Making it in the UAE – Donna Benton
Donna Benton is not, in her words, “The stay-home coffee Mum”.
After building The ENTERTAINER into one of the UAE’s best-known brands, taking it across more than a dozen markets and selling it in a nine-figure US dollar deal, the Australian entrepreneur could have stepped away.
Instead, she built a portfolio across hospitality, fashion, beauty, sport and property. And, in 2023, she returned to the company that made her name.
Speaking to City AM as part of a series on entrepreneurs who “made it” in the UAE, Benton reflected on the opportunities the region has given her and why, for her, success means giving something back.
The ENTERTAINER, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is an app that offers users buy one get one free deals on meals, stays, attractions, and experiences. Benton says the platform saves customers around $300m a year while driving $1.3bn in global annual spend.
It began as a printed voucher book in Dubai in 2001, after Benton moved from Melbourne aged 26 with 3,000 Australian dollars. She planned to stay for a year, get a job, save money and return home with enough for a deposit on an apartment.
But when her first job didn’t work out, Benton began to see what the city could offer. Dubai, to Benton, was a place of opportunity. At the time, it was also a city filling with restaurants, hotels, beach clubs, spas, waterparks and other places to spend money.
Residents wanted to enjoy more of it. Businesses needed customers through the door. Benton, who came from a family with “not much money”, saw the gap. Her answer was buy one, get one free
“Everyone does discounts,” she said. “Buy one, get one is the strongest deal in the market.”
Year one, Benton admits, “wasn’t easy”. She had no product to show, only an idea, and was trying to convince hoteliers and restaurateurs to sign on just as September 11 froze travel. After printing 10,000 books, the ambitious young entrepreneur sold just 997. She was undeterred.
By the second year, the books were wrapped, more merchants had come on board, and the model was starting to prove itself.
The business later expanded into Abu Dhabi, Qatar and the wider GCC, before moving into markets including Jordan, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malta and the UK. At its peak, Benton said, The ENTERTRAINER was in 15 countries.
In 2012, she sold 50% of the business to an investment company to help fast-track international growth and the shift from print to digital. The move to an app made the product easier for customers to use and gave the business better data. It also helped grow its B2B offer with banks and other corporates.
In 2018, Benton sold a majority stake to a private investor group, before announcing her full exit two years later, after selling her remaining 15%.
By then, she was already building a wider portfolio through The Benton Group. She launched CAHA CAPO, a Dubai-based swimwear label; became a board member of Sunset Hospitality Group, whose brands include restaurant chains SushiSamba and Black Tap; opened Chloe’s Beauty, Nail and Hair Salon, named after her daughter; and became a shareholder in the MENA
Golf Tour, a professional circuit for players across the Middle East and North Africa.
Her next focus is wellness and longevity. Benton is developing KYB – Know Your Body – a liposomal supplement brand aimed at improving nutrient absorption, and building a wellness centre in Phuket, Thailand, where people can go to “lose weight, get fit, feel good about themselves” or simply “have some downtime”.
What connects these initiatives, Benton says, is that they are all things she genuinely cares about, and all, in different ways, are about helping people.
“I don’t like greedy people,” she said. “If you’ve done well, you should give back in some form.”
With The ENTERTAINER, it means a family can go to a waterpark four times a year instead of twice. With the golf tour, it means giving players a route to compete and earn prize money. With swimwear and wellness, she talks about helping people “feel good”.
For Benton, that is also part of what it means to have “made it” in the UAE: building a life from the opportunity the country gave her, then using that platform to create opportunities for others.
“You have to be passionate, work hard, believe in what you do, and go for it.”
In 2023, Benton returned to The ENTERTAINER as shareholder and CEO after the chair asked her to come back. “Honestly, it felt like I’d never left,” she said. “I knew exactly what to do.”
Within months, she had restructured the company, brought back her old team and signed 1,700 new merchants.
The comeback also put Benton back in charge of a business built around bringing customers into hospitality venues.
Earlier this year, when the US-Israel war with Iran spilled into the Gulf, it put pressure on the sector as footfall fell, salaries were cut, and people were let go.
Benton stepped in by giving away free memberships, with offers users could redeem at venues, as part of what she called the “Our Home Our Heart” campaign.
“The hospitality industry is the foundation of The ENTERTAINER,” Benton said. “It was time for us to help them.”
The first 50,000 memberships went in 43 minutes. Another 50,000 went in 50 minutes. In the end, Benton said The ENTERTAINER gave away 250,000 memberships in the UAE and another 100,000 across the GCC, worth AED100m, or about £20m, in total.
Looking ahead, the company is focused on going deeper in existing markets, growing B2B partnerships and improving its technology, including an AI tool that helps users find relevant offers based on their location and preferences.
That future sits alongside Benton’s own focus on balance, family and fitness. “I’m very balanced,” she said. “I love a glass of wine, but I drink water, I do exercise, but I sleep in, I laugh, I cry.”
As she reflects on her journey, 25 years after the first voucher book, Benton acknowledges that the UAE gave her the opportunity to build, but it was up to her to take it. Now, she says, the point is to use what she built to give others opportunities too.