Marhaba, fintech friends!

How late is too late to wish everyone Eid Mubarak? Either way... Eid Mubarak!

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Let's get into it - we have 2 weeks worth of fintech news to catch up on!

💸 Fundraises and Exits

🇸🇦 D360, the first institution to receive a digital banking license in Saudi Arabia, prepares for its Series A after raising $500 million in funding from existing shareholders: PIF and Derayah Financial Co.

🇦🇪 Inovat, France-based fintech, raises funding from the UAE's Angelspark

🇪🇬 Led by Egyptian founder, Hussein Ahmed, Limited raises $7 million in seed funding to expand across LatAm, Southeast Asia and the Middle East

💰 Funds

🇸🇦 Stride Ventures, a global venture debt firm, announces the opening of a second GCC office in Saudi Arabia, doubling its local team. The firm’s new Global Venture Debt Report highlights the GCC venture debt market’s 54% CAGR, reaching $500 million in 2024. Stride aims to triple its GCC assets under management by 2026, targeting $500 million in commitments.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

Bloomberg releases its High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) solution in the Middle East to help financial institutions meet local liquidity and regulatory requirements

HyperPay introduces HyperTap, a secure, contactless payment solution that turns smartphones into POS terminals

Mamo partners with MilkStraw AI to help businesses using AWS reduce their cloud costs

Emirates NBD partners with Singapore’s iPiD to enhance its cross-border payment capabilities with real-time beneficiary validation

Mawarid Finance partners with Arab Financial Services to launch an application for credit card issuance and management

Qatar Islamic Bank partners with Visa to integrate the Visa B2B Connect platform that allows corporate clients to transfer funds from Qatar to 120 countries

Meedaf and Brink enter into a joint venture to strengthen cash management and ATM services across the UAE

The Central Bank of the UAE signs an MoU with China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System to provide local currency clearance services for financial institutions across MENA

Vault Wealth, a digital private wealth platform targeting affluent individuals in the UAE, launches to the public, coinciding with a new investment round led by Peak XV Partners and Outliers VC

Zurich-based Leonteq partners with Emirates Islamic to distribute Shari’ah compliant structured products

🏛 Licensing & Regulations

Dubai's VARA grants Ctrl Alt, a UK-HQ tokenization infrastructure platform, a Virtual Assets Service Provider license, allowing the company to provide Broker-Dealer and Issuer services

Aditum Capital Company and TAM Capital Company receive a license from Saudi's CMA for Managing Investments and Operating Funds, and Arranging Activities in the Securities Business

The Central Bank of Oman issues the Regulatory Framework for Digital Banks for the licensing and supervision of digital banks

Saudi's CMA grants UAE-based Investsky a financial technology experimental permit for social trading

Abu Dhabi's FSRA amends its regulatory framework for digital assets, including revisions to the approval process for Accepted Virtual Assets, revised fee structures and expanding permission for venture capital investments

The Securities and Commodities Authority of the UAE introduces the region’s first “Finfluencer” license to regulate and supervise digital finance content

Saudi’s Nayla Finance becomes Shari’ah compliant by the Shari’ah Review Bureau licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

📚 Further reading

A deeper dive into the diversifying and dynamic world of mobile wallets across MENA

The rise of integrated, omnichannel banking experiences in the GCC

A PwC x Emirates NBD report on the UAE's fintech revolution

Thank you for tuning in!

If you have feedback on this edition of This Week in Fintech MENA, please reach out on LinkedIn.

Until next week,

Salam ✌🏼