NUMU's UAE GEMS Returns With 30 Brands Across 85 noon Food Locations

NUMU has launched the second edition of UAE GEMS, a seven-day campaign that brings 30 homegrown UAE restaurant brands across 85 locations together, running exclusively on noon Food from September 7 to 13, 2026.

The activation is built to drive customer discovery and acquisition for the brands taking part, using a mix of targeted offers, creator activity and visibility inside the delivery app. NUMU describes itself as an AI-powered growth platform for restaurant brands on delivery apps.

A bigger group than the May debut

The first UAE GEMS ran in May 2026. Restaurants that took part recorded revenue increases of up to 1,500% during the campaign week against a standard trading week, alongside profit growth, and the campaign drew thousands of newly acquired customers. Retention after the campaign measured 50% above the pre-campaign baseline — evidence, according to NUMU, that the format produces repeat purchasing rather than only pulling demand forward.

That distinction carries weight in a category where promotional peaks tend to fade. The stated goal is customers who return, not a one-off spike.

NIA sets the structure

Campaign decisions are handled by NIA, NUMU's AI growth technology, which reads commercial data at the level of individual restaurants to determine offer levels, creator selection and the sequence in which marketing activity runs.

• Offers are structured around cost of goods, delivery commissions and packaging costs, so discounts do not undermine unit economics.
• Brands are paired with local creators on audience relevance and past performance, not follower counts alone.
• Media, creator work and in-app placements are coordinated so each element feeds the wider customer journey rather than running as a separate activity.

Together, NUMU says, these pieces connect awareness and consideration through to discovery and purchase.

What it would cost to go it alone

NUMU puts the cost of a comparable campaign executed independently at roughly AED150,000 per brand, plus weeks of coordination across marketing, operations and finance. For the 30 brands in UAE GEMS 2, that works out to approximately AED4.5 million in equivalent campaign value, delivered without each brand dedicating the same internal resources.

NUMU manages more than 700 restaurant listings on delivery platforms across the UAE and the wider GCC, representing over AED 300 million in annual gross merchandise value. That operating scale, the company says, is what allows hundreds of brand-level growth decisions to be folded into a single demand moment — something it argues would be operationally difficult to assemble brand by brand.

"The breakthrough is not simply bringing brands together; it is being able to make hundreds of growth decisions at brand level while coordinating them into one consumer moment," said Paul Noujeim, Co-Founder at NUMU. "NIA models each restaurant's economics individually, while Noon Food gives the campaign the in-app environment and visibility to turn that intelligence into demand at scale. That combination is what makes UAE GEMS difficult to replicate."

Noujeim also described the broader intent behind the platform. "Delivery platforms have created significant opportunities for restaurants to reach consumers at scale," he said. "The next step is making that reach more intelligent and commercially effective." He added that NIA is designed to help restaurants identify where growth opportunities sit and convert those insights into practical campaigns.

NUMU lists customer acquisition, retention, advertising performance, visibility and unit-level profitability among the areas NIA addresses. The curated, time-boxed shape of UAE GEMS is intended to let brands run sharper tactical offers while protecting their standing — and to read to consumers as an event rather than permanent markdown.

UAE GEMS 2 runs on noon Food through September 13, 2026.