Israeli fintech unicorns (those based in Israel as well as US-Israeli companies) have made a splash this year amidst soaring valuations, record-breaking fundraises and a number of SPAC listings as well. This comes in the backdrop of Israel’s emergence as a fintech nation, with Tel Aviv becoming the fifth most popular city for fintech in the world. Israeli-founded fintech companies raised US$2.3 billion in venture capital and private equity just in H1 this year. Of this, over US$800 million was raised by six Israeli fintech unicorns. The total funding represents a growth of 3x over the same period last year.…

Nomod, a UK-based payments fintech company with a focus on the MENA region, has raised US$3.4 million in seed funding. The funding takes Nomod’s valuation to US$50 million, according to a report by TechCrunch. The investment was raised from Global Founders Capital, Kingsway Capital, Goodwater Capital, and some angel investors as well. The latter included one of the founders of Careem, a Dropbox employee, a partner from DST Global, and other global angels, the company said in a blog. Nomod provides merchant clients with a suite of payments services “minus the headache of dealing with clunky hardware,” its website says.…

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) have completed a first-of-its-kind digital cross-border trade finance document transfer (Fintech Futures). This makes the initiative the world’s first cross-border digital trade financing pilot, a statement said. A ‘TradeTrust’ framework developed by Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in Singapore facilitated the pilot transfer between MAS and Abu Dhabi Global Market’s (ADGM) regulatory body FSRA. DBS Bank, Emirates NBD and Standard Chartered also worked on the project as commercial partners. Legally, the pilot was backed by a UN affiliate-developed Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). Both…

Financial inclusion is on the developmental agenda in Egypt, and fintech startups in Egypt are one of the key driving forces to achieve this kind of adoption. Digital payments is expected to be the most benefited vertical within the fintech segment, and is forecast to reach US$19.4 billion by 2025. Neobanking and digital investments are further behind, but still in the billion-dollar territory. There are a handful of encouraging from the regulatory perspective that fintech startups in Egypt can also look forward to. For instance, a new law was introduced in March this year to allow the country’s central bank…

Bahrain-headquartered crypto trading platform CoinMENA has fetched US$9.5 million in seed funding, according to a statement. This is the first seed round to have been raised by the company. It is also one of the largest seed rounds to have been raised this year by a Middle East fintech company, alongside Ziina, Tamara and Tarabut Gateway. Investors BECO Capital, Kenetic, Arab Bank Switzerland, Bunat Ventures, Alameda Research, Rua Growth Fund and Girnas Capital pitched in, alongside global angel investors, for the round, the statement said. BECO Capital is known for its investments in Swvl, Kitopi, and Careem. The crypto exchange,…

Personal finance and investment platform Sarwa has officially launched Sarwa Trade. The platform allows users to trade stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) without commissions, international transfer fees or a minimum account balance, according to a statement. The solution provides users with unlimited access to over 4,000 publicly traded stocks and ETFs on major U.S. exchanges. Buy and sell orders have no dealing fee, management fee, commission fee, or administration fee. Users can buy in bulk or opt from fractionalised investments through the newly launched self-directed trading service. “The options for stock trading in the MENA region are few and…

South Africa-headquartered AI-based banking-as-a-service platform Jumo announced in a statement that it has raised US$120 million from new and existing backers. The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, an investment advisory firm owned by the Johnson family, who run the Fidelity empire. This marks the firm’s first venture investment in an emerging markets-focused fintech company, the statement said. Visa and Kingsway also participated in the round. The round raises Jumo’s total funding to about US$200 million so far. Its previous backers include Leapfrog, Goldman Sachs, Finnfund, Proparco, Vostok Emerging Finance and Brook Asset Management. Funding will be…

Pakistan-based MSME-focused cash flow management platform Udhaar Book has raised US$6 million in seed funding to digitise credit in retail shops in Pakistan. The funding was raised from Fatima Gobi Ventures, Muir Capital (by Plaid co-founder William Hockey and other partners), Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen’s venture firm JAM Fund, Integra Partners and Commerce Ventures, Bloomberg reported. The funding will be used to build out Udhaar Book’s app offerings. The Y Combinator-backed company was founded last year by Fahad Kamr, Shah Warraich, and Myra Ali. Udhaar Book is digitising Pakistan’s informal system of consumer credit The word ‘udhaar’ means a loan…

Fintech companies in the UAE have bagged a number of wins this year, with local fintechs accelerating growth. Competition is heating up in the digital banking space, as well as in several sub-verticals of the payments space. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency is seeing growing acceptance in the country, while ecommerce has emerged as a key driver of fintech adoption, including in newer trends such as buy now pay later (BNPL). An earlier report suggested that the UAE has over 400 fintech companies, and aims to become one top five fintech hubs across the world by December 2023. In fact, nearly half of…

MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa had a substantial win in Nigeria last week, after the two mobile money players won conditional approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to offer mobile banking services. MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa still have to wait for final approval, which Airtel expects will come through within six months of them fulfilling certain regulatory conditions. The approval will let MTN MoMo and Airtel’s Smartcash to provide a range of banking services. This includes the ability to accept deposits and withdrawals, issue debit and prepaid cards, and provide digital wallet and remittance services in Nigeria. The…

India-based fintech SaaS company ClearTax has raised US$75 million in a Series C round, according to a statement from the company. The round was raised for the company’s expansion to the Middle East, the statement said. It will also enable ClearTax to diversify into other business lines, including B2B credit and payments. In addition to the fundraise, ClearTax also announced that it is rebranding itself as Clear. The company provides tax and compliance software solutions. It also offers other B2B software-based invoices, payments, and credit solutions. The Series C was led by Kora Capital, along with participation from Stripe, Alua…

The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) is drafting the so-called Open Banking API Strategy as part of a broader push to stimulate innovation in the finance sector. The intentions were outlined in the 2021 Arab Region Fintech Guide, a paper released in July by the Arab Monetary Fund which depicts the fintech ecosystem in ten Arab countries. According to the paper, the CBO is pursuing its fintech ambitions and laying the foundation for digital transformation. The Open Banking API Strategy is part of the Fintech Framework and Roadmap, which comprises several initiatives aimed at establishing a comprehensive and nurturing fintech…

Illegal data collection and financial data theft have become major concerns amongst GCC consumers, according to a new report. The Ding Global Prepaid Index (GPI), a bi-annual global study by mobile top-up service Ding, found that GCC consumers are uneasy about how their data is being collected and used. The finding is based on responses from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These countries have some of the largest segments of prepaid product users, with 89% of prepaid users in Saudi Arabia, and 86% in the UAE. In the UAE, nearly half of the survey’s respondents (46%) said that personal data…

Dubai-headquartered open banking startup Tarabut Gateway has raised US$12 million in a pre-Series A fundraise, the company announced in a statement today. The round was led by Tiger Global. It was joined by new backers Dubai International Fintech Fund, an investment vehicle by the Dubai International Financial Centre. Funding will be used to expand the company’s tech and leadership teams. The investment takes Tarabut Gateway’s total funding to US$25 million. Just this year, the startup raised US$13 million in one of the largest seed funding rounds to have emerged from the MENA region. With the round, Tarabut Gateway joins other…

Edfundo, a youth-focused neobank, will be launching in the UAE early next year, according to a statement from the company. Edfundo is a tween and teen-focused smart money management app built by UAE-based teachers and co-founder CEO Simon Wing and COO Andrew Toward. The app comes with a prepaid debit card, and is fully controlled by parents. Young users can save based on goals, or earn ‘pocket money’ payments by completing chores through what the company said are built-in flexible controls. Meanwhile parental controls include spending limits, real time spending notifications, and the ability to block or unblock cards, along…

Despite a growing population and a large pool of unbanked, Pakistan has been a relatively slow-mover within the digital finance space, but new opportunities brought about the COVID-19 pandemic and government-led initiatives are expected to fuel growth. Out of a population of 220 million, only 58 million mobile wallet accounts have been opened, with 53% of these being inactive, a new study by Karandaaz Pakistan, a non-profit organization focusing on financial inclusion, found. Part of the reason for the slow take up of fintech might be related to the population’s well-ingrained preference for cash, low financial literacy and relative low…

Saudi Arabia’s fintech ecosystem is thriving to say the least. In last week’s fintech news, a new report pointed out that Saudi fintech companies raised a total of US$157.2 million between January and August this year. That’s a whole bunch of zeroes added to the annual totals of US$7.8 million last year, or US$18 million raised in 2019. Here’s some more data to give context: – One in every four funding deals in Saudi Arabia during H1 2021 went to a fintech company. – At a CAGR of 40%, fintech venture investment in Saudi Arabia from 2017 to 2021 beat…

Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH) has announced the list of 16 fintechs joining Wave 3 of its incubator and accelerator programmes. Founded by the Qatar Development Bank (QDB), the QFTH runs an incubator and an accelerator to encourage fintech innovation in Qatar. The incubator is focused on early-stage startups, with a total investment purse of up to US$40,000. On the other hand, the accelerator is aimed at established companies, who can gain access to a total funding pool of up to US$100,000. The QFTH is also offering in-kind support worth US$250,000, including bespoke mentoring and training services from the QFTH, strategic…

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) launched its regulatory framework for investment tokens, according to a statement yesterday. The DFSA is a regulatory body housed in Dubai’s financial district, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The framework is the first phase of the DFSA’s two-phase Digital Assets regime. It is built on proposals from a consultation paper issued in March this year, and covers regulatory aspects for security tokens and derivative tokens. The DFSA announcement defined these as cryptographically secured digital securities or derivatives built using distributed ledger technology (DLT) or a similar tech. Regulatory framework for crypto, stablecoins coming…

Payments emerged as the most popular area for investment in Saudi fintech companies, according to a new report by Fintech Saudi. The Fintech Saudi Annual Report 2020/21 noted that payments clinched 93% of venture capital investments in 2021 so far. Further, payments and currency exchange companies comprised 32% of fintech companies in Saudi Arabia, followed by lending and finance (19%). Top deals in the payments space included investments in mobile payments platform Hala (US$6.5 million Series A), BNPL startup Tamara (US$110 million Series A) and restaurant POS provider Foodics (US$20 million Series B). Fintech companies focused on lending also saw…