, less so due to demand, but rather by infrastructure that was never designed for these environments. AethexAI has taken a fundamentally different approach, rebuilding the stack from the ground up for how these markets actually operate. With real production deployments already at scale, the AethexAI team is building what we believe will become the defining voice infrastructure layer for the next billion users.”

The company currently employs 10 people and expects to double its workforce by the end of 2026 as it scales operations across its target markets.

In a pair of labor market and urban mobility reforms announced this week, Saudi authorities have introduced flexible working hours across major Riyadh business districts while also expanding Saudisation requirements in procurement-related professions, underscoring efforts to improve traffic efficiency, enhance quality of life, and strengthen local workforce participation.

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC), in partnership with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, has launched a flexible working hours initiative across six work zones in Riyadh effective June 2 aimed at easing congestion improving mobility and supporting urban livability according to a Saudi Press Agency report.

The initiative covers more than 50 entities across six designated zones KAFD Digital City Diplomatic Quarter Laysen Valley Granada Business and ROSHN Front and extends a four-hour flexible window allowing staggered arrival and departure times to reduce peak-hour congestion the report said.

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Officials said the measure is expected to give employees greater flexibility in arrival times improve workplace conditions enhance mobility outcomes and support a more efficient and sustainable urban environment as Riyadh continues to expand.

The initiative forms part of a broader mobility strategy led by RCRC which includes road network upgrades expansion of public transport systems traffic management solutions and modern regulatory frameworks designed to accommodate rapid population and economic growth.

It applies only to administrative roles with fixed working hours and excludes sectors requiring continuous operations such as healthcare public education and field-based or operational jobs.

Companies operating within the designated zones are expected to benefit from more predictable employee scheduling and reduced peak-hour congestion particularly in high-density business districts such as KAFD and Digital City Analysts say the measure could also improve productivity by reducing commute-related delays while encouraging greater adoption of flexible workplace models across both public and private sector entities in the capital over the coming implementation phase according to officials reported locally.

70% Saudisation mandate targets procurement roles

According to Saudi Gazette the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has begun implementing a decision to raise Saudisation levels to 70 per cent across 12 procurement-related professions effective Sunday May 31 as part of efforts to expand employment opportunities for Saudi nationals.

The policy applies to private sector establishments with three or more employees in targeted roles based on the Unified Saudi Occupational Classification and covers positions including procurement managers contracts managers warehouse and logistics specialists and related procurement and supply chain roles.

Inspection teams have begun monitoring compliance across targeted establishments to ensure adherence to the new localization requirements with penalties expected for companies failing to meet mandated Saudization rates.

The ministry said the initiative is part of broader efforts to strengthen workforce participation align labor market needs with national development goals and create sustainable employment pathways for Saudi citizens in specialized fields.

The rollout of the Saudisation expansion is also expected to increase oversight activity across procurement-heavy sectors with inspection teams intensifying field visits and compliance checks to ensure adherence to the updated thresholds Policymakers view the move as part of a longer-term strategy to strengthen domestic talent pipelines reduce reliance on expatriate labor in specialised roles and align workforce development with Saudi Arabia’s broader economic diversification agenda Vision 2030 goals and targets in line with national priorities.

Dubai’s tourism industry gathered this week for a record-attended briefing hosted by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), as officials and private sector leaders outlined measures to sustain growth, maintain visitor confidence and advance the emirate’s long-term economic ambitions.

More than 1,700 representatives from the tourism, aviation, hospitality, retail and events sectors attended the bi-annual City Briefing at Dubai Opera on June 3.

The event came amid shifting regional dynamics and focused on the sector’s response to recent developments, the resilience demonstrated across the tourism industry and the roadmap for growth during the second half of 2026.

“Under the visionary leadership of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, we have built a tourism ecosystem that is coordinated, agile and globally connected,” said Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), at the event.

“This operating model combined with the support of our stakeholders and partners, along with a diversified market strategy, has been central to the continued resilience of Dubai’s tourism sector,” he said.

DET said authorities moved quickly following recent regional developments, activating contingency plans and coordinating with Emirates and flydubai to maintain connectivity for travellers. The department also provided operational guidance to tourism and hospitality operators and reinforced messaging across international markets.

Dubai’s government also introduced an Dhs2.5bn ($680.7m) support package aimed at the tourism, hospitality and entertainment sectors. The measures included financial relief for qualifying businesses and accelerated regulatory and licensing procedures to support business continuity and employment.

Record visitor numbers in 2025

Officials highlighted Dubai’s strong starting position entering 2026, following record international visitor numbers in 2025, 6.4 per cent gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of last year and 95.2 million passengers passing through Dubai International Airport.

Industry participants pointed to a range of initiatives designed to support commercial activity, including dining promotions, hotel offers and flexible booking policies. DET cited programmes such as “Dubai, A Fine Way to Dine” and “Dubai Restaurant Week” as helping sustain momentum in the food and beverage sector.

Ahmed Al Khaja, CEO of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), said events remained a key contributor to tourism growth.

“Events remain a critical engine of growth for Dubai’s tourism economy, driving visitation, supporting businesses, and creating year-round demand,” Al Khaja said.

Events in Dubai in the coming months

Looking ahead, officials highlighted Dubai Summer Surprises, which returns in July with retail promotions, entertainment programmes and dining campaigns, including the Great Dubai Summer Sale and Summer Restaurant Week.

Dubai Fitness Challenge will also mark its 10th edition from October 31 to November 29 as the city continues efforts to strengthen its position in lifestyle and wellness tourism.

DET said Dubai’s international marketing network remains active across more than 80 source markets through partnerships with over 3,000 organisations worldwide.

The briefing also underscored ongoing infrastructure investments, including the recently approved Gold Line metro project, a 42-kilometre underground route serving 15 districts, and the planned expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport, a $35bn project expected to become the world’s largest aviation hub.

DET said the tourism sector remains focused on supporting the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33, which aims to double the size of the emirate’s economy by 2033.