Pragma Group Dubai online presence reveals closed businesses, broken web links, dodgy reviews and false claims… is Pragma Group Dubai legit? Are they still in business? And if so, is it a sustainable success?
Who are Pragma Group?
A general lack of credible online presence makes this a difficult question to answer. However, we’ve collated the information we can find online to find out whether it’s best to steer clear of Pragma Group altogether. The most obvious place to start is with the website of Pragma Group – pragma-group.com does not load. After a few minutes, the website does redirect to ‘Pragma Investments Management’.
Pragma Group aka Pragma Investments Management
From this it can be assumed that Pragma Group is the same as Pragma Investments Management, so here’s a look at what the company says about itself.
Pragma Group appears to have been involved with many leading brands in the Middle East and across international markets. These range from the Cavalli Club to luxury hotels, the Bo House Café and various hospitality names, lifestyle concept brands and other companies.
Below is a breakdown of some of the Pragma Group international partners and a quick analysis of whether the Group’s management arm has had any success.
Pragma Group blends skill with experience – or do they?
At first glance, it seems that Pragma Group has unsurpassed experience in at least two industries.
Looking first at the Pragma Group’s lifestyle interests first. It seems that Pragma Lifestyle’s portfolio includes a start-up acquisition in 2003. This start-up was called Pluto Games and the investment management company claims that Pragma Group transformed it into “the leading distributor of digital gaming software products in North Africa and the Middle East.”
However, links to Pluto Games are broken or inactive – including the start-up’s own website and social media channels. None appear active, with the latest Pluto Games Facebook company activity posted 14 years ago in 2009!
It’s apparent that Pluto Games simply no longer exists and its own domain directs you to a spend management platform that appears to have no links with Pragma Group at all.
Pragma Group success stories?
The Group states a number of partnerships and companies it has worked with which are un corroborated, and even states an overall valuation of $650 million. There is no credible information about these investment decisions, partnerships and company links.
For example, LS2 International is a technology organization apparently owned by Pragma Group. The LS2 website is broken and there is no credible source for the present state of the brand.
Given Pragma Group’s insistence that it has one of the most effective business models around, and that in today’s modern world it is capable of transforming communities through excellent business and slick operations, it’s difficult to find actual evidence to show this.
Links with hospitality industries – Cavalli Club
Back in 2009, Pragma Group Dubai launched an extremely high-profile and much lauded partnership with Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.
Presumably Pragma Group invested venture capital into the collaboration which launched a new “Middle East lifestyle concept club” called the Cavalli Club on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.
While Pragma Group says that CNN endorses the club in an article in 2017, it’s not possible to find this link online. It’s possible that it used to exist and has since been taken down.
TripAdvisor shows that the Cavalli Club at the Sheikh Zayed Road apparently shut down in 2021, and the link related to the Dubai hospitality hotspot seems to confirm this as it’s broken – https://dubai.cavalliclub.com/
A well established investment management company that says it’s delivering results
Pragma Group refers to itself as a successful company that has the experience to grow brands.
The business claims investments, partnerships and collaborations with all kinds of hospitality names. These include Epicure Catering, Health Factory, the400 Nightclub, Lina’s Café, Bo House Café and Flavio Briatore’s Billionaire Mansion.
The company purports to work with brands and projects located in Dubai, across the Middle East, Las Vegas, Sao Paulo and other locations around the world.
However, a search of the marketing and websites of these lifestyle and hospitality brands display zero mention of Pragma Group. Some, including Health Factory and Epicure Catering, have broken websites with little to no evidence of ever working with Pragma.
Is there any evidence for Pragma Group’s work?
Given Pragma Group at some point became Pragma Investments Management, it’s worth having a closer look at the website as it stands right now.
Any mentions of the company working across the essential areas mentioned above all date to pre-2015, which throws yet more doubt on the efficacy of the Dubai-based company as a marketing or investment success story.
Searching Pragma Group on Google
A Google search of the Pragma Group’s name (and newer permutations) show uncategorised pages that need updating. The website refers to ‘investment management opportunities’, along with plenty of buzzwords along the lines of ‘good energy, good business’.
The website also shows that they deal with ‘lasting and holistic development’, real estate investment and the company’s chief executive officer is called Joe Tabet. Google reviews of the linked Pragma Investments Management are all from local guides one being the Pragma Group IT manager.
Is Pragma Group legit or not?
Online evidence shows, at best, a business that delivers mixed messages, appears to have dropped any high profile partnerships and projects and offers no credible or functioning links to any projects.
There is little to no information on the website as to what the business actually does, and while Joe Tabet is mentioned as CEO, there’s little else to go on.
