The Global Women’s Forum Dubai 2024 featured a panel discussion titled ‘Fintech for All: Harnessing Innovation to Benefit Women and Beyond’, which focused on how financial technology is reshaping opportunities for women and communities worldwide. The panellists in the session included Hela Cheikhrouhou, Regional Vice President at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the Middle…
UAE-based Reem Finance has selected Swiss banking tech vendor Temenos to power its upcoming digital community bank. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Reem Finance provides corporate and retail financing solutions to help “facilitate business growth and advance trade capacity for private entities within various sectors”. Through its partnership with Temenos, Reem Finance…
Emirates NBD and Mashreq Bank have made a strategic investment in NewBridge Fintech Solutions, the owner of UAE-based fintech platform LoanBook. LoanBook offers a centralised marketplace digitising the syndicated loan and private credit markets. The investment will be used to scale up the platform and make it easier for market participants to access global loan…
One of the top qualifiers from the second edition of the “FinTech Got Talent” competition, organized by “FinTech Egypt”—an initiative by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)—has secured first place at the “Arab FinTech Challenge” for the second consecutive year. The competition took place in Dubai as part of the “GITEX North Star 2024” exhibition….
Commercial Bank International (CBI), leading UAE bank, has announced a strategic partnership with areeba, a global payment infrastructure provider, to become the first UAE bank to offer areeba’s comprehensive card and payment solutions to fintechs across the country. The partnership aims to empower UAE fintechs with scalable, secure card management capabilities and accelerate the growth…
Qatar Development Bank (QDB) announces a strategic investment in Wahed, a global Shariah-compliant fintech. Wahed currently manages over $1 billion in assets and has attracted over 400,000 clients worldwide. The company is built on the principles of democratizing access to financial services and offers clients access to Shariah-compliant investments in its mobile app. Wahed removes…
Mastercard has entered into a partnership with Qover, the insurtech firm based in Brussels, initiating a new service in Belgium and Luxembourg that automates return shipping costs for credit cardholders. This feature is a timely innovation, responding to the surge in e-commerce activities within the region; notably, Belgian e-commerce penetration hit 90% early in 2024,…
Pemo, a fintech company based in Dubai, has raised US$7 million in its pre-series A funding round led by Shorooq and Augmentum Fintech. The funds are expected to enhance Pemo’s operations and support expansion into new GCC markets, including Saudi Arabia. The company plans to use the investment to improve its spend management platform, which…
Paymentology has signed a referral partnership with Zand Bank, the UAE’s first fully licenced, all-digital bank. This collaboration focuses on expanding financial services for fintechs and startups, aiming to accelerate innovation and growth in the UAE. Since 2022, Zand Bank has empowered UAE and global corporate, institutional and wealth clients to unlock new opportunities, foster…
Lean Technologies, a Riyadh-based FinTech infrastructure platform, has raised $67.5m in its latest Series B funding round. This financing was led by General Catalyst, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm known for supporting high-growth tech companies. The funding round also saw participation from several major investors, including Bain Capital Ventures, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family…
