Arnav Gupta started building THENU before he had even moved to Dubai.
At 17, after receiving an offer from the University of Birmingham Dubai, he found himself doing what many international students do before moving to a new country. He joined WhatsApp groups, asked other students which SIM card to buy, looked for accommodation, and tried to work out which services he could trust.
The information was available, but it was scattered.
One student knew which SIM to get. Another had advice about accommodation. Someone else could recommend a bank or a place to eat. There was no single place that brought these decisions together for someone arriving in Dubai for the first time.
Gupta saw an opportunity in that gap and started building THENU from India.
Today, he is 18, studying at the University of Birmingham Dubai and running the company alongside his degree. THENU is now live on the App Store and Google Play, with more than 400 students across 27 plus UAE universities and its first paying customers.
The platform brings services such as connectivity, housing, transport, meals, events, internships, roommates, banking and other student needs into one place. Its investor material describes the product as a trusted layer between international students and the city.
The details and figures in this story were confirmed by Arnav Gupta during an interview with UAE Startup Story. The information about THENU, its users, partnerships, milestones and plans comes from the founder and has not been independently verified by UAE Startup Story.
He built the product before becoming its customer
The interesting part of THENU’s story is that Gupta did not start with a company and then search for a problem.
He started with his own move.
Before leaving India, he tried to understand what his first few weeks in Dubai would look like. He needed answers about accommodation, connectivity, banking and everyday life. Most of those answers came from people who had already made the move themselves.
That led him to map the decisions an international student has to make when arriving in a new country.
The result was THENU.
The product is built around the first 90 days of a student’s journey, from arriving and getting connected to finding a home, moving around the city and meeting people.
Gupta then moved to Dubai in September and started university.
That changed the nature of the project. He was no longer building for a student profile on a screen. He was experiencing the same transition as his users.
It also gave him a direct way to test whether the product solved a real problem.
“When I finally landed here in September and became the customer, that was the biggest validation I could have asked for,” Gupta told UAE Startup Story.
That experience continues to shape the product. He can hear a problem from another student during the day and work on it while the problem is still fresh.
THENU brings the scattered pieces of student life together
THENU is not trying to replace the companies that already provide services to students.
Instead, it brings them together through one platform.
The current product covers 11 areas, including connectivity, banking, housing, transport, meals, internships, events, roommates, a first friend, emergencies and a wallet.
That range reflects how Gupta sees the arrival experience.
A student may need a SIM card on the first day, accommodation soon after, transport to move around the city, meals while settling in and people to connect with. These are separate needs, but they often arrive at the same time.
THENU is designed to put them within the same student journey.
The platform is already working with partners in several of these categories. Its current partners include Virgin Mobile UAE for connectivity, Khana Republic for meals, Pilot & Chauffeur Cars for transport and Kirpa Properties for housing.
The business model is built around these partnerships. Students can use THENU for free, while the company earns a commission when a student books a verified partner service through the app.
This gives Gupta a reason to keep expanding the platform beyond one service.
The more parts of the arrival experience THENU can handle, the more useful it becomes to a student who is still learning how Dubai works.
At 18, earning trust has been one of the hardest parts
Building a startup while studying is demanding enough. For Gupta, there is another challenge that comes with being 18: convincing established companies to take him seriously.
When he approaches a telecom company or property business, he says the first question is often simple: who are you?
His answer has been to show them something that already works.
Rather than relying only on a pitch, he can demonstrate the live product, show the student community and then deliver on what he promises.
One of the early examples was Virgin Mobile UAE.
The company sponsored THENU Connect, a cross university student event held at Blumi Cafe in September. Around 70 students from different campuses attended. For some, it was an opportunity to meet other students who were also new to Dubai.
The event was important for another reason. It showed Gupta that THENU could bring together the community it was building inside the app.
The company’s investor material records THENU Connect as its first sponsored flagship event and notes that the event was run with Virgin Mobile UAE.
There have also been more practical challenges.
When THENU opened ticket sales for the event, many payment attempts failed because Indian issued cards were being declined for AED transactions.
For Gupta, it was a reminder that building a startup involves solving problems that may have nothing to do with the original product idea.
“The demand was there; the plumbing wasn’t,” he said.
From one student community to a wider UAE opportunity
THENU launched on the App Store and Google Play on 18 August 2026.
The platform now has more than 400 students across 27 plus UAE universities, with most of that growth coming organically. Gupta says the first paying customers are already using the platform.
The company is also licensed in Dubai Silicon Oasis under THENU Technologies FZCO.
Its early traction is concentrated around Dubai’s university communities. THENU’s investor material identifies Knowledge Park, Academic City and Silicon Oasis as the main university clusters it is targeting, with more than 30 campuses already reached in its earlier September figures.
But Gupta is not looking to expand everywhere immediately.
His next major test is the January 2027 intake.
The goal is to get THENU into a student’s phone before they arrive in Dubai rather than waiting until they land. The company plans to build a pre arrival bundle that could include a SIM, airport pickup, meals for the first week and an introduction to another student before departure.
Gupta also wants to work with university international offices so that some of this support can become part of the arrival process itself.
That would change THENU’s role from a service students discover after arriving to something they can use while preparing for the move.
The company also plans to turn THENU Connect into a regular event series across Dubai’s university clusters and strengthen its housing and meals offerings.
Dubai remains the focus for now. Once the model is working properly there, Gupta plans to take THENU to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.
The bigger idea behind THENU
The immediate goal is straightforward: make the first few weeks in Dubai easier for international students.
But Gupta sees a larger opportunity beyond that.
THENU’s investor material positions Dubai as the first market, followed by the wider UAE, the GCC and eventually international student markets. Its longer term vision extends beyond students to people moving to a new country for work, education or other reasons.
Students are the starting point because their needs are concentrated. They arrive at a specific time, need several services at once and tend to share their experiences with other students.
That makes the student community a natural place to build the first version of a much larger platform.
For Gupta, however, the immediate focus remains close to home.
He wants THENU to become something an international student thinks about before flying to the UAE and continues using until graduation.
That ambition is being built alongside university life.
At 18, Gupta is attending lectures, talking to partners, responding to customer problems and organising student events in the same city that inspired the company.
THENU began with a simple question he had while preparing for his own move: why should an international student have to figure everything out separately?
The company is now trying to turn that answer into a platform that can guide the next student from the moment they decide to come to Dubai through the point where the city starts to feel like home.
