Finance is getting
an upgrade
A thriving FinTech ecosystem has emerged in Abu Dhabi, forging the next generation of finance
True to its name, FinTech develops in places that lie at the intersection of finance and technology. Cities like New York, London,and Singapore.
The next generation is emerging in Abu Dhabi.
Its burgeoning FinTech industry has been catalyzed by the emirate's thriving tech and innovation ecosystem, as well as its status as a global finance hub. In turn, it’s growing to support Abu Dhabi's finance sector, as well as building partnerships between investors and the increasing number of tech startups they fund.
Bridging finance and tech
“Abu Dhabi is a financial center,” says Dr. Sabah al-Binali, Executive Chairman of OurCrowd Arabia. “We have around 50 banks here – some using the emirate as a hub for both MENA and its neighboring regions.” Those banks include some of the largest in the world, such as Barclays, JP Morgan, and HSBC.
The emirate also hosts a robust funding landscape, comprising VCs, family offices, some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, and ADX, its own securities exchange that outperformed all major global equity markets in 2022 – increasing 21.9% in trading value, and 22.6% in the benchmark FADX 15, against 2021.
These investors are what attracted OurCrowd to Abu Dhabi. The Israeli company operates a funding platform that matches investors with startups. But Dr. al-Binali says OurCrowd was also looking to leverage the emirate as “a spring pad to many markets Israeli companies might not normally look to.”
Abu Dhabi-based NymCard – originally from Lebanon – offers a similarly bridging solution. The company offers a framework other companies can use to issue payment cards, often a key milestone in a FinTech’s growth journey.
NymCard’s solution taps into Abu Dhabi’s primary FinTech opportunity – a wealth of finance companies requiring new solutions. And it owes its existence to the emirate’s other advantage: access to capital.
“In total we have raised around $35 million,” says Omar Onsi, CEO and Founder of NymCard, “which has mainly been driven towards building our technology – it’s a complex technology that takes time to build and mature.”
This synergy between finance and tech emerged organically. But it’s also something the government is actively supporting, as part of a long-term strategy to place innovation at the heart of the economy.
CEO and founder of NymCard
CEO and founder of NymCard
Nurturing the ecosystem
“Without Hub71 I don’t think NymCard would have survived,” says Onsi. Hub71 is Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, offering startups incentives, value add programs and access to partners and investors to help them grow and scale from the UAE capital. Today, Hub71 is home to over 240 startups, 83 investment partners, including VC funds and family offices, eight talent partners and 26 market partners.
It’s the focal point for Abu Dhabi’s FinTech sector, both figuratively and physically. “We secured our Series A funding from people I met over the coffee machine at Hub71,” says Onsi.
Hub71 is also home to specialist ecosystems, such as Hub71+ Digital Assets, which is dedicated to Web3 startups, blockchain technologies, and digital assets. Its investment partners have a combined allocation of $2 billion of capital worldwide, which Web3 startups and blockchain technologies from the UAE’s capital can tap into.
Hub71 is backed by the Abu Dhabi government and Mubadala Investment Company. It has attracted startups from 28 countries and is home to founders from over 50 nationalities. Since its inception in 2019, Hub71 has onboarded startups that have raised around $1.3 billion collectively in venture capital.
Executive Chairman of OurCrowd Arabia
Executive Chairman of OurCrowd Arabia
The Abu Dhabi innovation ecosystem recently saw the establishment of a $200 million ‘Further Ventures’ fund, backed by holding company ADQ, aimed at early-stage companies, particularly digital and FinTech businesses.
And the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) recently announced the expansion of its Takamul Patent Support Service to small- and micro-businesses. The program offers advisory and financial support from invention to commercialization.
All these initiatives aim to cultivate an innovation culture in the UAE, and a collaborative ecosystem of companies creating technological solutions, with a view to grow and diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy.
In the process, they provide the means to bring FinTech concepts to life. Others create the framework in which to do it.
Innovation framework
Abu Dhabi’s authorities are keen to provide space for FinTechs to experiment. Dr. al-Binali says that while regulators’ priority is safety, “they’re very eager to listen,” often answering requests with, “OK, let’s figure out how we can make this work.”
That attitude is crystallized in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) RegLab, a regulatory sandbox in which FinTechs can develop their products outside usual regulations, but within a supervised environment.
This flexibility is mirrored in the emirate’s financial infrastructure. For example, ADX’s ‘e-services’ streamline integration with partner organizations. These enable brokerages like Emirates NBD Securities to offer instant trading account opening on the exchange.
And there is a steady stream of highly skilled workers to realize innovative ideas. Events like the Abu Dhabi Finance Week at ADGM – the largest FinTech event in the region – attract the sector's best and brightest.
The UAE Golden Visa program offers 5-10 year visas to talented individuals, while entrepreneurs can self-sponsor with a Green Visa.
Graduates from local branches of global universities like NYU also often decide to stay in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi Resident Office (ADRO) has a dedicated Golden Visa for top graduates of UAE and international universities.
Dr. al-Binali says visas like these have been instrumental in establishing OurCrowd’s AI-as-a-Service spin-off to Integrated Data Intelligence (IDI), making it “very easy” to attract “the talent we’re looking at – people with masters degrees and PhDs.”
Executive Chairman of OurCrowd Arabia
Executive Chairman of OurCrowd Arabia
“That’s how unicorns are born”
For OurCrowd – which has 15 offices worldwide – choosing Abu Dhabi to launch IDI is indicative of the strength of the capital’s FinTech ecosystem.
And it’s not alone in its enthusiasm for Abu Dhabi. “I’m seeing a huge influx of entrepreneurs from around the world that are coming to set up here,” says Dr. al-Binali.
Onsi expects that as the ecosystem matures, “Clear winners will start to emerge – companies will be able to grow significantly in the UAE and scale across the region and globally. That’s how unicorns are born.”
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