DIFC’s global fintech stars of the future start financial services scheme
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has selected the first 11 finalists for its ‘FinTech Hive’ start-up accelerator programme.
Future entrepreneurs looking to create financial services business solutions using new technologies are now decamped in the DIFC having travelled from across the globe.
Representatives from the US, Singapore, UK, Sweden, India, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have been select in the keenly-contested project.
The scheme, announced, as reported, in a partnership with Accenture in January, will now begin with a 12-week curriculum allowing those selected to work with financial institutions and stakeholders to create their solutions for the financial services industry.
The winning applicant will see their business, although other participants may also be selected for funding based on their final project pitch.
Financial institutions
DIFC said in a statement that the finalists, pictured above, were selected based on their “level of business maturity, potential to thrive at the accelerator and degree of fit” with the partnering financial institutions.
Raja Al Mazrouei, acting executive vice president of FinTech Hive at DIFC, said: “We received an overwhelming number of applications for the programme – a testament to the demand for such an initiative – and the quality of proposals was very impressive.
“I would like to thank all candidates for their efforts and strongly encourage them to continue to work hard towards progressing their fintech ideas.”
In the first phase of the programme, each finalist, that will be based at the recently launched ‘FinTech Hive’ centre in the DIFC, pictured left, will meet with executives from partners, including some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Industry challenges
These include Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Citi, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic, Emirates NBD, HSBC, Mashreq, Network International, RAKBANK, Standard Chartered and Visa to discuss industry challenges and solutions to address them.
They will also meet with representatives from Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) and UAE Exchange to provide preliminary feedback and discuss mentorship opportunities.
The second phase will see engagement with the partners and mentorship by the financial institutions and other partners specialising in technology, legal, Islamic finance and regulation.
The finalists, pictured above, are as follow are:
Bridg (United Arab Emirates)
A custom built communication technology that allows smartphones to send and receive money while offline.
Delio (United Kingdom)
A solution for private assets, helping financial institutions and their advisors enhance their offering through connecting private deal flow with high net worth and ultra-high net worth capital.
Labiba (Jordan)
A platform to help businesses capture that opportunity by allowing them to create artificially intelligent chat bots.
Maliyya (Azerbaijan)
A Shariah-compliant P2P financing and investment startup.
Middleware (United States)
The company behind the Share CreditCard platform allowing customers to share access to money on their cards without using a money transfer.
Norbloc (Sweden)
A specialist in financial regulatory applications built on distributed ledgers.
Sarwa (United Arab Emirates)
A hybrid automated investment management platform for young professionals in the Middle-East.
Semantify (United States)
A data analytics platform to help business users interact with critical data.
Starling Trust (United States)
An applied behavioural sciences RegTech startup helping financial services firms to manage culture- and conduct-related risks.
Theme Chain (India)
A subsidiary of trade finance software as a service provider Encore Theme Technologies.
WeInvest (Singapore)
A digital wealth management solutions provider.
The finalists will later prepare to pitch for an investor day in mid-November during which they will present their product to investors, bankers, government officials and members of the media.
Participants in the programme will also benefit from DIFC’s recently announced Innovation Testing Licence to test concepts within the free zone without being subject to normal regulatory requirements.
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