The leap
In 2016 I was working in sales at Elsewedy Electric in the UAE. I had a good job and a growing sense that I wanted to build something of my own.
The idea for DUBZ came from a problem every traveller in Dubai knows. My co-founder Omar Abou Faraj had lived it on a trip of his own: hotel checkout at noon, a flight late at night, and a whole day spent dragging suitcases around. Why couldn’t the airport come to you?
I believed the idea had real potential in Dubai, and I had already handed in my resignation. So I became the first of us to work on DUBZ full-time and dedicated myself to getting it off the ground, with Omar as CEO, Samer Sobh as COO, and me as Chief Commercial Officer.
Building from zero
DUBZ started as a simple service: we picked up bags at point A and delivered them to point B. In those early days I noticed that most of our trips ended at the airport. Dubai is a tourist city, and we were serving passengers from Dubai’s ports and from Dubai World Trade Centre, many of them on their way to a flight.
So I reached out to Intelak, the new travel incubator launched by the Emirates Group. In what started as an informal meeting, looking for a way to make DUBZ relevant to airlines, I came up with an idea on the spot: check passengers in at their doorstep. That idea became DUBZ’s home check-in.
My job was commercial: finding the partners, customers and approvals that would let a three-person startup handle other people’s luggage at one of the world’s busiest airports. I spent many days simply meeting people who might join us in building something from zero.
Finding the right partners is the most difficult aspect in starting a new business.
Mustafa Maghraby, quoted on the DUBZ blog
On 26 November 2016 we pitched at Intelak, the new aviation and travel incubator launched by the Emirates Group with GE and Etisalat Digital. Eighteen teams made the final pitches; Intelak loved the idea, and DUBZ was one of four winners chosen for the first cohort.
Dubai Tourism backed us too. We first gained attention at its Futurism start-up competition with GITEX Future Stars, and at the inaugural Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards in 2017 DUBZ was selected as a green initiative. In January 2018, we were shortlisted for Marriott Hotels’ TestBED accelerator for the Middle East and Africa.
Trust was everything. We built our security processes to meet airport requirements, with every bag locked and sealed, and our security solution was approved by Dubai Police.
The dnata deal
After Intelak, the Emirates Group showed a real interest in what we were building. Before the deal closed, we spent a long time working closely with dnata on new products, airline partnerships and the commercial case. In June 2018, dnata, part of the Emirates Group, acquired a majority stake in DUBZ.
That December, DUBZ won Logistics Innovation at Entrepreneur Middle East’s 2018 Enterprise Agility Awards in Dubai.
With dnata, passengers flying from Dubai could check in their bags and get their boarding passes at home or at their hotel. Partnerships with flydubai, Saudia and flynas followed. The Emirates Group highlighted the deal in its 2018–19 annual results, describing DUBZ as a company that emerged from Intelak.
What DUBZ became
What started as point-to-point bag delivery became a new category in the region: remote airport services. DUBZ opened a check-in station in The Dubai Mall, and in November 2020 its home check-in became available to every Emirates passenger flying from Dubai. That July, Dubai TV’s Kharitat Al Maal interviewed me about home check-in and home COVID-19 testing, and in September Reuters covered the service too. In 2025, marhaba, part of dnata, added DUBZ services at Dubai International Airport. Today DUBZ is listed among the Emirates Group’s own brands.
None of it happened alone. Omar, Samer and the team that joined us carried DUBZ further than any of us could have on our own.
What it taught me
Dubai made it possible. When I pitched in my home country, the first question was where the idea had already been done. Here, people want to be first, and everything relates to innovation.
Start before you feel ready. Pick partners as carefully as you pick the idea, because you will spend more time with them than with almost anyone else. And never stop earning the customer: in a crowded market, customer satisfaction is the only way to survive.
Those lessons are what I’m building on now: with Neotrium, now live in Dubai, and with SKYGO, launching in Egypt in 2027.
Questions about DUBZ
- Who founded DUBZ?
- DUBZ was co-founded in Dubai in 2016 by Mustafa Maghraby, Omar Abou Faraj and Samer Sobh. Mustafa served as Chief Commercial Officer, Omar as CEO and Samer as COO.
- When was DUBZ founded?
- In 2016. The first service, baggage pick-up to and from Dubai airport, launched in 2017.
- Who owns DUBZ?
- dnata, part of the Emirates Group, acquired a majority stake in DUBZ in June 2018.
- What does DUBZ do?
- DUBZ moves check-in and baggage handling away from the airport. Travellers can check in bags at home or at their hotel, and have bags collected or delivered before and after their flight.
- What was Mustafa Maghraby’s role at DUBZ?
- Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, from 2016 until December 2025. He came up with the idea of checking passengers in at their doorstep and led partnerships and commercial growth.
Sources
- The Recap: Enterprise Agility Awards 2018 (Entrepreneur Middle East, 2018)
- In 2016, I took the leap as the first full-time founder of DUBZ (Mustafa Maghraby on LinkedIn)
- dnata acquires majority stake in baggage storage and delivery service company, DUBZ (dnata, 2018)
- Making travel smarter (and easier): DUBZ wants to enhance your travel experience (Entrepreneur Middle East, 2018)
- Aviation industry startups take off at Intelak incubator in Dubai (Wamda, 2016)
- GITEX Future Star contender sets out to transform Dubai’s travel industry (TahawulTech)
- How a unified sense of passion caused the DUBZ dream to take off (DUBZ blog)
- DUBZ offers innovative home check-in services to Emirates passengers (dnata, 2020)
- dnata’s DUBZ checks in passengers for flights in The Dubai Mall (dnata)
- Emirates Group announces 2018-19 results (Emirates Group, 2019)
- Dubai Tourism backs local baggage storage start-up (TradeArabia, 2018)
- Dubz shortlisted in the Marriott Hotels TestBED Middle East & Africa (Wamda, 2018)
- The Emirates Group brands (Emirates Group)
- Dubai Airport innovates with home luggage delivery (Channel IAM, 2025)
- Kharitat Al Maal interview, Dubai TV (Dubai TV, 2020, Arabic)
- Interview on DUBZ home check-in (Reuters, 2020)
- DUBZ company profile (Crunchbase)