Cairo-based CreditFins, a credit card management fintech, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding, the company announced. The round was led by Flat6Labs, AUC Angels, TA Telecom Holding, and other strategic tech angel investors, the company said. Meanwhile, CreditFins also graduated from the 16th cycle of Flat6Labs’ Cairo Seed Program, alongside seven other digital and tech startups, according to an announcement today. Each of the graduating startups received seed funding of US$31,800 to US$47,700, in exchange for an equity stake of up to 10%. The company focuses on enabling users to pay their credit card bills with savings. Users…

US Fintech company QPS Global will be expanding its operations in the Middle East, the company has announced. To this end, the company will be making an investment of US$10 million in the region over the next 6-12 months. The B2B card issuance and processing platform aims to grow its presence in key Middle East markets by March next year. These include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. “After expanding our reach in the European markets, we are now entering the Middle East by purely focusing on our technological disruption. In fact, we have already secured a deal of…

Global SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu has launched a new digital banking platform for SME financing, according to a statement today. The platform gives banks and fintechs access to scalable loan management technology. It also offers a network of partner solution providers, such as web-based identity authentication, credit checks and loan origination. The platform is designed to enable speedy loan approval, and reduce costs and time to market for SME financing products. The banking and lending solution will help to improve ease of access to SME financing, the company said in the statement. In addition to quicker product launches, it…

Zurich International Life announced that it has expanded ZurichPro’s digital capabilities in partnership with Singapore-headquartered automated advisory fintech 360F.The move will especially service in-force policies, reviewing their sustainability with re-illustration functionalities. 360F’s modern pricing engine, built for the initial launch of ZurichPro in 2020, will be utilised towards the same.The engine built by 360F runs on an efficient and scalable codebase, and has been enhanced with in-force specific versioning logic and validation, a statement from the company said. It is been integrated with product modularisation to reduce maintenance efforts, and provide customer-centric use cases. “This is another step in our…

Dubai-based fintech startup Jingle Pay announced that it would be partnering with UAE-based financial services provider Al Fardan Exchange to provide expat remittances via mobile apps. Under the partnership, users will be able to access a mobile app-based remittance solution. It will feature multiple global destinations, low fees, and attractive foreign exchange rates, a statement said. Transactions can be done anytime and anywhere. The companies aim to provide remittance services to migrant workers through low-cost cross border remittances, and millennial and Gen Z customers as well. The partnership will tap into Al Fardan Exchange’s global processing and clearing capabilities and…

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the fintech sector continues to grow and mature on the back of rising adoption of digital payments, booming e-commerce activity and a nascent, yet vibrant, digital banking landscape, a new report by Fintech News Middle East shows. The report, titled Fintech News Middle East: UAE Fintech Report 2021, looks at the state of the fintech ecosystem in the UAE, highlighting key developments and emerging trends observed over the past year. Shift to digital payments According to the report, 2020 saw a uptick in digital payment transactions and a trend away from cash amid COVID-19…

As movement restrictions are easing up around the world, physical events are coming back. In the Middle East, the region’s top fintech hub, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will be hosting several major fintech conferences and trade shows in the months to come. Here are 14 of the top upcoming fintech events to attend in the UAE. Finnovex Middle East September 7 – 8, 2021 Conrad Dubai, and virtually The Middle Eastern banking industry is currently focusing on putting the needs of the customers at the forefront, rethinking the definition of digital banking with the application of data, analytics, technology…

Two years after Qatar gained independence in 1971, the Federal Council of Qatar first established diplomatic relations with Switzerland. This culminated in the establishment of the Qatar embassy in Bern in 2012. Shortly after, the Swiss embassy in Doha was set up. Earlier this month, the Finance Minister of Switzerland Ueli Maurer visited Qatar to promote and honour the bilateral relations between the countries. During his visit, Maurer spoke about the significance of the new regulations embraced by the Swiss government in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT). The Gulf Times quoted Maurer saying, “We are combining…

Spendwisor, A US-based mobile payment app with branches in Qatar and the UK, announced a QAR 190 million (US$50 million) investment commitment from GEM Global Yield, which is a US$3.4 billion Luxembourg-based private alternative investment group. The firm aims to utilise this facility to further tap into the fintech market in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. GEM will provide Spendwisor with a Share Subscription Facility (SSF) of up to QAR 190 million for a 36-month term following a public listing of its common stock. Spendwisor will control the timing and maximum amount of drawdowns under the SSF. Concurrent with…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched the ‘National Programme for Coders’ which will introduce a series of national initiatives to develop talent, expertise and innovation in the field of coding. The initiative seeks to accelerate the adoption of digital applications and tools in various economic and future-oriented sectors by promoting close links and interaction between coders and public and private organisations and academic entities. The National Programme for Coders focuses on five key pillars: Supporting coders, entrepreneurs, startups, large companies and the academic sector; Developing a comprehensive platform for promoting engagement and linkages between coders and local companies and…

Airome Technologies, a Singapore-based developer of cybersecurity solutions for digital banking and e-document management systems, has announced its entry into the MENA region with Finvent Solutions as its key channel reseller in the market. The key solution in the partner’s portfolio will be the PayConfirm platform with its’ mobile transaction authentication signature (mTAS). It is a more secure option for mobile and online banking transaction protection from the most popular cyberattacks such as man-in-the middle, SIM-swap, social engineering and many others. PayConfirm is not dependent on mobile operator service and SMS delivery, so it can easily replace all of the…

Emirates has announced the launch of Emirates Pay, a new account-based payment method for purchasing air tickets by directly debiting customers’ bank account. Emirates Pay is now available for Emirates customers in Germany and the UK who are purchasing tickets via the airlines’ website. The white-label solution was jointly developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in partnership with Deutsche Bank and is based on real time payments and Open Banking / Request-to-Pay schemes. With this new solution the airline provides all the necessary account and payment information and passengers approve the payment initiation in a convenient way via…

Capital Bank Group has selected open API banking solutions provider Codebase Technologies to build and launch its first fully digital bank in Jordan and Iraq. The strategic partnership will enrich Capital Bank Group’s digital offering to its retail and corporate clientele. The Capital Bank Group initiative will spearhead digital transformation across the two countries, leveraging the countries’ combined 88% mobile penetration rate to transform the financial ecosystem; bringing secure and widely accessible digital banking to the broader market. Powered by Codebase Technologies’ Digibanc™ platform, the fully digital bank will empower Jordan and Iraq’s customers with next-generation banking services such as…

HSBC has become the fourth founding member to go live on Dubai Economy’s UAE KYC (Know Your Customer) Blockchain Consortium. The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform is a national ecosystem for the exchange of verified “know your customer” data between licensing authorities and financial institutions. The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform supports the vision of the Invest in Dubai (IID) Portal by facilitating instant opening of bank accounts for investors. We are also pleased to see newly onboarded licensing entities and financial institutions in the implementation phase. As the initiative continues to scale up, we hope to see more local and international…

Pakistan’s digital bank UBL has signed an agreement with Temenos and National Data Consultant (NdcTech) to provide and implement a next-generation digital banking solution. Through this agreement, the bank has embarked on a digital transformation journey across all channels, products and segments, including retail, SME and corporate, for its domestic and international markets. Once executed, the bank expects to hyper-scale its digital footprint and provide a modern online banking platform with an integrated, seamless customer experience, covering the entire customer lifecycle from customer onboarding, deposit, loan originations, and digital servicing. Temenos Infinity’s platform enables banks to increase digital revenues and…

Mamo, a Dubai-based digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments platform, has been granted an Innovation Testing License to operate in or from Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the global financial center and fintech hub in the MEASA region. The license has been granted by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to carry out the regulated activity of Providing Money Services. This allows Mamo to test its products and services in a rapidly growing market under conditions defined by the DFSA. Launched in 2017, DFSA’s Innovation Testing Licence (ITL) Programme is a licensed regulatory sandbox which enables approved firms to test new…

Cameroon’s nascent fintech industry is gaining traction this year, a trend reflected by rising digital financial services adoption, considerable funding going towards paytech startups, and several product announcements. Maviance, the owner of digital payment platform for merchants Smobilpay, raised a US$3 million seed round from pan-African fintech MFS Africa, Business in Cameroon reported in May. The investment will help fund Maviance’s expansion across the broader Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States (CEMAC) and extend its footprint. The company claims it serves over 500,000 unique customers monthly. MFS Africa, headquartered in South Africa, runs the largest digital payment hub…

Paxful, a global peer-to-peer fintech, announced that its e-commerce solution that allows businesses worldwide to receive bitcoin. The Paxful Pay service is already available and allows customers to pay with almost 400 payment methods – exchanging into bitcoin that is sent to the merchant’s digital wallet. Businesses can register now to add Paxful Pay as a purchase option to their online checkout process. Through Paxful Pay, businesses have the ability to manage their earnings and convert bitcoin into their local currency on the Paxful Marketplace using almost 400 payment methods. Merchants will also have control over the configuration of the…

The Saudi cabinet has granted a digital bank license to STC Pay, a digital payments company which is a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi Telecom. STC Pay will be converted into a local digital bank, with a capital of SAR 2.5 billion. According to Reuters, “the company will inject additional 802 million riyals to retain 85% of STC Pay’s share capital, with Western Union investing 750 million riyals for the remaining 15%”. Additionally, a second digital bank license was granted to a consortium of companies and investors led by Abdul Rahman bin Saad Al-Rashed and sons Company, to establish a…

Tweeq, a Saudi-based provider of spending accounts for individuals and SMEs, announced the closure of an undisclosed seven-figure investment round, co-led by STV and Raed Ventures. The funding round, which follows on the heels of the company’s exclusive partnership with Mastercard and Paymentology, looks to further bolster the product development for its launch in Saudi Arabia, followed by the wider MENA region. Founded in early 2020 by a team of seasoned banking and tech professionals, Tweeq will allow its users to open a feature-rich spending account in a matter of seconds through their mobile app – where they can immediately…