Two of the leading financial services providers in the region, Abu Dhabi Global Market, and the UAE Exchange have joined forces to develop, support and promote fintech startups in the Abu Dhabi and the UAE. As per the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding, they would administer together innovation enhancing programs emerging payments, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and more.
The ADGM’s RegLab is the first fintech incubator in the Middle East. The participating young startups may take advantage of the flexible regulatory framework during their early stages of development before they start operations in the Abu Dhabi financial free zone.
Richard Teng, the CEO of ADGM, commented that the new partnership would boost innovation. What is more, it would also help ADGM fine-tune its regulatory approach to the fintech industry. Promoth Manghat, the CEO of UAE Exchange added that the collaboration between the two institutions would build a sustainable innovation ecosystem through the incubator, accelerator, and academic programs.
Earlier this year, the ADGM picked the first batch of fintech startups to support under the RegLab program. Two of them were based in the UAE. The first one was Now Money, which helped low-income migrants to access banking services via mobile phones. The next one was Titanium Escrow, the first open escrow in the UAE.