Source : WAM
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the International Private Equity Market (IPEM) on Monday unveiled the outcomes of the first IPEM Future Preview, an exclusive gathering in Dubai for some of the world’s and region’s most influential private capital investors.
Hosted at DIFC for the first time in the region, the closed-door event brought together senior representatives from sovereign wealth funds, global investment firms, and leading growth and venture platforms to discuss how long-term capital can drive the next phase of innovation, resilience, and economic transformation.
The Preview highlighted Dubai’s growing role as the region’s preferred destination for private markets and as a meeting point for global investors seeking access to new liquidity and investment opportunities.
The day-long agenda was designed to foster collaboration through high-energy, workshop-driven sessions, where decision-makers emphasized that the Gulf, particularly Dubai, has entered a new stage of development as a private capital hub, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals and a favorable business environment.
Global investors are increasingly allocating significant portions of their portfolios and operations to regional financial centres like DIFC. Confidence in the institutional ecosystem, coupled with access to new liquidity pools, is enabling investors to target emerging markets and sectors, including AI, data, and climate innovation.
“The IPEM Future Preview demonstrated the confidence global investors place in DIFC as a platform for long-term capital,” said Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority. “Bringing influential leaders together in Dubai reinforces our position at the centre of a rapidly transforming private markets landscape and sets the stage for even deeper collaboration as we prepare to host IPEM Future next year.”
The event also introduced the concept of Transformative Capital, highlighting how private markets are recalibrating after recent periods of volatility. The concept emphasizes a growing shift toward investments that combine financial returns with strategic long-term value, particularly in frontier and high-growth technologies.
These trends mirror the evolving priorities of Gulf sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors, who are increasingly directing capital to sectors with structural, long-duration growth potential.
The findings align with DIFC’s Future of Finance series, which identifies Dubai as a jurisdiction where long-term capital and high-growth opportunities reinforce each other, positioning the emirate as an increasingly influential centre for global private markets.
Antoine Colson, CEO and Managing Partner of IPEM, said, “This event marks a new chapter in Dubai’s ambition to become a world-leading global investment hub. By bringing together leading international decision-makers with major regional partners, IPEM and DIFC are creating a rare space for dialogue, collaboration, and long-term thinking, one that helps shape how innovation, technology, and global growth will be financed in the years ahead.
“It is also an opportunity to collectively explore how the world can mobilise capital to meet the planet’s most pressing needs, from sustainable development to technological progress.”
Insights from the event will help shape the agenda for the inaugural IPEM Future Dubai 2026, scheduled for 13–14 May 2026 during Dubai Future Finance Week. The event will bring together selected global executives to advance the international private markets ecosystem.
Designed as a platform for strategy-setting, capital alignment, and global partnership-building, IPEM Future Dubai will further solidify Dubai’s position as a leading hub for private capital, enabling investors and managers to shape the next decade of economic and technological transformation from the heart of the MEASA region.
Dave Mullen, Partner, Pinegrove Venture Partners, said, “Identifying the next wave of enabling technologies and the best founders is not enough – scaling businesses is a core tenet of how innovation reaches the mainstream. Transformative capital is therefore hugely important as we think through the future of innovation.”
“When we think about the region and Dubai’s leadership and evolution and the broader innovation economy, the flow of capital, focus on talent development and innovation, and the ecosystem’s horizontal ecosystem, which enables networking and relationship-building from the top down – all enable technology to be pushed forward,” he added.
Sonia Weymuller, Co-founder and General Partner of VentureSouq, stated, “Transformative capital is about building a mindset where you can create impact and generate financial returns at the same time. There is an opportunity for transformative capital to be both.”
Kat Borlongan, Board Member, European Innovation Council, stated, “The notion of transformative capital is important. Through it, we are actively investing in and shaping the future, instead of betting on it. There is an alignment in Dubai’s diverse private capital ecosystem, since Dubai has been really great at setting a long-term vision that we are moving towards, as opposed to making short-term bets.”
