Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Center (DTEC) is a talent section developed under Silicon Oasis Free Zone. It focuses on startups with innovative business ideas in the field of IT.
It allows to start and grow your business in the dynamic atmosphere of a young community in Dubai. It has business and residential facilities, allowing to work and live in the same area.
DTEC can help you to develop your startup product. It has a special department that is offering investments into revenue-generating startups.
DTEC free zone has several types of allocations and it is up to you from where to operate.
See them listed below:
DTEC has multiple modern business facilities available for you 24/7.
You will get access to:
There are many various acceleration programs, professional and social events organized on a monthly basis.
Important notice: after 5 years you will need to move into a full-time physical office in Silicon Oasis. There you will be able to get your own office of any size and hire more employees if needed.
The list of available activities in DTEC Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre is quite narrow but that creates a great specialized community.
You can choose the following options:
To make sure that your business can be qualified for the DTEC registration, it is highly advisable to contact a business setup company in Dubai. A bit of professional advice will help you to find the right solution and make sure that your setup will be approved.
DTEC prices cannot be compared with any other Dubai free zone.
DTEC company setup costs:
Package | Number of visas | Price, AED |
---|---|---|
Flexi-desk | 2 | 18,0500 |
Designated desk | 3 | 24,200 |
Permanent office | One visa per 8 sqm | 47,820 |
DTEC registration procedure starts with the initial approval which will clarify whether your business model is qualified for DTEC free zone.
You will need to provide:
Once the initial approval is issued, the visit of the company owner will be required for business registration. If is not possible, a Power of Attorney holder can carry out the formalities on your behalf.
Company registration in this free zone normally takes 1-2 weeks.
There are no restrictions to the nationalities, anyone can apply for the initial approval and try their chances.
DTEC as part of the Silicon Oasis free zone and follows its visa procedures and costs.
Visa costs in DTEC:
DTEC fees, AED | Refundable deposit, AED | Medical check, AED | Emirates ID, AED | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Owner/Employee visa | 3,200 | 2,500 | 690 | 390 |
Some nationalities might require to provide attested birth certificate upon Immigration request.
The company manager must provide a legalized educational degree at the time of visa processing.
The company manager must be a UAE resident. He can have the visa either in DTEC or any other place in the UAE.
Company renewal is done remotely and does not require your personal presence. You will need to make the payment and provide the originally signed lease agreement for your facility.
Renewal takes 3-4 working days.
The license renewal cost will be slightly lower than the registration fees.
You have the flexibility to change:
Most of the amendments will require a personal presence of the company owner/general manager.
The liquidation fees are taken at the time of license registration in the amount of 2,000 AED. It includes all the fees associated with company cancellation and even advertising for liquidation.
Prior to company cancellation, you will need to close all the visas under the company and provide the audit report confirming that you have no liabilities in the market.
The liquidation takes about 1 month.
DTEC is a great solution for technically and IT-oriented startups that would like to get to the encouraging ambiance, find new connections and like-minded entrepreneurs.
It is a space for those who will live in the UAE and spend some time in their office regularly. You will have a full time office space waiting for your creativity 24/7 and will have all the tools to move ahead into a big international corporation.
If you are looking for different business activities(trading, for example) we recommend you to pay more attention to Dubai South business setup options. The price range will be slightly higher but you will have much wider activities to choose from.
DTEC is an interim stage between a freelance license in Dubai and a regular company that allows you to have a business license, corporate bank account and even a few employees.
TRADING AND SERVICE LICENCE COSTS IN DTEC FREE ZONE
UP TO 2 VISAS COMPANY
LICENSE TYPE | VISAS INCLUDED | TOTAL COST | |
---|---|---|---|
IT services license + Flexi desk | no visa | AED 28,825 $7,900 | download breakdown |
IT services license + Flexi desk | 1 visa | AED 33,128 $9,100 | download breakdown |
IT services license + Flexi desk | 2 visas | AED 37,430 $10,250 | download breakdown |
DOCUMENTS FOR DTEC FREE ZONE SETUP
INDIVIDUAL SHAREHOLDER
Yes, you can have a company registered outside Dubai, but reside in Dubai or any other Emirate. You do not have to live in the same Emirate where your visa belongs to. You can also have a bank account in a Dubai branch of any UAE bank of your choice.
No, you have to visit UAE personally. It is a requirement of a UAE Central bank which all local banks have to follow. Personal visit is required to make sure that the client is known by the bank.
Normally you can get a debit card for your newly opened company if there is only one shareholder. You can also have a credit card, but it will be given against a fixed deposit. As for the loan, it is possible to get it, but you need to show company operations and profits to the bank. Upon checking your company's turnovers and profits, a bank may approve a loan. We recommend applying for it at least after one year of company's operations.
Officially an office of a free zone company has to be located only within the free zone where this company was registered. If you need an office in Dubai, you have an option to rent a space in a Business center and use it either a few times per month or daily, depending on the package that you choose. However, the free zone minimum required space (flexi desk) cannot be cancelled.
A flexi desk is an obligatory requirement for any company eligible for resident visas. UAE government obliges to have it because it's the minimum physical office space, that a company who has any individual under its visa must have. Apart from that, flexi desk is helpful for bank account opening. The compliance department of the banks needs to see that a company has some kind of office or at least a small physical seat, where it can be working from.
VAT obligations of the company depend not only on the place of its registration, but on the place where its business takes place. To start with, VAT comes into picture once your taxable turnover reaches 375 000 AED. Taxable turnover means the turnover which was done in the UAE. If your company is registered in a Free Zone, but the trading takes place abroad (for example you sell goods from India to Africa), that turnover is not considered taxable, because the transactions are taking place out of UAE. It means that you do not have to pay VAT. But if you have a free zone company and import goods to UAE, you have to add 5% VAT to your Invoices and pay VAT. If your company is registered in a designated free and sells the goods to another designated free zone or within the same zone, VAT does not appear.
UAE is free from income tax and corporate tax. It has only imported tax 5% for the goods that you bring into the country and VAT 5% for the trading or service transactions that happened in UAE.
Everything depends on your business model and requirements, but a free zone setup is the most suitable for the majority of the business needs. Free Zone company has 100% foreign ownership unlike mainland where you need a local partner or agent, it can be eligible for resident visas, allows doing business both in and out of UAE, more favorable by the banks in comparison to offshore companies, can have a flexi desk space instead of an executive office like in mainland companies. Free Zone is a good way to start a business for reasonable fees and without unwanted obligations.
We do our best when we setup your company in such a way that would make account opening easier for you. Knowing your background and your business model, we can give you our estimation about the chances of successful account opening. The approval of the account fully depends on the bank. Each case goes to a few departments of the bank where it has to be approved before the account gets opened. If the bank has any questions or needs clarifications, it will contact you directly with the inquiries. The more clear picture about your business you give to the bank, the higher your chances of account opening are. Being a consultancy company, we cannot guarantee opening of a bank account, because it depends on the factors which do not depend on us. However, we do our best to prepare you and your company for smooth and fast account opening.
Yes, the company should be renewed annually. The cost of the renewal is usually less than the setup cost. It depends on your company package. You can get the price by downloading the Estimate from this page. Renewal does not require personal presence of the owner and can be done by your agent. After company renewal, the new license has to be shown to the bank in order to extend the bank account. It is always included into our renewal service.
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