Step, a vibrant platform for startups, tech enthusiasts, and investors, has undergone an extensive rebrand after an incredibly successful twelfth Step Dubai event earlier in the year, where the company also unveiled the innovative Host Partner Model, its first step to going global.
The rebrand of Step was led by co-founder and CEO of Step, Ray Dargham, who said, “Step, established in 2012 as a series of workshops and small gatherings, has grown into one of the MENA region’s leading tech festivals. With our sights set on global expansion and extending beyond the region, we recently introduced the Step Host Partner Model, enabling individuals to host Step events in their own cities. The rebranding is a natural progression in line with our expansion strategy.”
As part of the rebrand, Step’s mission has been defined as the catalyst of startup ecosystems through connecting its most passionate and valuable stakeholders, whilst the vision is outlined as a goal to enable 1 million startup founders around the world. Driving the mission and vision will be the core values of putting founders of startups first, being community-centric, striving for ongoing brilliance, and delivering with infectious ambition.
Visually, the brand’s logo will now have an impactful indication of movement – building up and moving up – and a striking new colour palette including an array of neons and bold accents.
Chris Eid, Founder & CEO of DUCKLIFE, Step’s branding partner, said, “Who doesn’t love Step? Getting the opportunity to work with Step on their brand refresh was exciting, but also quite daunting. Step is largely responsible for our region’s startup community. As network creators, they laid the foundation of our ecosystem and their ambitions have never ceased to expand. This refresh lends true to their exciting future with literal and figurative associations to their identity and we couldn’t be prouder of the outcome.”
Since announcing the Step Host Partner Model in February this year, the team has received global interest from nations including Pakistan, Turkey, Albania, and Argentina. It is anticipated that the next Step event outside of Dubai and Riyadh and the first event to be held under the Step Host Partner Model will be in Istanbul.
Since its creation 12 years ago, Step Conference has hosted thousands of startups from 58 countries, of which 28.5% collectively achieved over $1 billion in funding. In 2024, the Dubai edition hosted 350 startups participating in over 500 curated meetings with more than 150 venture capital firms, accessing funds worth $8.2 billion. A staggering 8,000 international attendees convened across two days as Step Conference continued to amplify Dubai’s presence on the global tech stage.
