Doha, Qatar: Web Summit Qatar 2025 successfully concluded last month, attracting over 25,000 attendees from more than 120 countries. Building on last year’s success, the event’s second edition featured expanded reach and impact, setting new records particularly in startup participation.
Over 1,520 startups representing diverse industries took part, showcasing their cutting-edge solutions to investors and industry leaders from around the world.
Junaid Wahedna, founder of Wahed, a global fintech company specialising in Islamic investments, highlighted Qatar’s supportive ecosystem, stating: “We had the ability to set up anywhere in the world, but we chose Qatar because of its strong support for fintech, research and Islamic finance. The alignment was really beautiful. It was perfect.”
Martin Schulze, CTO and co-founder of BlueBox, a German supply chain visibility startup, noted the region’s potential for business expansion, saying: “The market here offers a lot of opportunities. The region is quite dynamic, with many young people eager to innovate. I think that is sometimes underestimated in Europe, and it’s something I will pursue here.”
By Kids to Kids, a Finnish company originally founded in Brazil, showcased its platform that enables students to create their own learning content. Alloma Moretti, Business Development Director, said: “We hadn’t considered the Gulf market before, it was so distant from our reality, but we saw a great business opportunity here and said, ‘Why not?’
Werner Botha, Multimedia Storyteller at Artfundi, a South African art management technology company, highlighted the summit’s networking opportunities. “What I really like about this conference, for me personally, is meeting new people and seeing how well I operate in this environment. The networking aspect alone is a gold mine. So far, I’ve bumped into a competitor and found out we’re actually very good as partners. I also met someone working on virtual gallery technology, which makes them another potential partner, as well as a few people involved in organising the event.”
For many startups, Web Summit Qatar 2025 served as a strategic gateway to the MENA region. The Startup Qatar pavilion emerged as a focal point for international entrepreneurs, offering immediate business registration and showcasing various initiatives, funding and resources. A total of 1,634 companies registered to establish their offices in Qatar and156 licenses were issued.
Raiser Olwande, Global Products Sales Representative at Flick, a Nigerian open banking infrastructure startup, described the summit as a turning point, stating: “This summit has opened growth opportunities for us, and we’ve already started the paperwork to set up an entity here."
"The experience so far has been seamless, from travel to business registration,” Olwande added.
Web Summit cemented Qatar’s position as a tech and entrepreneurship leader, directly supporting its National Vision 2030 and Third National Development Strategy.
