UAE onshore: crowdfunding under the SCA framework

The regulator and the activity

The Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) regulates crowdfunding across onshore UAE. A Crowdfunding Platform Operator is licensed as a Category Six activity, with a base capital requirement of AED 1,000,000, under Cabinet Resolution No. 36 of 2022. The permission defines the scope of the operator's activity, and the conduct standard applies to how each offer is run.

Cabinet Resolution No. 36 of 2022 reaches into the free zones as well, so an onshore analysis cannot be assumed to stop at the mainland boundary. The operator carries the framework's conduct and disclosure duties in full, and those duties are shaped by the fact that retail investors are admitted from the outset.

What it means for issuers and investors

Retail investors may take part from day one, which is why the framework attaches the heaviest disclosure obligations of the three regimes described here. The offer window is 15 business days, extendable once by an equal period, and a secondary market is not in scope for this activity. The disclosure standard is calibrated to a retail audience present from the start.

Equal treatment is central onshore: an operator may not solicit, induce or favour one investor over another. For that reason a volume-based allocation ladder is not permitted onshore, because it would treat earlier commitments more favourably than later ones. The UAE is a planned later-phase jurisdiction for SoukRaise, and the platform remains pre-licence, so this page sets out the framework a raise would use rather than a permission already in place.

UAE Cabinet Resolution No. 36 of 2022 on crowdfunding; SCA rules; positions as at July 2026, subject to confirmation with counsel