DIFC FinTech Hive's largest ever Accelerator Programme cohort sets standard for financial innovation in the region

• 44 successful start-ups showcased this year’s most innovative technologies to potential investors and industry executives.
• Total number of applications for the UAE’s first and largest financial technology programme exceed 2,500 with more than 160 start-ups accelerated to date.
• Selected start-ups include home-grown UAE, regional and international talent.
• Technologies focus on areas that will shape the future of finance: Open Banking, SME banking, InsurTech, RegTech, Wallets & Payments, ESG, Credit Scoring and more. 

Dubai, UAE: DIFC FinTech Hive, the first and largest financial technology accelerator in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region has announced that its much anticipated Investor Day took place today.

44 successful start-ups participated, making it the largest cohort since the programme launched in 2017. These start-ups showcased this year’s most innovative technologies to a virtual audience of investors, industry leaders and the initiative’s financial and knowledge partners.

Over the last five years, DIFC FinTech Hive has received over 2,500 applications for its signature programme. More than 160 start-ups have been selected to participate.

Successful firms taking part in the DIFC FinTech Hive Accelerator programme can unlock opportunities to develop, test and modify their innovations in collaboration with top executives and world-leading financial institutions as part of a forward-thinking professional community. DIFC FinTech Hive also helps start-ups tailor their technologies to meet local demand and enter the MEASA region.

Participants were selected through an intensive, competitive process to participate in one of two innovation sprints with a one-month curriculum that helps growth-stage start-ups. In addition to UAE talent, the 2021 cohort had a truly global feel with start-ups selected from Africa, Asia, Europe, the GCC and North America.

This year’s programme attracted leading technology entrepreneurs and start-ups covering a broad range of sectors such as FinTech, RegTech and Islamic FinTech. They address key technology innovation themes including Open Banking, SME banking, InsurTech, RegTech, Wallets & Payments, ESG, Credit Scoring and more.

Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President of DIFC FinTech Hive, said: “The solutions from this year’s DIFC FinTech Hive Accelerator participants are amongst the best we have seen since the programme launched in 2017. The participants have developed technologies which will help shape the future of finance and are worthy of investment.

“The start-ups have worked closely with our partners to ensure they were ready to be connected with investors and industry experts at the Investor Day. We would like to congratulate the start-ups on successfully completing the programme and look forward to helping them grow further from DIFC, one the world’s top ten FinTech hubs.”

This year’s event included the following banking partners Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Visa, and Wall Street Exchange, along with insurance partners Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company, Zurich as well as the Department of Economic Development and Etisalat.   

The 44 innovative start-ups selected to participate at Investor Day 2021 were:

Agiliux, Singapore

Agiliux offer cloud solutions to improve operational efficiency for Insurers.

Accura Scan, India

Accura Scan is a Digital KYC & User Verification, helping customers to fight online fraud.

Bankaks, Spain

Bankaks is the platform that helps low-income migrants across the world to provide essential products and services directly to their families with no need for remittances.

beMobi, UAE

beMobi is an ecosystem enabler that provides the highest security level aiming to eradicate the existing payment scams by facilitating transformation into cashless society and charter a blueprint of how to become a benchmark in the ongoing financial sector transformation.

BimaXpress, India

BimaXpress democratises the HealthCare experience and makes it accessible and equitable from a financial point of view.        

Business Score, UK

Business Score is a unified API and Widget for SME Business lending allowing digital platforms and banks to connect to a panel of lenders with one easy to use integration.

CDDPro, UK

CDDPro is a smart, AI-enabled tool which uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to help consistently obtain relevant, credible, legally required information from customers concerning their financial and business backgrounds, their business models, their sources of wealth and why they want to do business.

ContiNube, USA

ContinNube is Smart Security Compliance for Cloud and Kubernetes Applications through Continuous Security Controls Observability, Telemetry and Signals.

Corizance, UK

Corizance is reshaping legacy and silo non-financial risk management by helping business, risk, and compliance teams in banks, insurance, and high-risk businesses to manage their critical operational risks connectedly using a single, advanced, AI-powered, Low-code platform.

DeltaBlock, France

DeltaBlock helps mid-size exchange-listed companies gain visibility in the stock market by using trading algorithms to improve the market conditions of the asset, engaging traders and reducing the risk perception of the asset.       

Edfundo, UAE

Edfundo is a money management application and card created by teachers to help kids and teens manage their money responsibly by enabling them to learn how to earn, save, spend and budget in a simple, practical, safe and rewarding way.

Elmore, UK

Elmore’s Personal Cyber Insurance is used to protect an individual’s data and technology from a range of different types of cyber event.

Exerica, UK

Exerica helps Investment Research & Risk Management to extract data from corporate publications.   

Finbots.AI, Singapore

Finbots.AI brings together global experience in financial services & trending technologies such as AI, ML & advanced analytics to develop innovative solutions to help financial institutions overcome legacy challenges.

FinOS, India

FinOS digitalises banks and financial institutions.

FINSO, Turkey

FINSO is designed to digitalise consumer loans provided by banks, financial institutions and BNPL at all points of sale from conventional trade to e-commerce.

Hwala, Egypt

Hwala is a social payment solution driving customer engagement in the mobile keyboard to provide a more convenient payment experience for users through full integration with mobile banking apps with a branded banking button.

IAMAML, UK

IAMAML provides tailored modular options for data management covering regulatory compliance and all data compliance throughout an organisation from onboarding to final deletion in an integrated manner allowing for enhanced data use and compliance.

iFlip, USA

iFlip built the SmartFolio, the first ever truly intelligent portfolio designed to work for both institutions and individual investors by leveraging artificial intelligence technology to manage investments while protecting against market downturns.

Infinhub, UAE

Infinhub is a multi-algorithm based unbiased investment research platform using Big Data Analysis to provide real time call on all listed stocks and model portfolios for 20+ markets.

Instapay, Malaysia

Instapay provides digital salary accounts for low-income migrant foreign workers that are designed as an alternative to bank accounts enabling them to receive salary, save money, remit funds to their home country from Instapay App.

IntelSoft Technologies, Ukraine

IntelSoft brings fast results in performance improvement and cost reduction to Financial Institutions by providing easy-to-use software with completely automated predictive analytics dedicated to specific business tasks.    

Lune, UAE

Lune is a personal financial assistant that helps users save by taking the stress out of finance through simple interactive tools that help optimise spending.

LYNK Capital Markets, USA

LYNK is a global marketplace connecting investors with investment funds through securities and Smart Contracts.        

Nerve Solutions, India

Nerve Solutions build real time risk and surveillance products for capital markets that allow firms to identify and quantify risk and anomalies in live markets and take corrective actions at sub-second speeds.

Neuroprofiler, France

Neuroprofiler helps financial institutions assess their clients’ investment profile by using behavioural finance and gamification, in compliance with financial regulations.

NLPify, UAE

NLPify is an AI platform that extracts sentiment from financial textual and voice data covering MENAT assets; public and private to generate alpha, manage risk, and repack NLP-driven investment products via data and software as a service.

Nucoro, UK

Nucoro helps financial institutions build digital savings, investment & trading propositions at speed and scale through a modular platform that creates automated propositions that strengthen customer relationships and improve profitability.

Nu-Credits, UK

Nu-Credits is a trade finance marketplace that connects SMEs with global lenders powered by blockchain.

Qantev, France

Qantev builds an AI software for health insurers to help them leverage their data and bring high impact decision making insights to their operations to deliver the best quality of care to their members while reducing claims cost.

Renforce, Australia

Renforce is a next generation RegTech that is a data driven and AI native compliance solution to redesign the regulatory compliance experience for Financial Services around the world.

S1LKPAY, Kazakhstan

S1LK is a peer-to-peer service for sharing cards, allowing users to share money without transferring cash, whether domestically or internationally - easily, instantly and affordably.

Sipay, Turkey

Sipay is a service that helps receive payments and create digital wallet infrastructure.

Tapix, Czech Republic

Tapix is a data company, enriching transactions with company name, logo, category, and store gps, that helps to improve UX and create new banking features.

TEEK TAKA, UK

TEEK TAKA is an ethical FinTech solution working to improve labour conditions in global supply chains that incentivises businesses to adopt better practices by measuring compliance to international labour standards, in return for access to cheaper and faster financing.

TICKED.AI, Luxembourg

TICKED.AI is an AI-Powered tool using Natural Language Processing calibrated for evaluating ESG notion in any contractual fund or investment documentation.

Tougly, UAE

Tougly is an online invoice trading marketplace connecting Small Business suppliers struggling to manage their working capital with investors who are looking for alternate investment opportunities.

TRaiCE, USA

TRaiCE is an AI-enabled early warning business risk detection and monitoring system for lenders and investors that predicts risk at a business and portfolio level using financial and alternate data sources to issue warnings and alerts.

Veloxity, USA

Veloxity is a predictive data technology company, which creates its own first party data from mobile devices to establish real-life consumer behaviour patterns and insights.

Wafeq, UAE

Wafeq is an easy to use, Middle East focused accounting software for SMEs.

Wafii, Jordan

Wafii allows you to earn cashback for user spending and redeem it at a large network of merchants in an instant and digital manner.

Whizzy Money, UAE

Whizzy Money is a mobile app that enables users to make or receive instant payments using only a mobile number or QR code.

YallaCollect, UAE

YallaCollect is a B2B automated AR platform that helps businesses manage the invoice-to-payment process more efficiently and speed up customer payments through an integrated marketplace that complements and boosts the AR operation by providing direct access to valuable products and services.

Zywa, UAE

Zywa is the first banking app tailored for teenagers in the Middle East.

DIFC is now home to more than 450 FinTech and innovation related firms. They represent over 60 per cent of all FinTech entities in the GCC and will help DIFC achieve its vision to shape the future of finance. DIFC FinTech Hive is part of the DIFC Innovation Hub, the only environment in the region that brings together all parts of the innovation ecosystem. The DIFC Innovation Hub includes education, mentoring, FinTech incubator and accelerator programmes, access to funding opportunities and is part of the largest, deepest and broadest financial ecosystem in the MEASA region.

-Ends-

About Dubai International Financial Centre  

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is one of the world’s most advanced financial centres, and the leading financial hub for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA), which comprises 72 countries with an approximate population of 3 billion and an estimated GDP of USD 7.7 trillion.  

With a 17-year track record of facilitating trade and investment flows across the MEASA region, the Centre connects these fast-growing markets with the economies of Asia, Europe and the Americas through Dubai. 

DIFC is home to an internationally recognised, independent regulator and a proven judicial system with an English common law framework, as well as the region’s largest financial ecosystem of almost 28,000 professionals working across over 3,200 active registered companies – making up the largest and most diverse pool of industry talent in the region.  

The Centre’s vision is to drive the future of finance through cutting edge technology, innovation, and partnerships. Today, it is the global future of finance and innovation hub offering one of the region’s most comprehensive FinTech and venture capital environments, including cost-effective licensing solutions, fit-for-purpose regulation, innovative accelerator programmes, and funding for growth-stage start-ups.  

Comprising a variety of world-renowned retail and dining venues, a dynamic art and culture scene, residential apartments, hotels and public spaces, DIFC continues to be one of Dubai’s most sought-after business and lifestyle destinations. 

For further information, please visit our website: www.difc.ae  

For media enquiries, please contact:  
Omar Nasro 
ASDA’A BCW 
+9714 4507 600 
omar.nasro@bcw-global.com 
www.asdaa-bcw.com   
www.arabyouthsurvey.com  

Tarek Kiwan  
Dubai International Financial Centre Authority  
Manager, Corporate Communications  
+971 4 362 2454 
Tarek.kiwan@difc.ae   

© Press Release 2021