Explore the Fast Company Middle East’s Most Innovative Companies 2025 list, featuring 56 winning entries reshaping businesses and industries. We’ve selected the companies making the most significant impact with their initiatives across 24 categories, including the most innovative AI and data science, sustainability, energy, finance & fintech, and women-backed companies.

Conglomerates and holding companies are redefining business strategy by bringing diverse industries under one vision. By managing a portfolio of companies, they drive growth, stability, and long-term value. These organizations harness resources, expertise, and innovation to create synergies across sectors. From finance and technology to manufacturing and services, they influence economies and shape markets. 

Middle East Communications Network 

For building a people-centered, collaboration-driven ecosystem 

MCN has evolved its holding model into a connected ecosystem that brings together 2,000 employees across 15 agencies and 11 markets. Over the past year, the group launched McCann Content Studios, Interact, and Truth to Impact, fostering integrated creativity, data-led marketing, and measurable business growth. Through the MCN Blueprint, developed in partnership with The Economist, clients gained access to actionable regional insights. Meanwhile, the MCN Academy and Harvard Business School Online programs supported talent development across the MENAT region. Cross-agency collaborations with brands such as Unilever, Kia, and Danone demonstrated the power of this integrated approach, delivering culture-led storytelling and tangible business results. Under the MCN Impact initiative, sustainability efforts reduced travel emissions by 65 percent, saved more than 195,000 plastic bottles, and introduced Ad Net Zero UAE and Anti-Greenwashing Guidelines. MCN continues to build a sustainable network where creativity, talent, and performance grow in unison.

Publicis Groupe Middle East

For a connected ecosystem that scales value

Publicis Groupe has redefined what it means to be a holding company, shifting from oversight to interoperability. Through Marcel, its AI-powered platform, 100 percent of employees across the region connect to shared data, insights, and learning, eliminating silos and enabling knowledge, people, and ideas to flow freely across creative, media, and tech disciplines. This model enables agencies to collaborate seamlessly under the Power of One framework, delivering unified solutions rather than fragmented outputs. Group-wide innovation engines, such as Youth Studio, which helps brands authentically engage Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and LionX, a cross-agency platform for data-driven brand experiences, are now embedded across multiple agencies. Strategic alliances with G42 and national AI initiatives in Saudi Arabia ensure all clients benefit from frontier technology. By building an organization that connects rather than controls, Publicis Groupe accelerates creativity, collaboration, and sustainable growth across the region.