Abu Dhabi, 26th November, 2020 (WAM) — The fourth version of the FinTech Abu Dhabi Competition (FinTech AD), held underneath the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Govt Council, and co-hosted by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and Abu Dhabi World Market (ADGM), concluded in the present day and recorded the occasion’s largest version but, attracting greater than 25,000 contributors from around the globe.
The FinTech AD Competition 2020 was held in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Trade, the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma’an, and Masdar.
The final day of FinTech AD’s jam-packed, three-day agenda featured keynote addresses, panel discussions, and fireplace classes led by famend monetary figures, whereby they highlighted the newest developments and emergent developments throughout the FinTech sector, together with Synthetic Intelligence, Blockchain, enterprise capital and start-up scaling.
Among the many audio system that addressed day three of FinTech AD embrace Abdulhamid M Saeed Alahmadi, Governor of CBUAE, Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister Of State and Chairman of ADGM, Shamma bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Salama Al Ameemi, Director General of Ma’an, Mohamed Abdel Hameed Al Askar, Director General of Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Deputy Group CEO of Mubadala, Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx by JP Morgan, Yuri Misnik, Chief Know-how Officer of First Abu Dhabi Bank, Ann Cairns, Govt Vice Chairman of Mastercard, and Hanan Harhara Al Yafei, CEO of Hub71.
The Youth Circle was led by Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister of State and Chairman of ADGM, Shamma bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Reem Al Junaibi, Group & Operations – Hub71, Hoor Al Maazmi, Area Science Researcher – UAE Area Company, Mohamed Jawad Shalo, Head of Monetary Crime Prevention Unit, FSRA – Abu Dhabi World Market, Shamma Al Fahim, Senior Specialist, Capital Markets Authorisation, FSRA – Abu Dhabi World Market, and Abdulla Alshehhi, Area Know-how Senior Researcher – UAE Area Company
The UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs, mentioned: “FinTech is a rising precedence for governments who’re critical about investing sooner or later and the UAE is considered one of these nations. We are not any strangers to fast developments and swift adjustments to the established order, and we’re snug with the uncertainty that comes with innovating. The Federal Youth Authority, alongside ADGM, strongly believes within the energy of younger individuals in designing and imagining the longer term.”
“It has all the time been the management’s high precedence in nurturing and growing the youth as a part of its nation constructing dedication. This unfaltering focus continues from the follow of our Founding Fathers, who consider that the power of younger individuals in constructing the nation’s future. The UAE management and ministries have taken great strides in partaking the youth in authorities entities and firms in order that their voice, views and solutions are included. The nation is dedicated to supporting its younger individuals with the required expertise and data to boost their worldwide function and be the UAE’s voice globally as effectively.”
Mohamed Abdel Hameed Al Askar, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, mentioned: “Abu Dhabi includes a huge ecosystem that’s outfitted to help any business, together with finance, banking and healthcare. As a part of Abu Dhabi’s clever management, the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority works on 4 predominant pillars: information, safety, companies and infrastructure. We embed collaboration, safety, personalization and proactiveness throughout each facet of our work, a chief instance of which is our initiative with Ghadan 21 regarding Abu Dhabi’s authorities companies.”
Hanan Harhara Al Yafei, CEO of Hub71, mentioned: “What makes Hub71 completely different is that it’s primarily based out of Abu Dhabi, the place there’s great help from our management, which has been very forward-thinking regarding how Abu Dhabi can additional set up a knowledge-based financial system. Hub71 has the robust backing of its companions, comparable to Ghadan 21, ADIO, and Mubadala, in addition to the strategic partnerships that we’re creating by way of our company programmes, that serves as a beautiful alternative for start-ups to entry this community.”
Richard Teng, CEO of the ADGM FSRA, mentioned: “Abu Dhabi’s management and policymakers, in addition to working alongside different stakeholders throughout the board, is essential to making sure the Emirate’s improvement of a digital financial system and aiding in its embrace of the longer term, particularly sector comparable to FinTech and expertise. This prompts us at ADGM to think about the way forward for finance and the longer term state of the financial system. What we’ve achieved couldn’t have been achieved with out the efforts of Abu Dhabi’s wider community of companions and stakeholders.”
“We at ADGM are using expertise to help better market entry, in addition to to handle dangers. By way of ADGM’s Regulatory Sandbox, which is the second-most energetic globally, we’re in a position to get up-close and private with innovators and entrepreneurs and we attempt to perceive their enterprise models. This permits us to translate to how we handle dangers and we’re then in a position to give you tailor-made regulatory frameworks to help their progress.”
Ruba Yousef Al Hassan, Govt Director of Ghadan21 at Abu Dhabi Govt Workplace, mentioned: “Ghadan 21 has had an thrilling previous two years – we’ve launched thrilling ecosystems, the one which we’re most happy with is Hub71, established alongside Mubadala, which has introduced an actual start-up ecosystem to Abu Dhabi which have enabled start-ups to scale their operations right here. We’re additionally very excited to have launched an AgTech incentive programme with the Abu Dhabi Funding Workplace, which has turn into an important sector to make sure meals safety and use of expertise to advance agriculture.”
As a part of FTAD’s Investor Discussion board, Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Deputy Group CEO of Mubadala, took half in a fireplace chat alongside Rachel Pether, Senior Advisor – SkyBridge Capital & Host of FintechTV to debate the methods of how sovereign funds make investments, how Mubadala are investing for Abu Dhabi, and the macro-economic image influencing the way forward for our economies.
Al Muhairi mentioned: “Mubadala strives to spend money on sectors, areas and companies the place we predict we will obtain a very good risk-to-return, which means that we are going to usually lean in the direction of forward-looking industries and sectors that may give us an above common return. For Mubadala, expertise cuts throughout the whole lot that we do. We’re seeing that expertise is permeating all industries and the COVID-19 pandemic has offered clear proof that that is an accelerating phenomenon.”
Salama Al Ameemi, Director General – Ma’an delivered a keynote speech on the ‘’Collectively We Are Good’’ fundraising initiative with funds of over 1bn AED raised.” He additionally highlights the journey to this final result, and the way expertise and innovation has developed a digital funding platform, enabling the programme to offer sustainable help for affected residents in Abu Dhabi.
“Ma’an is answerable for stimulating and supporting the third sector throughout the Abu Dhabi panorama as we attempt to make a optimistic impression on our society. We carry collectively the federal government, non-public sector, not for revenue organisations and neighborhood members to advertise a tradition of collaboration and contribution, which ends up in a cohesive society. The social funding fund has been particularly created to obtain contributions from the private and non-private sector and the broader neighborhood to deal with essentially the most urgent social challenges which have been recognized by the social sector. Because the social funding fund, we’ve all the time had a robust perception it might make a huge impact, however little did we all know that it might be a cornerstone that modified the lives of hundreds of residents and residents in Abu Dhabi.”
Throughout a panel dialogue moderated by Hamoud Almahmoud, Editor in Chief of Harvard Enterprise Evaluate Arabia, Mohamed Abdel Hameed Al Askar, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, Richard Teng, CEO of the ADGM FSRA, Hanan Harhara Al Yafei, CEO of Hub71, and Ruba Yousef Al Hassan, Govt Director of Ghadan21 at Abu Dhabi Govt Workplace, shared their insights on Abu Dhabi’s community of presidency authorities and initiatives, in addition to their respective methods, and their impression on the event of a knowledge-based financial system, positioning Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a worldwide expertise and monetary hub. The panelists highlighted the significance of championing a strong start-up ecosystem that enables for the expansion of rising applied sciences that contribute to Abu Dhabi’s improvement throughout varied sectors, comparable to monetary companies, agriculture, city improvement, and well being, amongst others.
Anat Guetta, Chairwoman – Israeli Securities Authority, mentioned: “As expertise turns into extra inherent within the monetary companies market, we see that the supervisory challenges are getting greater and extra advanced. Equally, as information turns into Large Knowledge, we as regulators have to make a shift from guide supervision to technology-based supervision. We on the ISA are presently implementing various programmes, considered one of which is the Knowledge Science challenge that’s managed on buying and selling information to determine whether or not we’re lacking buying and selling violations by way of synthetic intelligence and machine studying, amongst others. ”
Moderated by Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO of the Alliance for Progressive Regulation, Richard Teng, CEO, FSRA – Abu Dhabi World Market, Diana Paredes, CEO & Founder – Suade Labs, Michael Piwowar, Former SEC Commissioner and Govt Director – Milken Institute, and Anat Guetta, Chairwoman – Israeli Securities Authority, contributed to a panel dialogue titled ‘Regulating FinTech, for a Better Future’ whereby they shared their experiences, achievements and challenges of regulating FinTechs of their respective jurisdictions. The panelists mentioned navigating the fast tempo of technological developments, introducing progressive rules that facilitate innovation, in addition to the size and function of supervisory expertise within the regulatory panorama.
Throughout a panel dialogue moderated by Yossi Vardi, Chairman of the Israeli Delegation, Dov Kotler, CEO – Bank Hapoalim, Dr. Ami Applebaum, Chairman of the Board & Chief Scientist – Israel Innovation Authority and Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Company Vice President – Microsoft Company shared their insights on the Israeli innovation ecosystem, and recognized the alternatives and potential of bringing a brand new bridge to collaboration to life.
This yr’s FinTech AD Training Companion, the ADGM Academy, offered a fireplace chat titled ‘Inside Wall Street: JP Morgan’s Approach to Digital’ that includes Helene Panzarino, Director of the London Institute of Banking & Finance, in addition to Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx by JP Morgan. The session mentioned J.P. Morgan’s digital transformation technique, competitiveness within the trendy age and its relationship with blockchain expertise.
Introduced by Hub71, the FT100 Showcase featured FinTech startups catering to varied sectors, together with sustainability wealth and funding, Banking as a Service and Software program as a Service, FT100 All Stars, and Ma’an’s Startups for Social Good.
Throughout the sustainability champions showcase, various CEO and founders of sustainable finance FinTech start-ups divulged on their operations and options that intention to make sure sustainable improvement throughout the markets during which they function, together with:
· ESUSU: Esusu is the main monetary expertise platform that leverages information options to empower tenants and enhance property efficiency.
· Finclude: Finclude revolutionizes creditworthiness and affordability evaluation of people with machine studying on their monetary conduct.
· IFUNDWomen: IFundWomen is the go-to funding market for women-owned companies and the individuals who need to help them with entry to capital, teaching, and connections.
· NOW Cash: NOW Cash makes use of cellular banking expertise to carry accounts and remittance to the unbanked inhabitants of the Center East.
The FT100 Showcase featured start-ups scouted by the Authority of Social Contribution – Ma’an, considered one of FinTech AD’s authorities companions, who’re breaking boundaries within the subject of social good, together with:
· I Hear You: Based mostly within the UAE, I Hear You is a cellular utility that permits communication from textual content to signal language and vice versa.
· Key2Enable Assistive Know-how: Based mostly in Brazil, Assistive expertise empowering Individuals of Willpower to make use of tablets, computer systems and smartphones with tailored {hardware} and equipment.
· Nafas Mediation App: Based mostly within the UAE, Nafas is an Audio-only library of mindfulness content material that’s geared towards Arabic talking individuals, we assist our customers to construct resilience and cut back stress and anxiousness by way of meditation.
· ShalaOnline: Based mostly within the UAE, ShalaOnline is an on-demand streaming platform of on-line yoga and meditation courses in Arabic and English. All our classes are taught by hand-picked licensed Instructors.
The FT100 Investing and Wealth Companies start-ups showcased their revolutionary options that handle ache points within the realm of funding and wealth administration, together with, amongst others:
· Auquan: Auquan is a London-based fintech firm on a mission to enhance the funding administration business by bringing information science to each funding workforce, permitting basic groups to learn from the newest expertise, together with machine studying, pure language processing and data graph expertise.
· Bambu: Based mostly in Singapore, Bambu is a number one international supplier of digital wealth expertise for companies of each measurement and business, from finance to business and even new disruptors, reworking the digital wealth market.
· Delio: Based mostly in the UK, Delio helps monetary establishments to attach their shoppers with non-public funding alternatives shortly, transparently and compliantly.
· Equitise: Equitise is an Australian & New Zealand funding platform for startups that brings extraordinary alternatives to on a regular basis individuals.
· FinaMaze: Based mostly within the UAE, FinaMaze is the area’s first AI-Based mostly-Asset-Supervisor impressed by Nobel Prize-winning academicians and dedicated to fixing long-standing challenges of the funding business.
· Ignition Recommendation: Based mostly in Australia, Ignition helps monetary establishments appeal to, retain, and repair shoppers digitally.
The FinTech AD Competition as soon as once more held the FinTech Awards, showcasing the perfect in international FinTech innovation within the UAE and the area. The Awards elevate grassroots expertise and have a good time the boldest concepts and initiatives driving the business. The winners of this yr’s FinTech Awards embrace Michele Grosso, CEO of Democrance, Dinarak, ClauseMatch, Shorooq Companions, Manzil, UAETradeConnect, Australian Commerce and Funding Fee (Austrade), Nameer Khan of the MENA FinTech Affiliation, and Neha Mehta, Founding father of FemTech Companions.
