Hub71, Abu Dhabi's global technology ecosystem, has formed a strategic partnership with European diagnostics leader Unilabs to accelerate health technology innovation. Unilabs is joining Hub71+ Life Sciences as an anchor market partner, providing startups with access to diagnostic and imaging infrastructure, clinical expertise, and a broad healthcare network. The collaboration is already generating commercial opportunities with Hub71 startups Takalam and GlycanAge across mental health, preventive care, and biological age testing.
Partnership scope and strategic objectives
Through the partnership, Unilabs will help startups explore technology integrations, proofs of concept, and commercial partnerships. The company will also provide market insight, mentorship, and support for scientific development through its research arm, Unilabs Academy. These pathways are designed to help emerging companies test, validate, and commercialize new health technologies in Abu Dhabi and beyond.
Hub71+ Life Sciences was launched in 2025 with the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Drug Establishment, and the Health, Endurance, Longevity and Medicine cluster as founding partners. The specialist ecosystem connects startups with regulators, healthcare providers, investors, and industry partners. Unilabs' role as an anchor market partner strengthens this infrastructure by helping startups access industry expertise and turn innovation into adoptable solutions.
Shared market access and innovation goals
The collaboration is intended to reduce the gap between promising health technologies and real clinical use. Startups gain access to Unilabs' healthcare network, while Unilabs gains early visibility into emerging diagnostic and digital health tools. This mutually beneficial structure helps both sides pursue faster innovation cycles and stronger commercial outcomes in Abu Dhabi's healthcare market.
Early collaborations with Takalam and GlycanAge
Unilabs is working with Takalam, a digital mental health platform, to develop a new mental health and wellbeing offering. The initiative combines Takalam's digital wellbeing platform with Unilabs' diagnostic expertise and selected health assessments to generate personalized health insights and inform targeted interventions. This marks the first time Unilabs has entered the mental health space, expanding its services into a new area of healthcare.
Unilabs has also established a partnership with GlycanAge, a biotechnology company focused on biological age diagnostics, following clinical evaluation and approval of its technology. Unilabs has introduced GlycanAge's biological age testing solution across its healthcare network with training, clinical education, and provider engagement. The collaboration opens a new diagnostic category relevant to preventive and functional medicine while advancing glycan testing methodologies in the region.
Leadership perspectives
Basma Ahmed AlBadi AlDhaheri, Head of Growth and Value Creation at Hub71, said: "The value of an innovation ecosystem is measured by the outcomes of its connections." She noted that bringing Unilabs together with startups like Takalam and GlycanAge turns startup innovation into economic value for Abu Dhabi. This supports the emirate's growing life sciences sector by connecting startups to expertise, infrastructure, and market access.
Salah Bahri, Chief Strategy Officer of Unilabs Middle East, said healthcare innovation needs to be grounded in clinical expertise and real market needs. He explained that the Hub71 partnership gives Unilabs a direct route to identify promising startups across diagnostics, digital health, and life sciences. Their work with Takalam and GlycanAge demonstrates the potential to create new healthcare offerings while advancing longer term scientific research.
The partnership demonstrates how anchor market partners can help health technology startups move from validation to commercial adoption in a competitive market. By connecting startups with clinical infrastructure, regulatory pathways, and market access, Hub71 and Unilabs are strengthening Abu Dhabi's position as a life sciences hub. Initial collaborations with Takalam and GlycanAge illustrate a practical model for turning diagnostic and digital health innovations into real services for patients and providers.