Innovation City company setup

Innovation City is Ras Al Khaimah's technology free zone. It started as Ras Al Khaimah Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO), a zone made only for digital asset and Web3 companies. In 2025 it was relaunched as Innovation City, to cover more kinds of technology.

The business activities it licenses are the reason it exists: artificial intelligence and robotics, Web3 and digital assets, gaming and the creator economy, health technology and education technology, cybersecurity, climate technology and transport technology. Older free zones often do not have clear activities for these businesses. A zone that does is valuable if you keep hearing that your business activity does not exist.

In every other way, it is a normal free zone. You can own 100% of the company. You get a trade licence, company papers and an establishment card for sponsoring residence visas.

A free zone licence lets you do business. It is not permission from a regulator. In this zone, that difference matters more than anywhere else on this list.

Some activities are regulated: holding clients' money, creating or trading tokens, running an exchange, anything that looks like a financial service, gambling, or handling patients' data. If your business does any of these, the licence is only the first of several approvals. Before you set up, we will tell you which regulator you will need to deal with. If this zone cannot get you there, we will tell you that too.

This is the zone where we most often advise clients not to do what they asked for. That is why this page needs to be direct, not excited.

It suits technology companies building a product: AI and robotics, Web3 and blockchain development, gaming and creator studios, health and education technology, cybersecurity, and climate and transport technology. It suits business owners whose activity other zones could not classify properly.

It does not suit a trading company or normal professional services. A consultancy, an agency, an import business or a general trading company belongs in a general zone, and IFZA or Meydan will be easier. It does not suit anyone who needs large premises. And it does not suit a regulated business that has not yet spoken to its regulator.

If someone is selling you this zone for a business that is not a technology business, ask why. The honest answer is usually that they only work with this one zone.

Both are in Ras Al Khaimah, but they are for different needs. That is why we work with both.

RAKEZ is the emirate's large, general zone: trading, industry, services and space of every kind. Innovation City is small and specialised. If your business is a technology product in one of the areas above, Innovation City is built for you. For anything else in that emirate, RAKEZ is almost always the better licence.

One difference is in who holds the appointment, not in the zone. The RAKEZ appointment is held by our sister company, Bareq Almas Businessmen Services, and its page says so. The Innovation City appointment is held by Almas Financial Services directly.

Our confirmed free zone starting price is based on the general zones, and it does not apply here. Instead of showing a number that would be wrong for everyone, this page has no starting price.

We will give you a written price once we know your business activity, the number of visas, and whether you need a regulator's approval as well as the licence. In this zone, that approval is what changes the total cost most.