When a group of fresh Emirati graduates walked into Hamad Al Marar’s office in 2013 with an idea to build a navigation system from scratch, refusing to license intellectual property from anyone, few imagined how far it would travel. Today, that same locally-built system guides Emirati drones, missiles and aircraft, including JENIAH, the country’s first jet-powered combat drone.
The story, told by Al Marar, Managing Director and CEO of EDGE Group, on Tuesday at the International Exhibition for National Security and Resilience (ISNR) 2026, was paired with another disclosure from the country’s top cybersecurity official: 27 cybersecurity startups have grown out of Emirati university graduation projects, with one already valued at more than $50 million and led by a founder aged just 22 or 23.
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The disclosures came during the Circles of Resilience session at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, attended by Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, as part of the Youth Track of the Global Summit for Sustainable Security.
Startups born in the classroom
Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Chairman of the UAE Cybersecurity Council, said the founder of the $50-million company works with a team he described as “geniuses, developers and researchers”, backed by larger Emirati industry players including EDGE.
To illustrate the formula behind such success, he shared a recent interview with a young Emirati woman who had earned more than seven professional certifications online, joined national cyber drills and qualified as an ethical hacker. She is now in demand across the job market.
“The opportunities are there. Leadership is supportive. But the individual has to invest in themselves,” Dr. Al Kuwaiti said. “A degree alone is no longer enough.”
Written by Emirati hands
Al Marar returned to the 2013 meeting, when the young team proposed a six-year development timeline. “They asked me where to begin. I told them to buy books,” he recalled. The project was initially rejected because the timeline was deemed too slow, before funding was eventually pieced together from other budget lines. The system was delivered in eight years instead of six.
“Today, the navigation system used in our drones, your weapons, your missiles, your aircraft, including the JENIAH. The world has heard about, this was written from books,” Al Marar said. “It is written by Emirati hands. It needed patience. And it needed people who believed we could get there.”
JENIAH, developed by ADASI, an EDGE subsidiary, completed its first test flight at 1,050 km/h in March 2024, becoming the UAE’s first locally-produced jet-powered combat drone.
Institutional governance, generational bet
EDGE has grown from 100 employees at its founding to more than 19,000 today, drawn from over 100 nationalities, including more than 2,000 engineers. The group’s strategy, Al Marar said, has remained unchanged since 2018.
“Governance is what matters,” he said. “It should not depend on individuals. It must be institutional.”
Closing the session, Dr. Al Kuwaiti returned to the wider picture: “We are the first line of defence. Our youth, our community, our awareness, these are what protect the nation.”
Source: Khaleej Times