India is the largest source of foreign-owned companies in Dubai. In 2025, 18,486 new Indian-owned companies registered with Dubai Chambers, an 11 percent jump from the year before, making India the top source of new foreign business for the second-year running (Dubai Chamber data). Behind those numbers are individual founders who arrived decades ago with a fraction of that scale and built businesses that now employ thousands.
This list looks at ten of them. Some built retail empires from a single shop. Others turned a construction contract into a regional conglomerate. One built one of the region’s biggest hospital networks, only to watch it collapse under fraud allegations years later. Their industries differ, but most of them made the same early decision: which legal structure to build on. That choice still shapes how new Indian entrepreneurs’ approach business formation in Dubai today.
Why the UAE Keeps Attracting Indian Entrepreneurs
Three things pull Indian founders toward the UAE more than almost any other market outside India.
- Zero personal income tax, which lets founders reinvest profit instead of losing a slice of it every year.
- 100 percent foreign ownership, available in every free zone and, since 2021, in most mainland business activities too.
- Proximity to India, with flight times under four hours from most major Indian cities, keeping supply chains and family ties close.
Add a large existing Indian community, currently the biggest expatriate group in the country, and the UAE becomes less of a leap and more of a natural extension for a first-time founder.
The 10 Entrepreneurs
1. M.A. Yusuff Ali, LuLu Group
Yusuff Ali built LuLu Group into one of the Gulf’s largest retail conglomerates, with hypermarkets, malls, and hospitality holdings across the Middle East. He ranks among the wealthiest Indian expatriates in the UAE, with an estimated net worth of USD 5.8 billion on the Forbes World’s Billionaires List 2026.
2. Rizwan Sajan, Danube Group
Sajan moved to Dubai in 1993 and started Danube as a small trading firm. It has since grown into a conglomerate spanning building materials, real estate, and home furnishings, with operations reaching Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, and China. His net worth is estimated at USD 2.5 billion.
3. Sunny Varkey, GEMS Education
Varkey opened a single school in Dubai in 1980, continuing a family background in teaching. That school became GEMS Education, now the world’s largest operator of private K to 12 schools. Forbes puts his 2026 net worth at USD 4 billion.
4. Ravi Pillai, RP Group
Pillai built RP Group into a conglomerate with interests spanning construction, hospitality, and healthcare. His construction arm has handled major infrastructure and building contracts across the Gulf, making him one of the region’s most established Indian names in the sector.
5. Micky Jagtiani, Landmark Group
Jagtiani, who died in 2023, started with a single store in Bahrain in the 1970s before moving into the UAE. Landmark Group grew into one of the region’s largest retail groups, running more than 2,300 outlets across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia under brands including Lifestyle, Home Centre, Splash, and Centrepoint.
6. Shamsheer Vayalil, Burjeel Holdings
Vayalil founded Burjeel Holdings, now one of the largest private healthcare providers in the UAE, with hospitals and clinics across the country. Forbes lists his 2026 net worth at USD 1.8 billion.
7. B.R. Shetty, NMC Health
Shetty’s story belongs on this list for a different reason than the others. He founded NMC as a single clinic in Abu Dhabi in the mid-1970s and grew it into the UAE’s largest privately owned healthcare operator, listing it on the London Stock Exchange in 2012 at a valuation above USD 1 billion. At its peak in 2018, NMC was valued at more than USD 10 billion.
In December 2019, short seller Muddy Waters Research alleged the company had inflated its cash balances and hidden its debt. An investigation later uncovered more than USD 4 billion in undisclosed liabilities, and NMC collapsed into administration in April 2020. Shetty has always denied wrongdoing and says he was misled by former executives; a $5.4 billion fraud trial against him began in Abu Dhabi in 2026. His story is a reminder that scale alone does not protect a business, governance does.
8. Firoz Merchant, Pure Gold Jewellers
Merchant built Pure Gold Jewellers into one of the region’s recognized jewellery retail names, known equally for its retail footprint and its philanthropic work in the UAE.
9. Kabir Mulchandani, FIVE Holdings
Mulchandani founded FIVE Holdings, a Dubai-based hospitality and property group behind a chain of hotels and residences across the emirate. Forbes estimates his 2026 net worth at USD 2.2 billion.
10. Dhruv Sawhney, Triveni Engineering & Industries
Sawhney chairs Triveni Engineering & Industries, an industrial group with interests spanning sugar, engineering, and power transmission equipment. Forbes lists his 2026 net worth at USD 1.6 billion, placing him among the UAE-based Indian billionaires with a primarily industrial portfolio.
What Their Setup Choices Reveal
Look past the industries and a pattern shows up in how these founders structured their businesses. The earliest movers, people like Jagtiani, Sajan, and Shetty, built under the mainland system that existed in the 1970s through 1990s, when a UAE national sponsor was still required for most business activities. That changed permanently in 2021, when the UAE opened most mainland sectors to 100 percent foreign ownership.
That shift, combined with the growth of specialised free zones, changed the calculation for anyone starting a business in the UAE today. A new founder no longer needs a legacy trading relationship or decades of local goodwill to get a license. Newer entrepreneurs, especially first-generation Indian founders launching smaller ventures rather than conglomerates, increasingly register through free zone communities such as IFZA Dubai, drawn by faster licensing timelines, lower setup costs, and full ownership without a local partner. The mechanics of business formation in Dubai have simplified considerably since the era when Sajan or Jagtiani were getting started, even if the ambition driving founders into the market has stayed the same.
What This Means If You’re Considering the Same Move
If you’re an Indian founder weighing a move to the UAE, the practical question is no longer whether you can own 100 percent of your company. You almost certainly can, whether you go mainland or free zone. The real decision is about fit.
Free zones work well if your business trades internationally or doesn’t need a physical storefront in the local market. Mainland licenses make more sense if you plan to sell directly to UAE consumers or bid on government contracts. Either path is faster and cheaper today than it was for any founder on this list when they started.
Closing
Every founder on this list arrived with more ambition than capital. What separated the ones who built lasting businesses from the one who lost his, NMC’s Shetty, wasn’t the size of the opportunity in front of them. It was what they built underneath it. For Indian entrepreneurs weighing the same move today, IFZA Dubai and the wider UAE free zone system offer a faster, cheaper way to test that same ambition than any of these ten founders had available to them.
